About 85 million books are in the warehouse on any given day and around 500,000 books leave the warehouse per day. Can you imagine the magnitude of this?
I visited the Hachette Book Group distribution center in Lebanon, Indiana on the way to join with the Bus crew. It was one of the most amazing and enlightening experience I ever had.
After the books are printed and before they end up at Amazon or any bookstores, they go to a distribution center, a humongous warehouse where conveyer belts, fork lifts, switches, and self-expanding packing foam do magic.
The Hachette distribution center is the distribution center in the US, shipping to all over the world.
There are three main stages of what the book go through: receiving, “piece picking”, and shipping. I was lucky to see some demonstration from a couple of experts. Here are some magical clips.
Lots of thanks to Alicia Fisher, Mike Smith, Bob Babbin, and Matt Busenbarrick for the tour and the explanation. :)
Inside the distribution center
Mike Smith, the Picking Supervisor showed me how to pick the books
Bob Babbin, the Director of Distribution interview