Inside Amazon (AMZN) Flagship Fulfillment Center Where Machines Run the Show

One recent morning, inside a cavernous Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center outside Seattle, Evan Shobe positioned himself before a bank of nine computer screens. Known internally as the quarterback desk, or QB, the command center lets Shobe monitor the intricate workings of a building the size of about 15 footballs fields. Thousands of blue dots show robots ferrying products around the facility; yellow figures that look a little like restroom signs represent the humans who load and unload the robots. A maze of green lines shows conveyors speeding orders to stations down the line and, ultimately, to waiting delivery trucks. The system is running smoothly on this early August morning, as it mostly does seven days a week at more than 900 Amazon logistics facilities across the U.S.

BFI4, located in exurban Kent, Wash., is Amazon’s flagship fulfillment center and regularly hosts senior company leaders—Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy dropped by recently—who want a better understanding of what happens after a shopper clicks “Buy Now.” It was the first facility of its kind capable of processing more than 1 million items a day, three times what was possible at the company’s state-of-the-art warehouses a decade ago. Improving technology means Amazon can stay several steps ahead of brick-and-mortar rivals Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., which are now adopting many of the practices Amazon has worked on for years.

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