How Fast Did Amazon Build Fulfillment?

Andy Jassy says Amazon decided to build out its fulfillment network and last mile transportation network aggressively and quickly in the early part of the pandemic. He says going that fast would be really hard, would probably cost more than going slower, and would probably not get everything as optimally as a slower build. No physical stores were open, customers and sellers needed the capacity, and Amazon decided, as it almost always does, to shade on the side of customers.

Not everything in the plan went perfectly. A lot of the fulfillment team was in the office more than most of the rest of the company, while many people designing, planning, and assessing the network were remote and spread out. Amazon balanced bias for action against relentlessly high standards for cost structure, delivery, and design. Andy Jassy says the company expected some cleanup and did not know exactly how the topography would work out. Some things stayed unoptimized in ways he is not sure the team foresaw. Good metrics and a truth-telling culture put the data and the issues on the table. People stay direct with one another and do not allow anyone to paper over issues.

After the capacity was installed, Amazon re-architected key parts of the network. The work was maybe eight or nine on the team's priority list at the time, then became a much higher priority so the network could combine speed and cost.