It’s the start of the busiest time of year. Be extra kind to those out in the field and your team members on site. Let’s jump into some news items from around the world:
I. Amazon is reportedly hiring a record number of temporary employees over the holiday season. So how are they going to rapidly train all of these new people? According to Tech Times, “Instead of training its new temporary employees over several weeks, Amazon will reportedly rely on technology ranging from touch screens to robots so it can reduce the training time to just two days.” Typically a new hire would expect to be trained on the job for 6 weeks, but for seasonal employees, 6 weeks is often the total duration of the job hire. John Olsen, Amazon VP of human resources, worldwide developments, the technology “automates almost everything”, which is how Amazon cuts the training time.
II. One of the most important factors in any warehouse is safety. We have been following a case in Ireland concerning a man who died in a Dublin airport warehouse. After the worker fell from a loading dock the airline was “charged with failing to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that individuals who were not employees were not exposed to risks to their safety, health or welfare.” The Journal in Ireland shares that the charge also includes allegations that, “Aer Lingus did not have appropriate measures put in place to protect persons from the risk of a fall from a height, specifically the written procedure dealing with driver access to loading bays and warehouses.” This is a tragic case, for certain, and our thoughts go out to all involved.
III. A Paris warehouse has been the site of a fun test: can drones be helpful with automation and inventory? The prototype drone “operated through several dedicated electronic and computer systems, and featuring indoor geolocation technology, they function in complete autonomy during the warehouse’s closed hours.” This is a really exciting idea!
IV. The Hanjin shipping bankruptcy continues to be a nightmare for many. The city of Ontario in California is especially feeling the weight of the issue as they attempt to deal with the removal of hundreds of empty shipping containers left in their city. The Daily Bulletin shares, “City zoning, however doesn’t allow for storage of shipping containers in the southern, agriculture part of town.” A settlement and resolution are expected to be reached soon with the parties involved, but this is one ripple of how long the Hanjin problems are lasting.
Image Credit: GEODIS
As of September 8, 2020, Crimson & Co (formerly The Progress Group/TPG) has rebranded as Argon & Co following the successful merger with Argon Consulting in April 2018.
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