Temp Troops of High-Tech 476
A submitter sends in this story about
temp work in Silicon Valley, from the point of view of the temp. Compare almost the same story written from the point of view of Amazon.com's management.
A list is only as strong as its weakest link. -- Don Knuth
Heres the text of the NYtimes article. (Score:1, Informative)
By SAUL HANSELL
FERNLEY, Nev., Jan. 18 -- Ever since it built five vast warehouses in 1999, Amazon (news/quote)
What Amazon was not so vocal about was how many people it took to operate those machines, especially during the holiday rush. In 2000, for example, Amazon had to hire 7,200 temporary workers to supplement the 4,400 people working in its warehouses in the United States.
Now, Amazon.com, once the champion the strategy of "get big fast," has learned how to become small. On Dec. 11, its busiest day last year, Amazon's warehouses employed only 4,000 temps and 3,700 full-time employees. With one-third fewer people than the year before, the warehouses processed what analysts estimate were 10 to 15 percent more items.
Amazon, which plans to release its fourth- quarter results on Tuesday morning, needs every dollar it can save. A year ago, the company -- which has lost $2.8 billion since its founding in 1995 -- promised investors it would turn an operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2001 (at least by its own "pro forma" calculation).
That goal was made harder because Amazon's sales grew at only half the rate it predicted at the beginning of the year, dragged down by the recession, the aftermath of Sept. 11 and some of the company's own missteps.
If, as analysts expect, Amazon nonetheless hits its fourth-quarter profit target, a key reason will be the savings from its yearlong campaign to reorganize the people and the machines in its warehouses.
"They are focused on productivity in a very structured way, and it appears they have made good progress," said Anthony Noto, an analyst for Goldman, Sachs. Mr. Noto estimates that order-fulfillment costs absorbed 11 percent of Amazon's sales in the fourth quarter, down from 13.5 percent a year earlier. Still, he said, those costs need to fall below 9 percent for the company to thrive.
Walking amid a forest of bookshelves and climbing metal bridges over the rivers of conveyer belts in the warehouse here 40 miles east of Reno, Jeff Wilke, Amazon's senior vice president for operations, pointed to dozens of improvements big and small.
One big goal had been to reduce errors in keeping track of the several million items continually being placed onto and pulled off of hundreds of thousands of bins on metal shelves. In theory, Amazon's computers know exactly where each item is at any moment. But in 2000, the computers were wrong more than 10 percent of the time, causing delays as workers searched for missing items and restocked spares.
"We had a whole secret plant, not our main focus, putting stuff back," Mr. Wilke said.
To reduce errors, Amazon wrote new software to take better advantage of the gizmo that each warehouse worker was already carrying -- a shoehorn-size device that combines a bar code scanner, a display screen and a two-way data transmitter.
The new software beams far more explicit instructions to workers about where they should go and what they should do. And it checks their work by forcing them to scan each item every time they put it on or take it off a shelf. Errors have fallen to below 5 percent, from 10 percent, Mr. Wilke said.
This new system also helps with another of Mr. Wilke's main goals -- improving the productivity of seasonal temporary workers -- by giving them more direction. It also monitors their performance, so those who cannot get up to speed in a week or so are given help -- then fired, if necessary. Amazon also instituted a formal training program for temps. As a result, the average productivity of each temporary worker has doubled.
Many of Mr. Wilke's efforts reflect the highly quantitative bent expected of an M.I.T.-trained engineer who ran chemical plants for Allied Signal before joining Amazon in 1999. But when he talks about the biggest change here in Fernley, he uses the language of music, not manufacturing.
"We needed to build cadence," Mr. Wilke said, "to operate to the drumbeat of the constraint."
The drumbeating constraint is the $25 million Crisplant sorting machine at the center of Amazon's automated approach. Working with batches of 500 to 2,000 orders, the employees with the hand-held terminals feed items onto a network of conveyor belts into the sorting machine. The machine reads the bar code on each item and routes it into one of 2,100 chutes, each chute representing an order for a single customer. When all the items in an order are in the chute, a light flashes, and a worker rushes to put them in a box. They are then sent on other conveyers to machines that print packing slips, seal the boxes and send them off to shippers' trucks.
Adopting such an expensive and complex machine was controversial for Amazon.
Mr. Wilke acknowledges that he was skeptical of the Crisplant machines when he joined Amazon, inheriting the warehouse designs of his predecessor, Jimmy Wright, a former Wal-Mart (news/quote) executive. In fact, Mr. Wilke arrived in time to delete the machines from the designs for Amazon's warehouses in Europe.
But in the last two years, Mr. Wilke says, he has come to believe that the sorting machines were a good choice. He has also concluded, though, that because they are so expensive and so central to the business, all other parts of the warehouse need to operate with the goal of avoiding backlogs and delays that would prevent the Crisplant machine from running at peak efficiency.
So Mr. Wilke created a new job -- flowmeister -- making one person the orchestra conductor of the warehouse, to keep each section of the operation in rhythm with the sorting machine. In Fernley this day, the flowmeister was Andy Warren, a former logistics consultant who took a career detour as a lawyer. His podium was a metal table topped with seven computer screens that monitor all the key processes of the warehouse.
As Mr. Warren conducted, a graph showed that the people taking items from the chutes and putting them in boxes were not keeping tempo with the ones putting items into the sorting machine. So he had a worker move from the "induction" area to work the chutes, heading off a backlog.
Mr. Wilke's "cadence" talk was hardly music to the ears of the people who worked in the warehouses, because he was essentially insisting they could handle far more volume with no new equipment.
