On Friday 6th December 2019, Business & Enterprise Development students headed to South Yorkshire to find out how Amazon UK runs its Doncaster Fulfilment Centre.
The visit was part of a third year Enterprise module in collaboration with the University of Lincoln’s Student Enterprise Service, which offers students opportunities to harness their entrepreneurial skills and think like a business owner.
Amazon calls its warehouses “Fulfilment Centres” to encapsulate how the operational process is fulfilled from start to finish – inventory arrives on-site from manufacturers and is then shipped directly to suppliers. A tour of the centre enabled our students to gain a better understanding of logistics in the context of a large-scale business with huge customer demand.
“Our visit to Amazon allowed our enterprising students to reflect on their own business ideas,” comments Reece Leggett, Student Enterprise Co-ordinator, “they were able to take away the importance of efficient shipping and stock management, while keeping good customer service at the heart of a successful global business.”
The tour showcased Amazon’s operational innovation and digitalisation, including automated product selection, packing and labelling processes.
“Amazing!” reports Oliver Gardner, student, “To see the logistics of a huge company like Amazon was fantastic. It was great to see the guts of a multinational business.”
The Student Enterprise team look forward to facilitating more opportunities for our students to visit forward-thinking, growing UK businesses, across a variety of sizes and sectors.
For more information about what the University of Lincoln’s Student Enterprise Service has to offer, please email studententerprise@lincoln.ac.uk and follow @uolstudentent on Twitter.
