ABSTRACT
Online retailer Amazon depends on a network of fulfillment centers to warehouse and distribute its products. Like many warehouse jobs, the work is physically demanding, requiring employees to walk up to 15 miles and lift hundreds of times per shift. But unlike work in many warehouses, it can also be mentally and emotionally exhausting. Amazon is not alone in designing work of this sort and requiring employees to perform their jobs as designed even at substantial personal cost. Process engineering assesses the sequence of tasks required to produce a particular product or service and analyzes the way those tasks fit together into an integrated job. It also examines tasks to see which should be performed by people and which should be carried out by machines, trying to determine how workers can perform their jobs most efficiently. In micromotion analysis, industrial engineers analyze the hand and body movements required to do a job.