"I felt like Scotty in `Star Trek' saying, `I can't push her any further, captain,' " said Greg Bennett, the manager of the Fernley warehouse. Yet by keeping the Crisplant operating at full speed for two 10-hour shifts a day, the warehouse was able to pack more than 200,000 items on peak days in December, 30 percent more than the year before.
But Mr. Wilke says the pressure is not off. His calculations show that many more incremental improvements could eventually double the productivity of the warehouses.
"The sum of all the little mistakes," he said, "is big."
compare the two? your kidding right? (Score:3, Informative)
in the second (amazon), you have 7.5% of the work force as temp workers, with no mention of abuse, forced silence, etc.
and you want us to draw a comparision from the 1st to the 2nd?
flame all you want, but what is it with
what an unfair comparion...you ire should be directed at HP if you ask me.
Re:compare the two? your kidding right? (Score:3, Informative)
Amazon's warehouses employed only 4,000 temps and 3,700 full-time employees
So by my book that's 52%
In 2000 that number looks more like 62%...
NO LOGO (Score:4, Informative)
Strange that these same management techniques which work so well on the poor and uneducated overseas are now being used domestically.
Re:As bad as that is... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, I've heard these stories too, and they're mostly from foreigners-are-stealing-our-jobs and unionize-programming types. For a start, it's illegal to pay an H1B holder much less than an American doing the same job (either 90% or 75%, I can't remember offhand). H1B visas are bound to a company, true, but it is possible to transfer a visa between companies, and L1 visas require that you've worked for the company overseas for at least a year, unlikely if they treat their people badly. Finally, I don't believe that passports could be held. I've lived and worked in the US (I'm British) and frequently needed to present ID (for example, going into a bar, getting on a plane, etc) and I can tell you, you can't do much in the US without some form of ID, most Americans use their driving licences, and if you don't have one, you need your passport.
Re:NO LOGO (Score:2, Informative)
Not strange at all. I read in the article that most of the poeple were immigrants, including the author. And these policies have been present in the US for as long as factories have been. Check the history of Labor circa the late 19th century some time. It'll turn your stomach.
Re:The alternative (Score:3, Informative)
I knew it was only a matter of time until this albatross argument arrived. You are flatly out to lunch.
According to this article [mercurycenter.com]Mrs.Fiorina made $69.4 Million Dollars last year, further, according to this blurb at hp.com [hp.com] in 2000 hp had 88,000 employees.
So, 6,9400,000 / 88,000 == $788.63. Our kind friends in the article, working for HP's bottom line, "pull in around $1000" per month.
For all the "wealth" created by HP, a single person, the CEO earns 75% of a month salary for EVERY EMPLOYEE*
What is it that Carly Fiorina does that affords her such phenomenal wealth and security? Why is she afforded the kind of kingly existence of comfort and un-imaginable security while those who MAKE THE WEALTH are forced to earn a pittance with zero security. Remember, it is not only the low wages that people have to contend with but the risk of being instantly unemployed without provocation.
I cannot fully explain the rage I feel at this situation, it exists all around us (and the world) -- this is the reality of Capitalism -- left unchanged it is guaranteed to get worse.
The world is in an uncomfortable place at the moment, out of control and heading in the absolutely wrong direction.. and most people of conscience recognize change is necessary. Sweeping, fundamental changes to the economic systems we employ.
Without a democratic solution to economic problems, (economically) powerless people will eventually revolt. It is not a debate of *if* but when, history has proven this -- and we are destined to allow it to repeat. Sad, very very sad.
Interesting Reading: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. [anu.edu.au]
So, explain now, what does paying equitable salary have to do with the choice you mentioned? It is simply a non-issue.
*i recognize that temps are not included in the 88k number, and therefore would be a smaller portion of Mrs.Fiorina's salary... but it really has no bearing on the concept.
Also, im not surprised at the complete lack of understanding of the reality of this situation displayed in this forum. People have been so overwhelmed by the rhetoric and dogma of Capitalism, Freedom and America that they are absolutely blind to the massive problems with the present system -- and our ability to build a better alternative for everyone.
Re: Temp jobs are not minimum wage (Score:3, Informative)
Depending on your skills, one of the advantages of temping (of which I've done quite a bit of) is that you can LEAVE or be reassigned to another job if you hate it. Or you know you'll be out of there soon. Sometimes, I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't work somewhere permanently! At least you got to see it from the inside first! Yeah, it's work without the benefits, but also without the commitment on your part too.
I liked the variety of temping. How you're treated can depend on the atmosphere of the company, but it depends on your attitude too. I was amazed at the number of employers that would put up with sloppy work or chronically late (really late) temps.
One thing I did gain from temp work was walking into different situations and a broader background.
It's not about the jack (or is it?) (Score:2, Informative)
However, not everyone can succeed. The advice to learn, get better, and you will succeed is good advice, but it doesn't work for everyone. Not only that, but there are many more important things than $$ or pesos or yen.
I wish the entertainment and sports world would learn this.
There are more important things than money. Now everyone needs to pay the rent, feed their family, etc. And doing that may be a problem, but and life may stink while you do it, but there is something to be said for a day's work and a day's pay. Be happy with your life. If you don't like your job, work to get another one, but also enjoy your life and your family. I wouldn't work twice the hours for twice the pay, but I'm in a good position. Hell, I wouldn't work 50% more for twice the pay.
I had the same attitude when I worked in a restaurant and worked 50 hours a week and barely made rent. While I tend to work more than the average joe, I need some free time and that time has a value. Often a value above that of my wage or salary.
I hate to have to say it again, but there are more important things than money. Even if you make $8 an hour.