Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill)
Other Authors: Stanley Gershwin and Jeremie Gallien.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37246
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author Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill)
author2 Stanley Gershwin and Jeremie Gallien.
author_facet Stanley Gershwin and Jeremie Gallien.
Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill)
author_sort Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill)
collection MIT
description Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006.
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spelling mit-1721.1/372462022-01-28T19:01:14Z Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill) Stanley Gershwin and Jeremie Gallien. Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Engineering Systems Division. Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006. Page 66 blank. Includes bibliographical references. Online retail has radically changed traditional supply chain operations by providing a direct-to-consumer model that eliminates the need for traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores. With this new order, retailers have had to design warehouse solutions that fit the changing operational requirements of online retail. Over the last several years, Amazon.com has become a market leader, capturing almost 8% of all online retail sales in 2005. As Amazon grows in size and scope it is faced with unique challenges in warehouse system design and strategy. A significant portion of Amazon's total fulfillment cost is in the "picking" process which is where associates pick items to fulfill customer orders. Picking costs are directly influenced by the upstream stowing process which determines where to physically store Amazon's retail items. Currently, Amazon's fulfillment centers stow inventory according to "profiling" rules which direct inventory to various locations in the warehouse in order to optimize the space utilization of the facility. However, these profiling rules do not account for the impact of the stowing decisions on the cost to pick and replenish products downstream. (cont.) While facility space reaches capacity during peak season, the fulfillment centers are well below their physical space capacity the remainder of the year. Due to the cyclical nature of customer demand at Amazon, the current profiling strategy of optimizing space utilization may be sub-optimal during the low demand periods when space capacity is not a constraint. This thesis will test this hypothesis by exploring alternative product placement strategies for Amazon's fulfillment centers. by Linsey Rubenstein. S.M. M.B.A. 2007-04-20T15:56:16Z 2007-04-20T15:56:16Z 2006 2006 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37246 85825137 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 66 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Sloan School of Management.
Engineering Systems Division.
Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
Rubenstein, Linsey (Linsey Jill)
Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title_full Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title_fullStr Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title_full_unstemmed Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title_short Intelligent product placement strategies for Amazon.com's worldwide fulfillment centers
title_sort intelligent product placement strategies for amazon com s worldwide fulfillment centers
topic Sloan School of Management.
Engineering Systems Division.
Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37246
work_keys_str_mv AT rubensteinlinseylinseyjill intelligentproductplacementstrategiesforamazoncomsworldwidefulfillmentcenters