Entering Amazon’s enormous fulfilment centre on the outskirts of Dunfermline is similar to walking into the departure lounge of an international airport.
High roofs, tunnel walkways, and the constant movement of people and items enhance the airport feeling of the 13-year-old complex.
Separate from the thousands of goods that will be going out to customers in the run up to Christmas, there are also many surplus products.
These partially form the basis of the UK’s first Multibank initiative, which saw Amazon partner with the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Fife charity The Cottage Family Centre in 2022.
It aims to distribute essential goods to families in need, transporting some of them by lorry from Amazon to The Big House Multibank warehouse in Lochgelly.
It was the first of five across the UK that have delivered an estimated five million goods to 500,000 families.
Goods could include bedding, baby products, clothes or hygiene products.
Recycling and reducing the number of damaged or unused items that are thrown away is also a focus at the Amazon Fulfilment Centre.
This is part of a process which Amazon calls “reverse logistics”.
Jamie Strain is the general manager of the huge centre.
He explains the term as he gives me a tour around.
“We take items in and we ship them out to customers, but that’s only about 30% of what we do,” says Jamie.
“Seventy per cent of what we do is reverse logistics.
“We are the largest reverse logistics operation in the entire UK network and the second largest across the EU.”
Dunfermline’s Amazon Fulfilment Centre in numbers
Jamie leads the way up and down stairways, across busy factory floors, and onto raised platforms.
These provide a useful viewpoint of boxes being assembled along long conveyor belts by associates.
I had previously gawked at the size of the Amazon Fulfilment Centre from the nearby motorway.
However, I had now been invited inside the ED14 premises following the launch of Multibank’s annual Christmas food and toy appeal.
ED14 takes its name from Edinburgh Airport.
But numbers paint a more useful picture when it comes to the size of the operation here and Jamie is happy to oblige.
The Irvine-based general manager oversees 2,300-odd associates (Amazon speak for employees).
He tells me that the building is 1.5 million sq ft, which is roughly the size of 17 football pitches.
And that within the fulfilment centre is 4.5 km of conveyor belts and at least 178 packing stations.
There are also 141 dock ports for lorries that are able to quickly get onto the M90 with their packages on board.
And Jamie estimates that the fulfilment centre is processing “well over” 100,000 packages per day.
This will increase to a daily total of around 1 million in the week leading up to Christmas Day.
Jamie has been leading operations in Scotland’s fulfilment centre for the last three years.
He endures a long 82-mile commute, but is greeted by many of the employees we pass on the tour.
What is Reverse Logistics and how is Amazon using it?
My preconceptions before arriving at Amazon are that we are going to predominantly see how items arrive, are packaged up, and then sent to customers.
However, customer returns are also a huge part of the process at EDI4.
“About 72% of every item that is recycled returned from the Amazon network will come here,” says Jamie.
“This exists in order to give every item that is returned a second chance.
EDI4 also uses a process called the T-rex system to decide what should be done with each individual returned item.
“The system will talk the associate exactly through the steps to take go to the next part of the process,” adds Jamie.
“This is effectively putting it back on the shelf in a good enough condition to sell it to the customers.”
“We are fixing items that have a wee scratch on them and returning them to the shelves as good as new.
I ask how Amazon can process so many items and still aim towards reducing delivery times?
“We are one of only three site across the EU to have a robotic palletiser,” explains Jamie.
“The destination is read through the barcode by the robot.
“This is one of the best innovations here at Amazon.”
My visit to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre comes the day after ‘Cyber Monday’ and four days after Black Friday.
These are dates that have become synonymous with consumerism and the excess waste that inevitably comes with that.
Amazon gears up for Christmas
Christmas also looms on the horizon.
This is a time when The Multibank ramps up its calls for organisations like Amazon to donate items.
Amazon has turned provider on this occasion, supporting a worthy local cause, despite having also courted controversy in the past.
It is around halfway through the dayshift during our tour of the multi-national’s centre.
Jamie tells us that there is likely around 650 employees on site at this time.
However, this will grow to around 800 people in the coming weeks during the lead up to Christmas Day.
A mix of Christmas and pop music echoes around the warehouse as we get our steps in.
This reminds me of the slightly unnerving scene in The Polar Express when the children get lost in the warehouses of a fictionalised North Pole.
But luckily, Jamie is there to keep me on track.
EDI4 hosts one of only five Amazon return departments in the entire Amazon global network.
It is also home to the largest reverse vendor operation in the EU.
“We will hold those items for vendors who ship through Amazon and when the vendor wants them back we ship them back to them”, adds Jamie.
“It’s a really important part of the experience for vendors.
“That when they want their items back we fulfil that promise to them.
“We effectively take every Amazon device back that customers return – from Amazon Fire TVs to Kindles and Alexas – and make them as good as new before selling them again.
“The team of around 95 associates here are trained specially to fix all of those individual items.”
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