How Amazon Works

Watch the video How Amazon Works

Based on your knowledge of process analysis, diagram the process for sellers to sell items on amazon.

You will need to go to https://Amazon.com and create a process using the following instructions only:
• Think about the process for searching and then placing your order in a shopping cart.
• Do NOT go any further than searching and placing in your cart.
• There are many more processes, but for this one we will create a simple high-level view first of adding an item to purchase in a shopping cart.
• You will need to think about who is doing the searching (in this case it is you), all possible steps in the ordering process (for example, you should include opening a web browser and opening the Amazon site to searching the site.
• Think about the processes in the previous part to apply these concepts to this part.
Steps:
Steps to include in your activity
1. Identify all steps in the process to searching and then placing your item in your shopping cart
2. Develop a table with the following headers (labels- use excel or word tables but the table needs to be included in your word document)
a. Actor in the process
i. This is who is doing the activity
b. Major steps
i. General high-level view of the steps
c. Minor- detailed steps
i. Detailed steps in the ordering process
d. Data type
i. This would be specifically what the data is you are looking at/ collecting
ii. For example: email; text or database; integer
iii. How is data used (are you doing any of the below?)
1. For example: writing, reading, updating, processing
3. Your diagrams on the processes for above

For example:
Actor Major Steps Minor-Steps Data Type
Customer (checkout) Checkout at Amazon Search product Text Text Field
Place in cart integer (for add)
checkout Integer (creditcard)
Actor 2 (could be employee) Package/shipping

***If you need an example of a business process see here: https://opentextbook.site/informationsystems2019/chapter/chapter-8-business-processes-information-systems-introduction/ ; note you can use Lucid Chart to diagram your process.
Next Watch Behind the Scenes of an Amazon Warehouse
I. How are robots used in an amazon fulfillment center? Are they effective? Explain.
II. How do humans and robots exist alongside each other in an Amazon Fulfillment Center? Are they working in coordination or competition with each other?
III. What is “SLAM”? How does SLAM organize processes? Is SLAM a process or an organizational mechanism? Explain.
IV. Why is flow of packages more important than speed for Amazon? Explain. Do you think this is sound business practice?
V. Compare this amazon warehouse video with the following video about a company in China: Alibaba’s Warehouse is run almost Entirely by Robots
VI. As Amazon Air expands
a. Define “bottleneck” in business supply chain management and explain what the
b. “bottleneck” was for amazon and how it was addressed through Amazon Air.
c. Diagram the supply chain process that best captures how Amazon functions once an order is placed online and the package is ready to leave the warehouse.
d. How do shipping costs effect Amazon on an annual basis? Cite an example from the video and explain the significance of the costs in the decision to lease planes for Amazon Air.
e. What benefits does Amazon Air offer suppliers? How does this effect the customers? Explain.
f. Define “hybrid network” and what it means for the company.
g. How does Amazon challenge the United States Postal Service to be more creative to withstand the competition of Amazon’s delivery services to survive? Is this challenge good for sellers? consumers? Explain.
For this discussion, post your step processes and answer the questions. In response to a classmate, provide additional insight to their developed process. Do you agree or disagree with the steps presented by your classmate? What about the responses to the videos? Can you identify another organization that is similar to Amazon and Alibaba?