As the valuation of Amazon has risen, so has investment in the company’s most crucial assets: the people who arrive for work each day. Since Amazon must answer to shareholders for whom it’s happily all about the money (or returns), it’s routinely investing in technological advances meant to increase the productivity (and health) of its workers.
A recent Wall Street Journal article vivified the above truth. Writing about Amazon’s growing use of robotics in its factories, reporter Christopher Mims noted that in the company’s always evolving packaging and delivery system, “instead of being stored in shelves, items are stored in plastic bins that ride atop drive units. These bins can then be automatically placed in front of humans, at an ergonomic height, making picking items from them less taxing.” Translated for those who need it, expensive advances paid for by Amazon will boost worker productivity alongside fewer workplace injuries. Would it that all companies were this way.
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