Ever wondered how the product gets to your doorstep after you click buy on Amazon? Tech Guide got a chance to look behind the scenes at the massive Amazon fulfilment centre at Chiba, Minato in Tokyo.
Launched in 2023, the Chiba Minato FC has a total floor space of 120,000 square metres which is roughly the size of 140 football fields.
The centre also features the latest Amazon robotics which enables the movement of product shelves to increase efficiency in the gigantic plant.
In fact, the one millionth robot deployed by Amazon since they began in 10 years ago has been added to the Chiba, Minato FC.
The robots are used to process, carry and label items to help the thousands of frontline human employees in the centres.
Amazon also announced it will launch Amazon tours at the Chiba, Minato FC before the end of 2025.
These free tours, already rolled out in Australia, the US, and the UK and many other countries, will run for up to 90 minutes and show the technology behind the Amazon logistics showcasing the associates who work there, the safe work environment and the company’s commitment to the community.
“We are very excited to announce the launch of Amazon Tours in Japan. This program is a rare opportunity for our customers to see how Amazon delivers products safely, quickly and efficiently, and to get a behind-the-scenes look at how Amazon’s FCs operate,” says Kohei Shimatani, VP of Japan Operations.
“Participants can also get a sense of what makes Amazon a significant place to build a career by seeing people who work at Amazon’s FCs.
“We hope that the Amazon Tours will help more local customers learn more about Amazon.”
We got a chance to do the same tour that will be offered to locals in the near future.
It was a fascinating look behind the scenes which took us from products coming into the building to be processed all the way through to storage and picking to fulfil the orders, package them and send them out.
What was remarkable was the robotics in action.
Traditionally an associate would walk to the shelves where the products have been stored and fill a basket before returning to box them and send them out.
At the Chiba Minato FC, the shelves come to the pickers.
Robots carry the shelves via QR codes and tracks on the floor and arrive at the picking station with the products for that particular order.
The tall yellow shelving systems move around the plant like clockwork, silently and efficiently.
And because there needs to be no space between the shelves for people to walk, they can be tightly packed together which dramatically increases the amount of storage space available.
At the end of the line the product is either placed into a tough envelope or, for larger orders, they are boxed, labelled and shipped to their destination.
So next time you open your front door and see your Amazon order on the doorstep, you can appreciate the journey it took to get to you.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to Tokyo as a guest of Amazon
