In the Amazon laboratory that makes workers hi-tech

Vercelli — Robots dancing to move large yellow shelves full of products and deliver those to be stored into the hands of workers. Mechanical arms that identify the products through the bar code and with suction cups position the products on the conveyor belt. And still revolutionize packaging: a machine that in less than three seconds creates — and labels — tailor-made paper bags to minimize bulk and increase sustainability, while artificial intelligence evaluates products that instead of packaging do not have need and today they are half of European shipments. Crossing the threshold of Amazon’s home in Vercelli, innovation is the protagonist in building the solutions of tomorrow for the company’s logistics sites across Europe.

The global e-commerce giant has in fact opened the doors of the Operations Lab, the only center of excellence in Europe (the other two are in Seattle and Boston) where technology, robotics and artificial intelligence are put at the service of employees, to help them in automated and repetitive actions and improve ergonomic and safety conditions. The hub, born in 2017 as a small space carved out in the MXP3 Amazon distribution center, now has a completely dedicated area, with a renewed design, where many of the technologies introduced for logistics activities are tested and developed, from cells AI-supported mechatronic robotics and sustainable packaging solutions. «Humancentric technology – specifies Mariangela Marseglia, Amazon country manager for Italy and Spain – which must not be separated from man but at the service», both of well-being and safety. She says she is proud of the choice to open the lab in Vercelli: «We have found a fertile territory for innovation, rich in ideas and companies and the dialogue is very positive. And we want to continue through dialogue to help the territory that hosts us grow.”

In Piedmont today there are nine Amazon sites, where 3,700 people are employed on a permanent basis, another 400 jobs will be created by the new supply center in Alessandria. There are around a hundred people who gravitate around the laboratory: «Scientists and engineers from all over the world work towards a common goal: to improve the safety, efficiency and sustainability of Amazon’s logistics activities», underlines Stefano La Rovere, director Amazon Robotics International. «We believe – he adds – that sharing know-how is the key, not only among our talents but also towards the community that hosts us». To demonstrate this, the company presented Nomisma data, according to which the investment in Amazon has also stimulated the industrial realities already present in the area. In the first three years since the center opened, businesses located within a 20-minute drive of albeit contained). There was a 15% increase in commercial activities and other services (8% compared to less than 50% in other areas).

The Laboratory will be open to the public in the coming months with guided tours for companies, schools and universities. «Here we constantly push the boundaries of innovation – concludes Stefano Perego, vice president of Amazon Operations at an international level –. These advances not only improve efficiency, but also contribute to creating safer and more effective workplaces.”