Archived Project Viper

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beardless

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I searched and couldn't find any discussion on this pilot.

A new pilot launched to a total of 3 stores, code-named "Project Viper" begins April 29th. This project basically removes the Instocks team and the Backroom Day team and places them on the sales floor.

The store is divided into 11 zones, and each zone is to have a dedicated team member working at all times to provide AMAZING guest service, zone the floor, fill endcaps from home, scan outs and low products, pull their own batches, and of course back-up cashier.

The goal is obviously to greatly increase the number of team members visible on the floor to provide AMAZING guest service, and allow the removal of some additional leaders (backroom, instocks, ETL-LOG).

Any questions I'd be glad to try my best to answer, there's obviously a lot more to it, but these are just some of the basics.
 
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OK. Tell me the truth. Did I sound this nutty when I posted about Lights Out!? This can't be true.
 
I've been saying this for years! Only I want each TM to own a certain number of DPCI's and be fully responsible for making sure those DPCI's are zoned and filled.
 
Wow.
I'm really curious to see how this works out.
Far be it from me to judge something ahead of time, without giving it a chance.
This sounds like something that if done right could work just fine.
But like so many things that happens with Spot there is a huge gap between idea, planning, transition and results.
 
beardless said:
I searched and couldn't find any discussion on this pilot.

A new pilot launched to a total of 3 stores, code-named "Project Viper" begins April 29th. This project basically removes the Instocks team and the Backroom Day team and places them on the sales floor.

The store is divided into 11 zones, and each zone is to have a dedicated team member working at all times to provide AMAZING guest service, zone the floor, fill endcaps from home, scan outs and low products, pull their own batches, and of course back-up cashier.

The goal is obviously to greatly increase the number of team members visible on the floor to provide AMAZING guest service, and allow the removal of some additional leaders (backroom, instocks, ETL-LOG).

Any questions I'd be glad to try my best to answer, there's obviously a lot more to it, but these are just some of the basics.
Click to expand...

11 Zones for 11 Team Members? Even if you pull the BR and IS team payroll into the SF, I doubt we would have that many people on any given day...

I think they are getting the right idea, but need to be careful because too many team members would end up in the BR pulling at the top of the hours. There is definitely a right way to execute this new concept, they just need to make sure to think of the ways to keep it the most simple to keep it streamlined in practice.
 
this would be similiar to wally world dept. manager. i used to be a fresh lead and backup supervisor. the duties are very similar to those listed above. however you are fulltime and higher paid. you still backroom and instocks though. dept managers never zoned, reshoped, or did backup until after lunch. doing orders,salesfloor counts and sale floor pulls took up most of the day. unless you have other TMs for higher volume areas, this will cause burn outs. doing a pull, then instocks, change endcap, helping guest, reshop, pull again, guest help, backup, finish pull , calm down angry guest because you were on back up, help TL/ETL, and repeat duties. its alot to handle but i do know that its great to have an sense of pride to maintain one area.

as a backroom TM, would I do it? sure if I was a TL for that area and full time. would this happen? probably not.

still back room TMs for 100% green.
 
I would assume the exact number of zones/TMs will vary by store volume. CAF pulls would be the biggest factor in this being able to work.
 
I'm trained instocks and backroom and always thought instocks should be a cradle to grave process. We're a small store with sometimes 1 instock and 1 backroom scheduled. There have been plenty of times when the backroom calls out and I shot, pulled and pushed all in the same day and it's a very efficient way to do it. I think the 6:00 am truck unload now almost makes this necessary. Backroom already comes in later and let's face it I already fill endcaps from the home as I shoot. I imagine it's only for the first shift though-then backroom and salesfloor resume normally for the rest of the day. That also makes sense for 11 zones because if your zoning, shooting, pulling and pushing then you could only do a small area. If you did all 11 zones every day- wouldn't that require 11 team members? I don't see that- especially on truck days. I think there is something here but I think maybe the backup cashier thing maybe asking a bit too much. All depts are not created equal whoever gets the zone with plastics in it is going to have plenty of time but you couldn't pay me enough to do this process for cosmetics.
 
I have also shot and pulled, but not pushed. I wouldn't mind doing that because I could keep the pogs together and salesfloor locs would be more likely to get filled. I work our ptm task list, so would not have time to push IS pulls since I shoot-pull-push-remerch the ptm pulls.
 
I've done shoot-pull-push. Takes all day just to do that in a few aisles. But if I did that every day it would be easier cause it would get done right the first time. With the POG team doing sales planners, I can see this working very well, provided the zones are small enough.
 
Ringwraith917 said:
I've done shoot-pull-push. Takes all day just to do that in a few aisles. But if I did that every day it would be easier cause it would get done right the first time. With the POG team doing sales planners, I can see this working very well, provided the zones are small enough.
Click to expand...
The problem lies that there are 11 zones (or more depending on how the store pilots it), however none of the 3 testing stores have enough team members to cover all these zones, so team members have to double-up on the zones until more can be hired.

The "opportunities" I've heard so far are:
  • Not enough team members to work
  • Most of the backroom team members are not cashier trained, so there is literally only 1 person in all 11 zones that can actually respond to "guest first!"
  • Many sales floor team members don't fully understand the backroom process, and backstock is just left haphazardly in the stockroom
  • Not enough equipment to go around (even though the pilot stores all borrowed extra equipment for the test), as with this project every team member MUST have a PDA
All of these are obviously fixable, so I'm curious to see how this pilot plays out over the next few months, and if it is implemented into every store. It definitely can help with the goal of removing most Team Leaders within the next few years.
 
eliminating backroom day? who's working on the hourly cAF's that drop then?? do these pilot stores still have cafs drop from 11-5?
I like it in the sense that tm's can be held accountable for certain departments or "zones"
also, who's going to be doing flexible fulfillment since the BR Day is no longer there??
is this an all day process or is this something thats usually done in the morning??
 
Our TLs and ETLs pull FF. It's an opportunity for us so the FRO reminds the LOD every half hour to check it. Even the STL pulls them.
 
having tm pull their respective cafs sounds okay, i mean you pull your cafs, push them, backstock then, and then you wait for the next ones to drop? i can see this happenings in ULV stores, but high volume stores like mine, the cafs are usually close to 2 hours or over 2 hours. the other day the 12 o'clock cAFS were almost 5 hours! by the time you finish pulling your stuff and try to push it out it'll be time for you to start pulling again? what if your not able to get to the push you have because you have to go back and start pulling again...
 
Not to mention getting called to backup cashier in the middle of it. I would think ULV stores would be just as bad since they will probably only have 5-6 people doing all that.

The whole idea sounds pretty dumb really. The whole idea of even having departments is so you don't have a ton of workers running around trying to do 6 different things at one time.

Our TLs and ETLs pull FF. It's an opportunity for us so the FRO reminds the LOD every half hour to check it. Even the STL pulls them.
Click to expand...

That would never happen at my store. My STL is in the school of "Leaders should never have to help get the work done. Ever".
 
Our STL is great. He'll jump on the lanes, being in carts, do whatever needs to be done. Plus he's just a really nice guy.
 
I don't like the sound of this. I know they might think accumulator can bad ( sometimes it can) but most often my pulls have the exact # needed for the most part (unless some flow TM overpushed).
 
My receiving/reverse logistics area will be an even bigger mess than it already is after the weekend with this. o_O

Really would like to know why they chose Viper as the pilot name...
 
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