Experiencing Supply Chain Management through Amazon.com

In my earlier blog posts I made it clear that I am switching my 3D development to the Android platform. One of the things I am going to use to boost this is to get some books to jump start the process. I decided to pick Amazon.com to buy from for any books I need. To get it delivered to me I will make use of New Zealand Posts "YouShop" service. I am not familiar with using either so this is going to be very interesting. If it was not obvious, this is my first time buying from Amazon.

This experience is going to be especially interesting for me which goes back to what I studied at University. One of those things was Supply Chain Management. So this is going to also be about experiencing Supply Chain Management through Amazon.com.

The two books were ordered on May 22nd and I had opted for the free delivery(to the Youshop US address in Portland, Oregon) and consolidating the packages so they are sent together. With full understanding that this will take longer to deliver, I kept checking the Amazon.Com website in nervous anticipation.

Some days later something incredible happened. I started getting curiously excited; about Supply Chain Management. The feedback on the progress of my package on the amazon website is actually the result of a complex array of systems in place that make up the Amazon Supply Chain Management!

The thought that led me to this was first an initial puzzlement. One of my books was sent before the other. I thought,  how could Amazon have made such an error! I was left to wait until the first package got delivered to Youshop so that I could perhaps get them to send it to NZ in one package. However despite that, there was some excitement too that it was sent through their own courier service called "Amazon Logistics".  But still that didn't quite get me thinking about SCM.

What did get me thinking was when the tracking said my package has arrived at the Amazon facility in Hebron, Kentucky. This is when I started asking questions! Could this really be what I am seeing? A complex array of supply chain management working to get my package as I had requested. Could the other book be at this facility that the first shipped book has now arrived at? If so, this book will be met with my other book at this facility and combined into one package. Wow! I hope that is exactly what will happen! But I will have to wait and see!

To get a glimpse of what I am talking about, i'll finish off with this 5 minute video by ABC going inside the secretive Amazon system that shows what happens to your order from ordering to delivery: