Amazon Manager - Operations interview questions

I was flown to Allentown Pennsylvania; everything was paid for. First there was a 30 minute tour then a math problem followed by 4, 45 minute interviews. It was straight forward - mostly behavioral questions. I did not see anyone over the age of 40 in a facility that employs 2000 people. If you are 50 or older, forget about it; at one point the senior operations manager stopped the questioning to discourage me by making comments that I would be starting over and expressed to me that I would be running around not knowing what to do. I told him that it wasn't an issue with me, if it wasn't an issue with him. The interviewers looked run-down and stressed out; all of them wore either blue jeans or Khaki shorts with tee-shirts and sweatshirts. None of them looked thrilled to be there. Professionalism was barely adequate. I thought it was strange that I was provided a non-disclosure agreement in the interview packet, but was never asked to provide it even though I mentioned it twice during the interview process. The tour did not reveal any proprietary processes anyway; it looks like learning-discovery on their part and they are struggling to manage due to the explosive growth that they are experiencing. Their operations were par for most packaging and delivery operations. Some of the candidates already had the answer to the math problem. One guy didn't even read it; he just completed the table in less than one minute and then stood up and walked around. I didn't have the word problem and answer in advance so I felt a little irritated. Since I am so customer oriented, I will provide it here so that all of you may have an advantage that I did not. Word Problem: - You have an upstream Picking department that feeds two downstream Packing departments: Pack Singles and Pack Multis. Those Packing departments feed to a Shipping department that loads the outgoing trucks. - 30% of your Pick volume goes to Pack Singles and has a packing rate of 171 units per labor hour (uph). 70% of the Pick volume goes to Pack Multis and has a pack rate of 266 units per labor hour. - Your pickers pick both Single and Multi items throughout the day at an overall average rate of 114 units per labor hour. All units that are packed in both processes go through the Ship process at a rate of 570 units per hour. - You have 102 people today for all 4 departments and you absolutely must pack 47,880 units in Pack Multis Items to meet a customer promise metric. - The Ops manager for the shift started building the plan but was called away. You have to finish it. He correctly allocated labor to the Pack Singles before he was called away. How do you allocate the remaining labor to balance the flow in your department if you work 10 hour shift? Do not assume breaks or lunches in your answer. - Please fill out the table below. (note: you are provided the pack singles labor quantity (people) of 12 on the table. You complete the rest of the table.) Answer: Department / % of volume / Rate (uph) / Daily Volume / # of People Pick 100 114 68400 60 Pack Singles 30 171 20520 12 Pack Multis 70 266 47880 18 Ship 100 570 68400 12 So there you have it; I did not change anything in the word problem, not even the grammar or punctuation. You will need to explain your process and rationale. As you can see they are not prolific communicators in the written form. It seems like a decent company; however, they are youth centric and I got the impression that they don't value experience from older candidates.

Interview was rather simple and laid back and it wasn't a high pressure environment. Interviewers were wearing shorts, pants, and t-shirts, which made all of us interviewing feel comfortable. The interview process itself was a good representation of the company's environment in the sense that it wasn't a suit and tie interview, which I liked a lot.