Amazon looking to hire up to 1,000 more workers at local center

The Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center in Davenport is currently employing about 1,500 people and by year’s end, it hopes to hire up to another 1,000 workers. That’s the word from Nate Rudy, general manager at the Amazon center at 2022 Research Parkway in northern Davenport, as he helped conduct a tour of the massive facility […]

The Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center in Davenport is currently employing about 1,500 people and by year’s end, it hopes to hire up to another 1,000 workers. That’s the word from Nate Rudy, general manager at the Amazon center at 2022 Research Parkway in northern Davenport, as he helped conduct a tour of the massive facility Thursday morning, March 28. That tour included dozens of Quad Cities business and community leaders, local school leaders, media members and politicians, including Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks as well as Davenport Mayor Mike Matson.

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The tour was held to show off the giant facility that officially opened last October, shipped out its first customer order on Sunday, Feb. 4, and is preparing to drastically ramp up operations in just a few days. The Davenport facility is shipping out about 1 million items a week, and has shipped out a bit more than 4 million items since early February. But in just a couple of weeks, it is looking to begin shipping out about 1.7 million items every week, said the general manager. “With every new project, there are a few hiccups along the way, but everything is going really well right now,” Mr. Rudy told the QCBJ after Thursday’s tours. In addition to shipping out a lot more packages, Amazon’s goal is to increase its Davenport workforce from 1,500 up to about 2,500 by the end of the year, he added. Mr. Rudy also said that he’s been pleased by the quality and quantity of the local workforce, adding that the company has been making dramatic steps to help the local economy because about 95% of the employees at the Davenport facility are from the local communities. Area businesses also are being helped by the Amazon facility that helps sell and ships out its local products to customers around the world. Thursday’s ceremony included representatives from Logic Products of Iowa City, which makes body and bath care products; and Tahmi of Fairfield, Iowa, a handcrafted jewelry maker. Tahmi DeSchepper, owner of the Tahmi company, said that before she got help from Amazon she spent about 16 years on the road, selling her products at many craft fairs and other events across the country. Now her jewelry is being sold on the Amazon store site that can be found here. “I get to sleep in my own bed every night because of Amazon. … This company is bringing the customers to me instead of me being on the road all the time,”  Ms. DeSchepper said. There are more than 2,500 independent sellers – most of them small and medium-sized businesses – in Iowa selling through the Amazon store, according to Amazon officials. Amazon also is supporting local schools. During a brief ceremony ahead of the tours, Amazon leaders presented a $10,000 donation to the Davenport Community School District. But the star attraction of Thursday’s events was the tour of the massive facility. Visitors were split up into four groups to tour various sites in the fulfillment center. The visitors got to see several workstations, robots at work and employees working on three of the center’s floors, Here is a look at some of the features of the local Amazon facility included on the tours:

• Size: The facility has more than 2.3 million square feet of storage; that’s equivalent to about 40 football fields.
• Orders: The facility fills, on average, 130,000 customer orders a day.
• Holiday orders: The Davenport facility expects to fulfill about 450,000 orders a day during the holidays.
• Yellow bins: There are about 50,000 yellow bins in the facility to help transport customer orders throughout the building.
• Robots: There are about 5,000 in the building, transporting orders.
• Sorting chutes: There are 8,800 shoots to sort and organize customer packages.
• Items in the fulfillment center: The center currently has about 22 million items in the building. That number will likely increase to about 35 million items in the near future, Mr. Rudy said during Thursday’s tours. 
• Volunteering:  Amazon employees have volunteered about 3,700 hours across 80 events in the region since October.
• Employment benefits:  The center offers full-time and part-time positions starting at $17.50 an hour. Benefits include medical, vision and dental insurance beginning on the first day of employment.
• Other features: The fulfillment center is made with about 59,000 cubic yards of concrete; has 43 out-bound delivery bays; six in-bound receiving bays; 12 miles of conveyors; and six floors in the facility.

“This has been very impressive. … We just love to see you in the heartland, especially here in Iowa,” said Sen. Ernst, R-Iowa, after taking a tour of the facility. Rep. Miller-Meeks added that she was impressed with the technology, the benefits package for employees, and the ergonomics features in the facility to help keep employees safe.  For instance, during the tour, visitors saw employees standing on ergo matting material while operating machinery to get packaging ready to ship out. (Ergomat matting acts like a shock absorber, protecting the body from jarring impacts while stimulating muscle activity to promote better circulation and reduce fatigue.) Mr. Rudy said the ergonomics features  and robotic technology greatly help employees be more efficient at their jobs. He gave this example: In the days before the robots, Amazon employees spent much of their days getting and delivering packages and materials from one area to another inside a facility. Today, the robots bring all those materials to the workers. “This is all very super cool,” said Ms. Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, as she looked over many of the features during the tour. She was one of several people to thank Amazon for setting up shop in the community and helping residents and local businesses. During a brief ceremony in a first-floor meeting room, she pointed out slogans painted on walls. Some of those slogans included “Hire and develop the best,” “Insist on the highest standards” and “Think big.” “You see all those (slogans) on the walls? Well, that's what Iowa is all about,” she added.