Hey all. I learned this week that Amazon is now offering tours of their fulfillment centers at various places around the country. Since I'm eager to see not only what these warehouses look like but also how Amazon plans to spring them, I'm coordinating a tour with some CAMS PhD students at the closest center in San Bernardino. As they book a while out, we're planning on going in late October/early November. If anyone is interested in going with us, please send me an email (rosend@usc.edu)! I will try to work out some potential dates and send out a poll.
https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-fulfillment-center-tours/
In the meantime, here's an interesting short(ish) piece about a logistic software used by major supply-chains. The article gives a great overview of some of the labour concerns around sites like Amazon warehouses and provides an interesting analysis of obfuscation/isolation of information.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-software-that-shapes-workers-lives
Miriam Posner is at UCLA and has quite a fascinating approach to digital humanities. If you are able to see her speak/teach a workshop around Los Angeles, you should definitely try to go!
And for those who can handle the dubious humor of South Park:
ReplyDeletehttps://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s22e09-unfulfilled
Thanks for the article Patricia!
ReplyDeleteOne of my good friends works at an Amazon warehouse and tells me horror stories of the warehouse's draconian management practices, such as discouraging restroom trips for him and his coworkers, in order to meet the quotas passed down through these "supply-chains". Apparently, there are only a handful of restrooms and some are just "too far", reducing "efficiency".
Obfuscation is the best way to describe, not only the difficulties in tracing the flow of information, but the workers that are subject to different production plans. I know that there were days where my friend and their coworkers skipped their lunches and breaks, fearing job security from missing quotas and schedules.