We're committed to improving our customer experience and developing technology that supports employees and creates safer workplaces, partnering with talents from around the world. The acquisition of the family-owned business Cloostermans more than two years ago has strengthened our cutting-edge machinery and automation technology. Working from Hamme, the team collaborates with experts worldwide to build innovations that optimise our logistics and deliveries while reducing our operational environmental footprint.
The team develops automated solutions which focuses on packaging, sorting, labeling, and maintenance diagnostic tools. As a key engineering hub integrated in a wider global Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging (MSP) research network, Hamme MSP team creates new systems that improve efficiency, sustainability, and workplace safety in the Amazon fulfillment network. They work in concert with other teams to design, build, and test new solutions, playing an essential role in end-to-end product development. Their work spans from initial design to preparing services for global deployment across Amazon’s fulfillment network, including the scaling of these services. These innovations are designed to be widely applicable across various Amazon business units. Working closely with other Amazon research & development centers from Boston, Seattle and Milan, Hamme MSP manages the entire process from initial design to building & testing prototypes, and hand-off for scale manufacturing with external partners.
Global impact through local expertise
The collaboration between Amazon and Cloostermans began in 2019, focusing on designing and manufacturing mechatronics solutions for efficient sortation, consolidation and packing of items. The acquisition in late 2022 integrated Cloostermans' nearly 200 experts into Amazon's Global Robotics team. Drawing on 140 years of expertise in machinery, robotics, and more recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Belgian engineers collaborate with experts around the world to ensure fulfillment and delivery network safety, speed, optimisation, and value.
Mechatronics at Amazon: A foundation for innovation
The Hamme team is now part of Amazon’s Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging (MSP) team, as these topics play a crucial role in Amazon's broader strategy to enhance the customers’ as well as the employees’ experience. By integrating mechanical, electrical, and control systems, mechatronics solutions enable the development of advanced technologies that automate tasks and enhance efficiency across the supply chain. From machines that automate or semi-automate sortation, packaging, and labeling of packages, such as the Universal Robotic Labeler or the Universal Smartpaper, to tools that simplify the tasks of our associates, MSP is at the heart of Amazon's efforts to create a safer, more streamlined and innovative workplace. The Amazon's Hamme Research & Development Center collaborates most with different teams in the US to deliver robotics solutions around the world. “The scale that Amazon has brought sometimes still surprises me,” confesses Mathias D’hoore, Principal Systems Engineer at Amazon Mechatronics in Hamme. “We have long been doing innovative projects, but within Amazon’s global operations, they can just have such a massive impact. Even small tweaks to machinery can make a big difference when they are implemented across the world.”
Automation for a better workplace
Amazon believes in the transformative power of automation to improve employee well-being and operational efficiency. Mechatronics in Hamme is at the forefront of these innovations, developing solutions that:
- Optimise packaging: Create solutions to optimise packaging volume, improve stacking and stability, and provide better protection of products, and create a more sustainable transport process and enhance customer experience.
- Minimise errors and variability: Consistent and precise automation ensures accurate product handling; this lowers costs to serve our customers.
- Enhance workplace well-being and efficiency: Automation powers ergonomic improvements, creating improved working environments for employees.
- Create safer work environments: Over the past 5 years, musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) incidents at Amazon have dropped 32%. We will continue our efforts and invest in ergonomic safety to reduce MSD injuries even further.
Through packaging optimization, since 2015, Amazon has avoided more than 4 million metric tons of packaging. The Mechatronics team is also working to optimise automated labelling machines for "Ship in Product Packaging," eliminating the need for additional packaging. One of the most exciting innovations emerging from Amazon’s labs in recent years, includes the Universal Robotic Labeller (URL), which is reshaping our workplace and beyond. The URL is a high-speed auto-labelling technology that improves label placement and adhesion on irregular surfaces. Its innovation lies in its ability to apply different types and dimensions of labels, and on different types of irregularly shaped products. On one hand, it allows for applying smaller labels, hence reducing packaging dimensions; while on the other it allows for placing labels on paper bags, even irregularly shaped ones, or directly onto products to ship in product packaging, eliminating the need for additional packaging and contributing to reduced waste on the customer’s side. The URL represents a significant advancement in our fulfilment technology. It improves the entire labelling process, contributing to our sustainability goals, and, ultimately, benefiting our employees’ roles, customer experience, and the environment.
From its East Flanders facilities, Mechatronics creates test setups, designs and produces new parts, develops prototypes, and supports rollouts across the Amazon network.
Investing in Belgian talent
“I’m really hoping more and more Belgian graduates and experienced engineers find their way to Amazon,” says Rob Siaens, Sr Operations Manager at Amazon Mechatronics in Hamme. “Our projects are so diverse, and we get to work with experts around the world. A job at Mechatronics can be such a rewarding challenge for local talent.”
Amazon is committed to investing in the future of Belgium, providing opportunities for engineers and technicians from all over the world to come and join the team in Belgium and work on cutting-edge technology with global impact.
