a.Considering the concept of levels of automation and information technology functionality, argue in favour of the statement made by Amazon’s former logistics executive turned automation consultant, where he sees accelerating automation as inevitable. b. Analyse how automation at Amazon can assist with sorting and packing to create efficiencies.c. Amazon said automation frees workers from dull, repetitive tasks. But workers have complained thatautomated production has been accompanied by speed-ups and a higher-than-average rate of injuries.Why Delaware? It helps that the state gave the company, whose profits top $2 billion a month, about$4.5 million in up-front aid, while the local government cut realty taxes to a fraction of what GM paid.Wilmington's proximity to workforces in Maryland, New Jersey, and Philadelphia's southern suburbshelped, too."They try to find locations they can run at lower cost," Kumar said. (Amazon officials say the plant'sproximity to the Port of Wilmington, airports, and on-site railroad sidings don't matter, since cargo goesin and out by truck.) "I call these very large plants the 'motherships,"" said Brittain Ladd, a formerAmazon logistics executive turned automation consultant.Ladd said Amazon's latest expansion draws upon location and system-management lessons from itshighly profitable Amazon Web Services network of services to corporations. He sees acceleratingautomation as inevitable. "During the pandemic a lot of people decided they don't want to spend 20 or30 years working in a fulfillment center,” Ladd said. “Amazon may employ a million people. But turnoverin some places is nearly 100% a year. They can't hire enough people. They have no choice but to investin automation and robotics."Amazon bought Kiva, which developed the robots deployed in Delaware and elsewhere, eight years go- and, thinking ahead, stopped supplying Gap and other retailers with Kiva machines as if to forestallcompetition and keep the savings for itself, Kumar said. Ladd expects the robotics arms race toaccelerate, with Amazon forcing competitors to upgrade. "In the long run, if they are not going toinnovate and automate, they will not survive," said Temple's Kuma. "Amazon is moving very fast." Inside Amazon's largest warehouse - where you'll findmore robots than peopleamazonAmazon's biggest, newest warehouse, with more robots than ever, brings America closer to anautomated future when machines do all the work of moving everything from groceries to laptops, frommakers to users. And do it faster. While Amazon has been building increasingly automated warehousessince opening its first satellite center in 1997, five miles down the road in New Castle, Del., this $250million showcase is something entirely different.© The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 202321; 22; 23Page 4 of 92023Insides the five-story plant — as big as 17 football fields, or four of Philadelphia's tallest high rises -an electromechanical ballet performed by robots takes place in an eerie quiet. Robot vehicles, guidedby optical and motion sensors, make turns tightly adjacent to one another, selecting and carryingAmazon's vast array of merchandise from storage to delivery. There are still workers unloading trucksfrom suppliers and stowing the contents not in vast shelves for hands to grab but in eight-foot-tallstacks of square yellow bins. Once within these, goods begin their robotic travels.Does that 10-1 ratio spell an end to the massive hiring that has made warehouse work at double theminimum wage so widely available in recent years? Amazon and its admirers are a little sensitive onthis point, so it's worth noting upfront: Amazon is still hiring, not just because so many workers don'tlast a year, but also because its service is so popular that it keeps building more centers, adding peopleto run them, doing things robots still can't. For now.Amazon employed 1.3 million employees worldwide last year, up from 800,000 a year earlier. AmongU.S. companies, only rival Walmart, with all its stores, employs more. To be sure, some criticaleconomists say Amazon destroys more jobs than it creates. Other analysts say that labor-saving hasalways been the goal of new technology. In any event, Will Carney, the plant's manager here, said, "Ourhiring is not quite done."The facility is in a "ramp-up" stage, and may eventually employ as many as 4,000 to 5,000 workers, asthe work expands over the next several years, according to spokesman Steve Kelly.Amazon hopes it will be easier to keep human workers this winter, when the company has pledged tostart providing workers up to $5,250 a year toward colleges costs. It may also add robots andemployees in Delaware, though Amazon won't detail its longer-term plans for the facility.The staff, as much as it has grown since opening this summer, is still fewer than Amazon employs atfulfillment centers one-quarter this size.The facility is the flagship of a sweeping expansion by Amazon across the Philadelphia region. Amazonhas plans to open as many as nine new facilities in the coming months. That's on top of the 14 sitesadded last year across Philadelphia and its suburbs, the Lehigh Valley, South Jersey, and northernDelaware.

Note: Since Question C was not provided in the original question, I have provided answers to…

a.Considering the concept of levels of automation and information technology functionality, argue in favour of the statement made by Amazon’s former logistics executive turned automation consultant, where he sees accelerating automation as inevitable. b. Analyse how automation at Amazon can assist with sorting and packing to create efficiencies.

a.Considering the concept of levels of automation and information technology functionality, argue in favour of the statement made by Amazon’s former logistics executive turned automation consultant, where he sees accelerating automation as inevitable. b. Analyse how automation at Amazon can assist with sorting and packing to create efficiencies.

Understanding Business

12th Edition

ISBN:9781259929434

Author:William Nickels

Publisher:William Nickels

Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1CE

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