inbound
Looking for work? Amazon
is hiring
5,000. To Philip Dana, it’s more than a number. It’s become a mission and a mantra.
Dana’s title is “talent acquisition manager” of Amazon.com’s North American
operations. In his role, he oversees hiring
for 34 fulfillment centers, and he’s currently looking to fill some 5,000 slots.
Amazon’s booth
was a beehive of activ-
ity at the trade show
held in conjunction with the Warehousing
Education and Research Council’s (WERC)
annual meeting last month in Atlanta. When
approached by a reporter and asked what was
new at the company, Dana replied almost
breathlessly, “We’re hiring.”
Seattle-based Amazon, riding the e-com-
merce wave that shows little sign of crest-
ing, is hiring for managerial positions in
operations, facilities, safety, human
resources, IT, and what the company calls
“learning,” according to spokeswoman
Michele Glisson. It is also looking to staff
hourly associate positions, she said. The e-
commerce giant currently has 15,000 full-
time people working in fulfillment alone.
The frenetic pace of hiring is expected to
continue for the next one to two years
across the company’s network, Glisson said.
Amazon is also aggressively pursuing
veterans to join its fulfillment operations,
Glisson said. “We offer military veterans
several programs that help them transition more easily into the civilian workforce and connect them with our significant internal network of veterans to provide mentoring and support,” she said in
an e-mail to DC VELOCITY.
On March 19, Amazon said it planned to
buy Kiva Systems Inc., the North Reading,
Mass.-based maker of robotic order fulfillment technology. The transaction is
believed to be part of Amazon’s strategy to
have its own fulfillment software and systems to keep up with its order demand,
especially if it expands beyond its traditional business-to-consumer model into the
business-to-business fulfillment category. ;
Supply chain management expert
Bill Copacino dies at 61
William C. “Bill” Copacino, a longtime leader in
the field of supply chain management, died on
May 17 at the age of 61.
Copacino graduated from Cornell University
in 1972 with a B.S. in industrial engineering and
operations research, and after several years at
General Electric, earned his M.B.A. from
Harvard Business School in 1978. He then joined Arthur D. Little
Co., where he rose to become managing director and vice president
of the operations management practice.
In 1989, Copacino joined Anderson Consulting, later known as
Accenture, eventually becoming the firm’s global managing partner
of supply chain management. After retiring from Accenture in 2004,
he turned his attention to private industry, first as chief administrative officer for C&S Wholesale Grocers and then as chief executive
officer of the software company Oco Inc.
Copacino wrote three books and more than 150 articles on supply chain management. He received a number of industry awards,
including the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’
Distinguished Service Award in 1998 and the Salzberg Medallion
from Syracuse University in 2002.
Those who knew Copacino spoke more often of his kindness,
generosity, and thoughtfulness than of his business achievements.
Developing the next generation of supply chain management professionals was a particular focus for him, and his concern for others
was evident early on. In 1974, he co-founded Agua del Pueblo, a
humanitarian organization that builds potable water systems in
Guatemala. He also served on several charitable boards, including
Boston Cares and The Carroll School, which serves students with
language-based learning disabilities. ;
FMCSA to investigate driver safety
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will
launch two new research studies on driver safety, said FMCSA
Administrator Anne S. Ferro in a speech at the annual Spring Forum
of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’
Columbus (Ohio) Roundtable.
One study will explore whether long waiting times in a parked
vehicle at a shipper’s dock—recently reclassified as “off-duty time”
for drivers—would contribute to driver fatigue and influence performance. The other study would examine whether a link exists
between the way drivers are compensated—either by the load or by
the mile—and their behavior behind the wheel.
The two issues are intertwined, Ferro said. “If you’re paid by the
load and you can’t deliver a load because of detention, that’s a problem. You’re under constant pressure to push yourself to the limits to
maximize your daily income.” ;
