Backroom Accuracy Indicator (BAI)

[flow4areasonuno]

If it's not there, tell the system it's not there.

if this is anything like all items scanned, it's like one of the seven deadly sins to do that here. apparently too many newbs were doing that here, caused a big problem

 

[jenna]

• You're not supposed to be backing out and auditing currently... stores like that to boost their BRLA percentage, so technically nothing changes on that front. Going in and out of a batch will flag. Our group OD was looking into how many times TMs were doing this. Scan everything in the location. If it's not there, tell the system it's not there.

Hrm. Is there a Greenfield card for that?

 

[gracefulfillment]

if this is anything like all items scanned, it's like one of the seven deadly sins to do that here. apparently too many newbs were doing that here, caused a big problem

This is a debate that will probably continue to the end of time. And I will die on my hill. Ultimately, the error already existed prior to that TM performing the pull finding it.

I don't view someone (1) backing out, (2) auditing, and (3) restarting a batch for every error they come across to be a time saver in any fashion so that argument has already been moot to me. In my mind, management wants that because it protects their metric; it makes their backroom look more accurate than it really is. If the accuracy at inventory really is 20-30% lower than MPM/Greenfield reports like they've said, then it doesn't seem like the back out and fix is helping anyways.

If you've actually scanned everything in the location (thus not creating another error), that button is there for a reason. Corporate wants you to press it. The point of a metric isn't the metric itself.

The goal isn't green BRLA. The goal is no errors. Too many leaders are focused on looking good rather than actually performing. And that goes for frankly any metric that corporate tracks.
Pull the error report for my departments and I'd bet 30-60% of them are mine. During my pulls, I intentionally don't always scan the item it's asking for the first time; helps find baffles.

Hrm. Is there a Greenfield card for that?

Not that I've found. But there are convoluted ways to see every HH:MM:SS that a batch was started, by TM, and how much was pulled for it.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

^ THIS. Cheaters Leaders will look you in the eye and tell you corporate deliberately installed a "don't press this button" button in the app just because they could, and that this button's sole function is to put the presser on a shit list. Because corporate is all about spending its resources on chindogu programming.

 

[Dream Baby]

This is a debate that will probably continue to the end of time. And I will die on my hill. Ultimately, the error already existed prior to that TM performing the pull finding it.

I don't view someone (1) backing out, (2) auditing, and (3) restarting a batch for every error they come across to be a time saver in any fashion so that argument has already been moot to me. In my mind, management wants that because it protects their metric; it makes their backroom look more accurate than it really is. If the accuracy at inventory really is 20-30% lower than MPM/Greenfield reports like they've said, then it doesn't seem like the back out and fix is helping anyways.

If you've actually scanned everything in the location (thus not creating another error), that button is there for a reason. Corporate wants you to press it. The point of a metric isn't the metric itself.

The goal isn't green BRLA. The goal is no errors. Too many leaders are focused on looking good rather than actually performing. And that goes for frankly any metric that corporate tracks.
Pull the error report for my departments and I'd bet 30-60% of them are mine. During my pulls, I intentionally don't always scan the item it's asking for the first time; helps find baffles.


Not that I've found. But there are convoluted ways to see every HH:MM:SS that a batch was started, by TM, and how much was pulled for it.

I don't view someone (1) backing out, (2) auditing, and (3) restarting a batch for every error they come across to be a time saver in any fashion so that argument has already been moot to me.

I do most of the pulls in my department which is kind of dumb since I only work afternoons and hardly any are done before I show up.

I don't consider it a time saver but more if I don't correct it I will run into the same error again.

This is especially important for items I pull frequently.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

If you get sick enough of being bullied for "taking too long" on your pulls due to constantly backing out and auditing, and someone threatens to coach you for hitting AIS, just keep on doing the Lord's work. Call their bluff. What are they going to do, coach you? Submit official documentation that they repeatedly reprimanded a TM for pressing All Items Scanned after scanning all items and confirming the needed item is not in the location?

 

[BKop16]

If you get sick enough of being bullied for "taking too long" on your pulls due to constantly backing out and auditing, and someone threatens to coach you for hitting AIS, just keep on doing the Lord's work. Call their bluff. What are they going to do, coach you? Submit official documentation that they repeatedly reprimanded a TM for pressing All Items Scanned after scanning all items and confirming the needed item is not in the location?

It's now in black and white to not hit AIS. I think they even bolded it..

