They do not dawdle –the devices in their hands are also measuring their productivity in real time. They might each walk between seven and 15 miles today.
Before they can go home at the end of their eight-hour shift, or go to the canteen for their 30-minute break, they must walk through a set of airport-style security scanners to prove they are not stealing anything.
Every warehouse has its own “continuous improvement manager” who uses “kaizen” techniques pioneered by Japanese car company Toyota to improve productivity
“We use a bunch of Japanese guys, they are not consultants, they are insultants"
Some people also patrol the warehouse pushing tall little desks on wheels with laptops on them – they are “mobile problem solvers” looking for any hitches that could be slowing down the operation.
Several former workers said the handheld computers, which look like clunky scientific calculators with handles and big screens, gave them a real-time indication of whether they were running behind or ahead of their target and by how much. Managers could also send text messages to these devices to tell workers to speed up
Sounds like a shithole.
Also sounds like the future.
There's an Amazon warehouse in the area and I worked there (very briefly) before joining RM, as did quite a lot of my colleagues. It involves as much walking as this job except indoors and on flat ground, but the downside is you've got management on your back. In fact, I had some dodgy fish in the canteen one evening and got pulled up for falling way behind due to frequent trips to the toilets.
