Take a look inside Amazon’s new robotic fulfillment center in Elkhart County

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind.— After years in the making, the brand-new Amazon robotic fulfillment center in Elkhart County has officially opened its doors and has begun sifting and sorting through hundreds of thousands of packages locally. 

The massive 800,000 square foot facility is the first of its kind in the area and only the second in the state of Indiana. 

Governor Mike Braun joined state and local leaders for a firsthand look at the state-of-the-art facility following Wednesday’s ribbon cutting event. 

“It’s interesting to see one of the largest businesses in our economy and the beauty is a lot of small businesses use them,” said Governor Mike Braun. 

He said the ceremony represents the multibillion-dollar corporation’s investment in the state and its local communities and businesses and highlighted the importance of efforts in education to keep up with the work force.  

According to Amazon, the facility has already created more than 1000 roles locally. These employees will work alongside hundreds of robots to streamline the package fulfillment process. 

“In our facility, we do not have our employees lifting or transporting any material. Robots do the job for them,” said Bhautik Motiwala, Elkhart Amazon Robotic Fulfillment Center site leader.  

The facility holds tens of thousands of miles of conveyor belts and enough steel to build the Eiffel Tower three times. 

Mayor Rod Roberson of Elkhart highlighted the importance of the center to the growing community. 

“They also just move parts everywhere, but we are a manufacturing community that moves parts, so the kinship in a relationship between what Amazon does and what you see in this facility is absolutely a glove on hand fit,” Roberson said. 

“These numbers represent real families and the real community,” said Motiwala. 

The facility officially opened last month and hopes to speed up local delivery times through some of the innovations demonstrated at the site.