Amazon warehouse tour, the free attraction you probably don’t know about
It’s a free attraction in Orlando you probably never knew about or considered, but we recommend it. Amazon offers free tours of their Fulfillment Center in Orlando (and many other locations).
This isn’t your grandparents’ factory. The Amazon Fulfillment Center is very clean and modern. And it’s huge. We found the tour fun and informative. Our tour lasted from noon to about 2 p.m. They have multiple tours per day, but they don’t have tours every day. You’ll most likely need to book a few weeks in advance.
After arrival, we were given some safety instructions, watched a video, and were given microphones to be able to hear our guide. Parts of the warehouse floor are very loud. We also had to put some safety covers over our shoes and they locked up our cell phones.
The tour doesn’t take you everywhere around the enormous multi-level building, but to a few key places. We saw items arriving and being stored away, as well as products being sorted, then packaged to be sent out.
The most interesting things we learned
The employees don’t see which packages go to whom
They said not to worry if you order a gift for someone who works at the Amazon warehouse. From sorting to packaging, the employees only see barcodes, not customer information. As the sealed packages go down a conveyor belt, a mechanical arm drops the label with your information on it. And when I say drop, I mean it. They said the label is dropped on instead of being pressed on, so if they need to remove it for some reason, they still can. And if they don’t, the label eventually seals itself as it goes down the belt.
Things aren’t sorted in any order
This is where the high-tech part comes in. They have a large section of the warehouse caged off for storage, but the items are always moving. Robots that look like large robot vacuums go under the storage bins and move them from where the employee put items in, to a seemingly random storage area, then back to another employee when someone orders an item. The employees don’t even have to put the same type of items in the same bins. Cameras watch which bin the items are put into and the computer tracks it wherever it goes. When an employee has to enter the storage area, they have to wear a special vest that tells the robots to stop when they are near.
All employees can learn to work on the robots
You don’t have to be a trained technician to work on the robots. If it interests them, Amazon will teach an employee how to repair them. (Amazon also pays for the employees’ college classes.) And it’s not just the robots; because packaging items all day can get tedious, the employees are cross-trained.
Tape comes out precut
This is a small thing, but it was cool to see the employees packaging your items don’t have to decide which box or envelope to use. The computer tells them, and cuts off the exact size tape they need. Some items don’t even need a box. A label is put right on the item.
Photo courtesy of Amazon
If your package gets lost, Amazon makes another one
As we walked around and under the many conveyor belts during our Amazon warehouse tour, we noticed a random package had fallen off the belt. The workers will eventually retrieve it, but if the package sits there too long, the system notices the package hasn’t arrived at the next location when it was supposed to, so they start shipping you a whole new package just to make sure you get it on time. The lost package is then put back into storage.
A maze of conveyor belts
They told us that altogether, there are 20 miles of conveyor belts in the warehouse. They said one of the conveyor belts goes up to 20 mph. Our guide told us if any employees are tempted to take a ride on them, they will quickly be promoted to Amazon customer.
Free Amazon warehouse tours
If you’re interested in taking one of the free tours in Orlando (it’s next to the airport), or any of their locations that offer them, sign up here. Kids must be 6 or older. If you can’t make it in person, you can sign up to watch videos of the tour too.
Don’t worry, the tours don’t end in a gift shop. Our guide said he was sure we’re already purchasing a lot from Amazon.
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