Impressive Look Inside Australia’s Largest Fulfilment Center
Welcome to Amazon’s robotics fulfilment centre (FC) in Kemps Creek, Western Sydney. It’s the biggest warehouse in Australia, spread across roughly 200,000 square metres—which is around the land size of Taronga Zoo or 24 rugby league fields. This robotics site is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and is home to approximately 1,500 local jobs. It has the capacity to house up to 20 million items, and it uses the most innovative technology to enable fast, efficient delivery for our customers.
If you’ve ever wanted to see inside one of Amazon’s fulfilment centres, here’s your chance to see how your online shopping cart gets to your doorstep. News.com.au takes you first-person into the Southern Hemisphere's largest automated robotics fulfilment centre - Amazon BWU2, located in Kemp's Creek, New South Wales.
Stop 1 - Inbound Area: The Epicentre of Operation
On the ground floor lies the bustling inbound area, the heart of this FC. This is where products from laundry detergent to LEGO and more flow in and out of the building, orchestrated by a vast network of 14 kilometres of conveyancing technology. The Fulfilment Centre serves as a hub for sellers from around Australia and the world, allowing them to deliver their products for sale on Amazon.com.au to reach a wide customer base. More than 14,000 Australian businesses sell on Amazon.com.au, many of which are small and medium-sized businesses.
Stop 2 - Robotics 'Field' Entry Area: Where Robots do the Heavy Lifting for Employees
One of the three robotics floors awaits with approximately 13,000 yellow storage pods, purpose-built to house the products. These pods glide across the floor by robotic drives guided by QR codes, delivering them to our team members who are ready to store products or pick customer orders. They also save space, allowing up to 40 per cent more items to be stored.
To ensure a safe and secure environment, approximately 2.5 kilometres of Amazon Robotics safety fencing has been deployed to create dedicated robotics fields. This allows the robots to operate within defined boundaries, maintaining safety and efficiency while carrying out their tasks. The fulfilment centre becomes a carefully choreographed dance of human-robot collaboration, where each element plays its part in perfect harmony.
Stop 3 - Stow Area: The Art of Random Stow
In the stow area, meticulous stowers commence the process of placing items into inventory. Instead of storing the same products together, products are dispersed throughout the pods in a method known as Random Stow. The latest viral hair-care product could be placed right next to a collection of Crocs Jibbitz, above Ottolenghi’s Simple Cookbook, saving team members time as they simply place the items in available spaces.
Stop 4 - Pick Area: Where Workers and Robots are a Team
Witness collaboration between workers and robots in the pick area. Robots transport the pods of inventory to team members, reducing the time and effort required to pick items. When an order is placed, the robotic drives are directed to locate the pod containing product/s for a customer order. A photo of a product appears on the screen, and the product is illuminated to show its exact location within the pod, making it easy for team members to find.
Stop 5 - Pack Area: Precision and Efficiency Unleashed
As a customer order nears completion, the pack area takes centre stage. A six-sided check ensures the product is in perfect condition. The system determines the optimal box size based on the dimensions and weight of the items, while a specially designed tape machine dispenses precisely measured water-activated tape, ensuring a secure seal.
Stop 6 - Distribution: When Packages are Ready for Delivery
Once the package has been sealed, it moves forward on the conveyer to the SLAM Machine. This is where the customer’s shipping details are printed and added. Up until this point, customer details are not revealed. The parcels are then sorted by priority and location and sent off to be delivered by carriers such as Australia Post or via Amazon’s logistics network. Prime members in Sydney and Melbourne can expect eligible orders to be delivered the next day.
Construction for the first Amazon Robotics fulfilment centre in the Southern Hemisphere was the largest warehouse ever built in Australia, able to house up to 11 million items. It also created more than 1,500 jobs for Western Sydney.
Amazon Australia has a network of 6 fulfilment centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and 11 Amazon Logistics sites across the country including regional hubs like Newcastle and Gosford.
