Inside Newegg: They give us a Tour and you a Prize
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 14, 2006 3:31 PM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Packing your Order and the Peanut Gun
With your order now complete, your tub heads down this high speed rolling conveyer but you will note that the conveyer has a row of metal links on the right side. The purpose of these links is to push your tub into the appropriate ramp for boxing when the system tells it that one is free. The picture below shows the metal links in action:
After your tub is sent down the ramp, everything is removed from the tub, scanned and compared against your order. Newegg's system will not print a shipping label unless the items in your tub match the items you ordered. With everything scanned and your label printed your items are boxed and then sent off to the peanut gun.
The peanut gun is by far one of the coolest things in Newegg's warehouse, and it's exactly what you'd expect. An enormous vat of packaging peanuts is hung from the ceiling of the warehouse (pictured above) and individual guns dangle from it like cow udders (pretty picture):
The peanut gun itself is pretty simple; you aim, squeeze the trigger and peanuts come out:
With your valuables bubble wrapped and the box filled with peanuts, it's handed off to the automatic taping machine. That's right, you hold the box shut and feed it into the machine that takes over and tapes it shut.
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Rapsven - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
What's that for?peldor - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
I just want some stats.You know like megapeanuts/s.
Jynx980 - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
The peanut guns are employed by security at the New Egg facility. They shoot about 15 peanuts in a tight grouping which leave painful welts for slacker employees and persons accused of theft.Howard - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
Strange.creathir - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
Though Anand, use your sway to get them to GET RID OF PEANUTS!I would MUCH rather get those plastic bags of air than messy peanuts...
- Creathir
CheesePoofs - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
Same here. Air bags are much cleaner and don't get everywhere like peanuts have a tendency to do.johnsonx - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link
yeah, hate those peanuts. They're so hard to pick up if you happen to spill some.BUT, I bet peanuts are a good bit cheaper for such a high volume shipping operation. Do you want to pay more for bags of air?
F22 Raptor - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
Nice in depth article and pitures, it was very interesting!I also entered the giveaway!
:)
Cygni - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
I have to say, im pretty impressed. I didnt expect that level of automation and technology. Guess i shouldnt be surprised. It IS newegg, afterall.gerf - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
I expected a little more automation. Of course, I work for a company that makes things like this (similar at least). Mostly we do automotive machines though.But, there are a few factories in the world that are completely automated similar to this warehouse, but even more so.
Pallets can be tracked and moved to the exact part of the plant that the parts are needed, automatically loaded, and automatically assembled, including a multitude of safeguards for people, quality, machine production...
Yeah, it's neat stuff.