 

[BKop16]

There's also a card on the second tab that shows which aisles have the most baffles that couldn't get attributed to a TM. While it won't tell you who is just throwing things into wacos unloacated it will tell you which department it's happening the most in.

 

[YugTegrat]

I don't view someone (1) backing out, (2) auditing, and (3) restarting a batch for every error they come across to be a time saver in any fashion so that argument has already been moot to me.

If they don’t back out and flag the error, it will just drop into a system-led audit batch to be fixed later. 30 seconds fixing it now versus 30 seconds fixing it later; where’s the difference? It inflates BRLA because it hides that an error existed.. but it also fixes the error.

 

[BKop16]

If they don’t back out and flag the error, it will just drop into a system-led audit batch to be fixed later. 30 seconds fixing it now versus 30 seconds fixing it later; where’s the difference? It inflates BRLA because it hides that an error existed.. but it also fixes the error.

That's the problem. It fakes the metric. I understand the whole idea of just fixing it now but when most stores with the company had a 97% brla but year over year backroom accuracy decreased something like 10% a year during inventory something major needs to be done.

 

[balthrop]

No change will ever be able to figure out the shitty TM tossing merch in location without locating it.

Well the new and improved SpotAI is here to help you with that. Cameras in every aisle, SpotAI is there to watch for that shitty TM ©. SpotAI can watch the wacos to insure each and every item is properly tracked.

To sign up for SpotAI Premium click here.

 

[YugTegrat]

That's the problem. It fakes the metric. I understand the whole idea of just fixing it now but when most stores with the company had a 97% brla but year over year backroom accuracy decreased something like 10% a year during inventory something major needs to be done.

The reason people faked the metric is because the actual solution was dissolved when Modernization came along and nothing else worked.

The other metrics that were once guided by dedicated teams also fell off around the same time and we've since seen those teams make a return to address that very problem. That's the only way to make it work.

 

[BKop16]

Based on what I've seen backing out an auditing will no longer fix the metric. You'll still get dinged for the location not being accurate during the audit. This is because BRLA didn't include audits or fulfillment but BAI does.

 

[YugTegrat]

Based on what I've seen backing out an auditing will no longer fix the metric. You'll still get dinged for the location not being accurate during the audit. This is because BRLA didn't include audits or fulfillment but BAI does.

Communication mentioned that you're not supposed to backstock using manual audits because it will trigger baffles for the location. If you're purging, you're supposed to manually audit the location to remove everything and then backstock product normally. I imagine you could do that on the fly (when pulling) with locations to still fix errors without flagging them. That's assuming it won't trigger ghosts (can't imagine it would, otherwise purging would tank accuracy fairly quickly).

But that's kind of a moot point since you wouldn't be saving time by doing it that way and the new reporting goes out of its way to ensure TMs who flag errors aren't assigned any of the blame.

 

[BKop16]

Communication mentioned that you're not supposed to backstock using manual audits because it will trigger baffles for the location. If you're purging, you're supposed to manually audit the location to remove everything and then backstock product normally. I imagine you could do that on the fly (when pulling) with locations to still fix errors without flagging them. That's assuming it won't trigger ghosts (can't imagine it would, otherwise purging would tank accuracy fairly quickly).

But that's kind of a moot point since you wouldn't be saving time by doing it that way and the new reporting goes out of its way to ensure TMs who flag errors aren't assigned any of the blame.

It would fix ghosts but not baffles right? Maybe if you audited the whole location and then rebackstocked everything? Hopefully they can identify that.

 

[Dysprosed]

Based on what I've seen backing out an auditing will no longer fix the metric. You'll still get dinged for the location not being accurate during the audit. This is because BRLA didn't include audits or fulfillment but BAI does.

This is what I've seen as well.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Well. I'm looking forward to having TMs who make the mistakes being retrained.
But as I think @jenna said, there's nothing that can be done to train the unwilling. We have some of those TMs at my store and they make me crazy. There's no accountability.

 

[Xanatos]

I took a look at the Backroom Accuracy dashboard today. It looks great. It shows you tons and tons of info about what TMs are doing that could potentially lead to errors. They're calling these behaviors "TM Patterns", meaning they're patterns that can lead to errors. There are a handful of them. And there is one card that shows you the total amount of patterns for each TM, which should tell you who to retrain. I spoke to a newer TM today about it and he had no idea that hitting "All items scanned" (now called "Cannot find item") would delete unscanned items from that location. These reports told me exactly who to go to and what he was doing wrong. I could even print out examples from something he messed up yesterday if he needed something more concrete.

