Warehouse automation at a human scale
When Jeff Bezos set up the first ‘door desk’ at his garage in Bellevue, Washington, he no doubt had a vision of the company’s future global network of robot-powered fulfilment centres.
But then to be fair, Jeff had it easy. In one respect, anyway.
Sure, he had his work cut out in scaling that early book depository into today’s Amazon empire. But what he didn’t have to factor in was a small army of product experts running an extensive programme of tests and checks on every single item coming in through the door.
Welcome to the challenge of upscaling at MPB, a unique kind of tech business.
The road less travelled
As you may know, MPB is the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear.
A ‘traditional’ ecommerce way to do that uses a peer-to-peer model, in which the business facilitates private transactions and charges users a fee.
But MPB was set up by photography enthusiasts, who found this approach lacking when it came to expensive, fragile cameras and lenses.
Damaged goods, inadequate packaging, undisclosed faults, counterfeit items, optimistic descriptions … we’ve probably all been there at some point when dealing with listing sites.
So our business would do things differently. We would become both buyer and seller, holding everything in stock, and providing warranties on our kit. We would inspect and photograph every item sent to us and make our findings transparently available. Customers could then buy or sell with confidence.
MPB was set up in a small rented space on the south coast of England in 2011. It soon became clear we were going to need a bigger base.
Today we have warehouses, which we term circular commerce centres, in the UK, Germany and the US, an inventory of more than ten thousand models and we recirculate half a million bodies, lenses and accessories a year.
Growth. But personal
How exactly do you turn a massively manual start-up into an international business, all the while continuing to innovate?
As you’d expect, the answer involves putting in some really strong foundations, then taking one step at a time.
According to Head of Operations Andrew Unwin, when MPB’s UK expanded circular commerce centre opened in 2018 our Product & Engineering team consisted of around 10 people, while the audit trail from goods-in to dispatch — involved quite a lot of paper. We knew we had the opportunity to harness technology to drive a step change in improvement.
Our Product Specialists were spending almost as much time recording as inspecting. Colleagues in the stockrooms had to put every item in its right place so it could be found again. And of course, sooner or later they had to find it again.
The busiest part came when deliveries arrived, with hundreds of items a day to be recorded, triaged, matched with an online transaction, inspected, approved and put into stock.
As operations continued to scale up, our previous processes were being pushed to their limits. Clearly we needed some serious automation.
As MPB has continued to grow, we have made big leaps forward. Our Product & Engineering team has developed in-house technology to save thousands of person-hours a year and set the foundations for future growth.
I will expand on that, but first let’s establish what it is we’re trying to streamline.
Warehouse 101
When customers agree to sell us their kit they’re asked to print out the shipping label, package everything up and hand it to the courier.
On arrival at one of our circular commerce centres, the goods must be sorted and individually checked against the original online transaction.
Each item must then find its way to a Product Specialist — often a semi-professional photographer or photography graduate — but in any case a trained enthusiast who knows the brand and has the right specialist tools.
They carry out an in-depth inspection — covering everything from shutter count and cosmetic condition to functionality and battery health — and photograph the item from all angles. The report will populate the item’s individual product listing on mpb.com.
The specialist’s findings are checked against the original transaction. Any discrepancies are discussed with the sender, payment is approved and the item is automatically listed on our platform. Then it’s off to the stockroom, ready to be picked, packed and dispatched when sold on.
This is all greatly simplified and there are alternative paths for different workflows (returns, part-exchanges, changes-of-mind etc). But now we can start to compare the warehouse of today with that of 2018.
Modernisation in progress
In 2022 we launched a new integrated platform to more closely couple the online customer experience with the real-life operation of the business.
It has been designed to vastly reduce paper usage, virtually eliminate human error, save time at every stage of the workflow and auto-generate the audit trail.
Here’s how it works:
1. An online customer hits the sell button on mpb.com. They arrange for their items to be shipped to MPB and a shipping label is auto-generated. This includes a transaction-specific barcode (Before, we’d ask the customer to write a transaction number on the packaging; it was often missing, necessitating some time-consuming detective work)
2. The barcode is scanned on arrival at the circular commerce centre, triggering an email update to the sender.
3. Triage now takes seven people instead of 30. The package contents are checked and photographed, then made ready for full inspection.
4. Team leaders distribute items to the relevant Product Specialists, who now scan the barcode and follow on-screen prompts to record their findings in real time. Grading is more flexible, too — minor issues can be noted on the product listing without downgrading the overall condition.
5. At this stage any adjustments are flagged with the seller. Payments, exchanges or returns can be authorised at a click and a detailed online listing is created automatically as soon as the seller is paid.
6. Meanwhile, items are barcoded and taken straight into the stockroom after checking, using a handheld Android device loaded with our bespoke tracking app. The item can now go anywhere in the stockroom, and the location’s barcode is scanned and added to the record — this is a huge optimisation for use of space in our stockroom.
7. When the item is resold via mpb.com its exact location is known so it’s a moment’s work to track it down, scan again and take it to Goods Out. Previously, the Inventory Manager spent most of the time tracking goods down — it’s now a desk-based role with access to automated reporting in real time.
8. The packer scans the item, books the courier (the tracking number is added automatically to the customer’s confirmation email), and the barcoded address label printed out. A suitable quantity of packing paper and tape, a branded (and recyclable) box of the right size, and everything’s ready to go.
What difference does it make?
The new system saves time at every stage and, best of all, it’s all the annoying bits of time that nobody enjoys.
For our customers it means a joined-up user experience. Nobody has to wonder where their gear is. Grading is transparent, payment automated and shipping tracked. Buyers receive their kit in right-sized, branded packaging made from eco-friendly materials.
Meanwhile for colleagues in the circular commerce centre, did I mention the hundreds of person-hours a week saved? The bottlenecks removed? The release from stress and error-prone manual processes? The 25,000 pieces of paper every month that are no longer needed?
Andrew points out that annual stocktakes used to require a large team for a whole weekend while the business was closed. It’s now a couple of hours’ work — barely time for a pizza lunch.
So when do the robots arrive?
What, these ones? They’re a way over the horizon yet — leaving aside the cost, we’re very much a human business. John Connor can relax a while yet.
Customers rely on the expertise and judgement of our Product Specialists. If anything, we probably need to offer more flexible rota patterns to fit around people’s other commitments and interests. Automating that process might be a tech challenge for the future.
Human-centric or not, there are certainly plenty of ways to build on the foundations we now have in place. The handheld scanning tablets, for example, were developed as a separate module from the main platform. There’s also plenty of value to be added with localised information for our European markets.
Incidentally, if you’ve made it this far and think you could help us build on this platform, we’re currently recruiting software engineers for our Berlin operation, which sits alongside our European circular commerce centre. Have a look at mpb.com/careers or reach out to me on Linkedin.
But even if you aren’t looking for a career move right now, I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the subject. As always, let me know in the comments.
Sophie Davies-Patrick is Chief Technology Officer at MPB, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear.
