Thursday, June 24, 2004

90,000 DVDs. No shelves.

A Netflix hub reveals a rhythmic flow of DVDs, bar codes, and Band-Aids.
From: Fast Company Issue 74 September 2003, Page 38
By: Lucas Conley


There are no Nerf balls or cappuccino makers at the Worcester hub. More striking, given the hub's stock of 90,000 DVDs, there are no shelves. "I came from a traditional warehousing background," says O'Handley. "I was like, 'Okay, I want Shrek ; I'm going to go to slot S-407 . . . right?' " He smiles at his innocence. "Not so."


Instead, an ingenious daily dance takes place. Each morning at 8:00, the U.S. Postal Service (cheaper and quicker than the alternatives, incredibly) drops off "pumpkin carts," orange bins with thousands of returned DVDs from all over New England. Operators scan the discs, collecting returns data, which computers at Netflix's San Jose headquarters match to new orders. After lunch, the Worcester operators rescan every disc in their inventory; with each scan, they act on instructions from San Jose to "Ship Disc," if a customer wants the film, or "Scan Tomorrow," if not.


Regarding postage:
Presorting saves Netflix six to seven cents per DVD, O'Handley says.




7 comments:

  1. My only experiences in the industry have been as a fan :). Just one of the crowd.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  2. UPS does a similar sorting process. Is net flix availible in Texas.Here Check Out My Blog

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  3. How did you get the search feature to link to individual posts? joegle@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. To add Google searches to my blog, I went to Google Free Web search. You'll need to know how to edit your blog template.

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  5. dude your kinda weird being such a freak but that was cool i guesse

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  6. Leslie K. Siegel at ksiegel61@yahoo.com thinks Netflix makes you lazy to return the flix, so you end up keeping it. Leslie K. Siegel wishes that her mother Lenore Siegel of Florida would forgive her for all the wrong things Leslie K. Siegel said! But Netflix really won't last, because DVD's on demand will get smaller and more home use friendly without even having to leave the mailbox.

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  7. I use the VEC instead http://www.videoexchange.org - similar, but free.

    ReplyDelete