Without these new cards, I might be able to figure out that he's making these mistakes, but it would take some digging because other people would get hit with the error after the fact.

There are still going to be a lot of things that don't get caught, but this is a huge step in the right direction if stores take advantage of it.

 

[Dysprosed]

Well the new and improved SpotAI is here to help you with that. Cameras in every aisle, SpotAI is there to watch for that shitty TM ©. SpotAI can watch the wacos to insure each and every item is properly tracked.

To sign up for SpotAI Premium click here.

It's actually called BullsAI. No idea when it will be reliable enough to release, but imagine having an assistant on your myDevice that you can ask questions via voice, and get an answer based on Target's trainings, best practice, and other resources.

As far as cameras go, tech is still pretty far off from being integrated with AI. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/03/business/amazons-self-checkout-technology-grocery-flop/index.html

Amazon has had troubles with their Just Walk Out tech, that it turns out was relying on workers in India monitoring the cameras because the AI just wasn't good enough at figuring out what people were buying.

 

[jenna]

I took a look at the Backroom Accuracy dashboard today. It looks great. It shows you tons and tons of info about what TMs are doing that could potentially lead to errors. They're calling these behaviors "TM Patterns", meaning they're patterns that can lead to errors. There are a handful of them. And there is one card that shows you the total amount of patterns for each TM, which should tell you who to retrain. I spoke to a newer TM today about it and he had no idea that hitting "All items scanned" (now called "Cannot find item") would delete unscanned items from that location. These reports told me exactly who to go to and what he was doing wrong. I could even print out examples from something he messed up yesterday if he needed something more concrete.

Without these new cards, I might be able to figure out that he's making these mistakes, but it would take some digging because other people would get hit with the error after the fact.

There are still going to be a lot of things that don't get caught, but this is a huge step in the right direction if stores take advantage of it.

Are you a test store? or is this available to all the stores?

 

[Dysprosed]

It's available to everyone. https://greenfield.target.com/dashboard/26773

 

[YugTegrat]

It's available to everyone. https://greenfield.target.com/dashboard/26773

Only leaders and above have access.

Communication mentions that discussions on the new reporting are not to be had with TMs prior to 5/6, so I imagine the limited access is meant to help enforce that. It may also stay limited with a separate, more generic BRA dashboard going live on 5/27.

 

[ION the Prize]

... I took a look at the Backroom Accuracy dashboard today. It looks great. It shows you tons and tons of info about what TMs are doing that could potentially lead to errors. They're calling these behaviors "TM Patterns", meaning they're patterns that can lead to errors. There are a handful of them ...

Really curious about this. Would you be willing to list these "TM patterns" here?

(Most of the behaviors I observe that are probably leading to errors have nothing to do with pushing buttons on a Zebra.)

 

[BKop16]

Really curious about this. Would you be willing to list these "TM patterns" here?

(Most of the behaviors I observe that are probably leading to errors have nothing to do with pushing buttons on a Zebra.)

There's four tier 1 (most important) patterns.

- Excessive Cannot Find Item Usage: If your percentage of "Cannot Find Items" (previously All Items Scanned) is high it will flag the batch. A person might have a batch with a high number of correct CFIs, but a multiple of them becomes a pattern
- Baffles Caused by Fill: When a TM used Cannot Find Item and it was later (within 30 days) found by a backroom audit or a fill batch
- Baffles Caused by Audit: An audit removed an item from a backroom location and it was later found in that location by an audit or fill
- Fulfillment Backstock Discrepancies: Fulfillment picked a case from a casepack location and did not backstock the remaining merchandise

 

[Dream Baby]

There's four tier 1 (most important) patterns.

- Excessive Cannot Find Item Usage: If your percentage of "Cannot Find Items" (previously All Items Scanned) is high it will flag the batch. A person might have a batch with a high number of correct CFIs, but a multiple of them becomes a pattern
- Baffles Caused by Fill: When a TM used Cannot Find Item and it was later (within 30 days) found by a backroom audit or a fill batch
- Baffles Caused by Audit: An audit removed an item from a backroom location and it was later found in that location by an audit or fill
- Fulfillment Backstock Discrepancies: Fulfillment picked a case from a casepack location and did not backstock the remaining merchandise

Great info that my store won't bother to share until it goes live.