Construction of the first Amazon Robotics fulfilment centre (FC) in the southern hemisphere, and the largest warehouse ever built in Australia, is nearing completion.
The building’s shell is complete and the site is in the final stages of internal fit-out, external works and commissioning of building services. The robotics facility at Kemps Creek will be Amazon’s second FC in western Sydney, and sixth in Australia, increasing the company’s capacity to fulfil customer orders around the country when it opens early next year.
The fulfilment centre spans 200,000 square metres across four levels, which is around the land size of Taronga Zoo or 24 rugby league fields.
More than 4,000 people have worked on the construction and fit out of the site which included installation of around 14 kilometres of advanced conveyancing equipment and 2.5 kilometres of Amazon Robotics safety fencing.
Approximately 37,000 yellow storage pods have been built to house up to 20 million of the smaller items sold on Amazon.com.au including jewelry, books, and electronics, and hundreds of robotics drives have been commissioned.
Robots work collaboratively with employees by moving the pods of inventory to them, reducing the time and effort that would otherwise be required for the employee to stow items for sale or pick them for new customer orders. They also save space allowing for 50% more items to be stowed per square metre.
“The opening of this site will double our operational footprint in Australia while creating more than 1,500 local jobs in western Sydney, with the opportunity to work alongside advanced robotics to deliver the ultimate in service for customers,” Amazon Australia director of operations, Craig Fuller (pictured in feature image) said.
“The introduction of robotics enables us to exponentially increase our capacity for storing inventory, providing additional opportunities for the thousands of small and medium sized Australian businesses we support, while increasing product selection and improving delivery speed for our customers around the country.”
Amazon prepares national operations for peak holiday period
Amazon Australia has significantly invested in and expanded its operations network to enable a faster and reliable shopping experience for customers across the country.
Over the last few months, the company has further bolstered its infrastructure with a new FC and logistics sites, creating more than 1,100 permanent roles at its operation sites this year.
Amazon Australia expanded its fulfillment network with the launch of its second Melbourne FC in August. This increased its storage capacity by 60% and storage space for the small and medium size Australian business, which use Fulfilment by Amazon to service customers.
The company now has over 3.86 million cubic feet of storage space, and the addition of the new site has doubled Amazon’s capacity for larger items, ranging from air fryers to electronics such as computer monitors and sound bars.
Amazon has strengthened its delivery network with the launch of Amazon Logistics sites and its last mile delivery service Amazon Flex in three new cities: Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Adelaide. With 14 Amazon Logistics sites around Australia, providing more than 18 million Australians with access to an enhanced delivery experience, including faster delivery, delivery on evenings and weekends, and reattempted deliveries for customers when they are not home.
Additionally,the company now works with more than 2,000 Amazon Flex delivery partners in 7 Australian cities, providing flexible earning opportunities to interested individuals who deliver Amazon packages to customers.
Amazon also expanded its parcel pick up network of lockers and counters, adding more than 300 new locations around Australia in the last year. There are now more than 800 Amazon lockers and counters nationally located at shopping centres, banks, petrol stations and newsagents.
Amazon is offering an extended returns window for the holiday season with most of items purchased between 1 October and 31 December able to be returned until January 31, 2022.