Archived Caf Pull Timeliness

[brgirl]

Hello all. Im new here. but one question I had as it seems to be an important one with different views.

On caf pull timeliness. Should you or should you not x out of a batch to finish up light duty before steel. Now when I first started all heck broke loose due to the fact we were xing out of batches to finish up light duty first. We are not a high volume store. Our caf pull timeliness so was stated back then was red. trust em I was not trained then about this particular bit of info. But when I figured out what was going on we changed and started finishing batches to completion. no xing out of batches and our caf pull timelness went to green. almost immediatly. gah cant spell. now the question is does xing out of batches really affect the caf pull timelyness. is letting the clock run on some kill the score? or should it be best practice no matter what to finish till completion on all batches? it bacame an issue again as some were actually doing it again. I just want clarification. I am terrified on this matter to not get our backroom in trouble again. I want the best for us. Some are saying its ok due to the fact the caf needs to be completed within the hour it was dropped in. others are saying there is a time limit on all the batches by themselves and if you go over that particular time then your score goes down. Ok so which is it for real and is there anything in target policy that says so.

 

[jsue]

Eventually you will learn which batches are likely to send you to the steel and save those for last. Also, if x'ing out of a batch in the steel gives you enough time to finish two or three other batches before they roll over I'd say its a good idea

 

[brgirl]

its not which batches would likely end up in steel. or wanting to finish 2 or 3 before it rolls over. its constantly xing out of batches just to finish up light duty then go to steel at every single caf. there are some saying oh its ok. but from ym experience its not ok to do it ALL the time. it brings your score down. at least from what ive been told and got in trouble for. what im wanting to know is does it really hurt your caf pull timeliness if it is constantly done. especially when there is more than one person working on the cafs

 

[backroomguy]

Your caf pull timeliness is if all your batches were completed within that hour, it doesn't matter if you x out and finish all the receiving batches after the light duty as long as they are all completed within the hour.

 

[Elandora]

From my understanding and experience, when i x out of batches the timer still counts down even if youre not actively in it.... and as for the score on DTK for caf pull timeliness... as long as you finish pulling before the next batches drop youre green. As for Autofills they need to be done by 12pm before afternoon CAFs drop. Or 11am if youre a high volume with those turned on.

 

[brgirl]

then why were the caf pull timeliness scores absolutely red even though our cafs were pulled before the hour was up? that doesnt make sence. is why im asking.

 

[ptl]

The ONLY thing that goes to "CAF Pull Timeliness" is, as others have stated, getting the batches completed within the hour. It doesn't matter if you finish them at 1:14pm or 1:59pm. It doesn't matter if you 'took longer' than the computer thought they should take. Nothing matters except for, at 1:59pm, if you went into the PULL program, did it show 0 CAF batches. I have no idea why your scores would have been red if the batches were completed on time, because they shouldn't have been.

Now, as far as your pull times, which do not count toward any DTK metrics but should be used as your leaders in order to get an idea of how the backroom process is running... It's important that THEY know how the timer works. I've seen lots of logistics TLs/ETLs, as well as some STLs, who didn't understand that it just measures "time the first item was pulled" to "time the last item was pulled" and isn't necessarily a reflection of how quickly or efficiently the batches are being pulled. When I was BR TL years ago and had to schedule myself to close 4 times a week, my pull times were consistently waaaay longer than the computer suggested, because we had lots of fillgroups in multiple stockrooms (space constrained stores are the best...) and it was just more efficient to finish a stockroom before moving on.

 

[Rock Lobster]

The ONLY thing that goes to "CAF Pull Timeliness" is, as others have stated, getting the batches completed within the hour. It doesn't matter if you finish them at 1:14pm or 1:59pm. It doesn't matter if you 'took longer' than the computer thought they should take. Nothing matters except for, at 1:59pm, if you went into the PULL program, did it show 0 CAF batches. I have no idea why your scores would have been red if the batches were completed on time, because they shouldn't have been.

Now, as far as your pull times, which do not count toward any DTK metrics but should be used as your leaders in order to get an idea of how the backroom process is running... It's important that THEY know how the timer works. I've seen lots of logistics TLs/ETLs, as well as some STLs, who didn't understand that it just measures "time the first item was pulled" to "time the last item was pulled" and isn't necessarily a reflection of how quickly or efficiently the batches are being pulled. When I was BR TL years ago and had to schedule myself to close 4 times a week, my pull times were consistently waaaay longer than the computer suggested, because we had lots of fillgroups in multiple stockrooms (space constrained stores are the best...) and it was just more efficient to finish a stockroom before moving on.

Exactly! Something else was going on with Pull Timeliness for it to be red... I am assuming someone else wasn't pulling their weight when they closed or something? The thing with Xing out of batches is if your leaders use the CAF monitor to watch how you are doing, you will look terrible on paper! Say you open up 6 batches, pull what is in that stockroom, and then realize they all have receiving locations so x out of them all and go to the freezer to finish the pulls while you are over there... You now have the timer running on 6 batches at once! So when your TL adds up the times to see what is taking you so long, each minute you don't get over to complete those batches is counting for 6 minutes on the monitor! Uh oh, 3 minutes go by and its now 18 minutes worth of pulls not getting done on paper... If its a tool that they don't utilize then i wouldn't worry about it, but that is how it works!

 

[LogisticsPeon]

If I know a CAF is going to take me to a steel location, I open up that batch, scroll through to the steel locations, pull those and then head to light duty. That way I don't have to walk back and forh across the strockroom several times.

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

Exactly! Something else was going on with Pull Timeliness for it to be red... I am assuming someone else wasn't pulling their weight when they closed or something? The thing with Xing out of batches is if your leaders use the CAF monitor to watch how you are doing, you will look terrible on paper! Say you open up 6 batches, pull what is in that stockroom, and then realize they all have receiving locations so x out of them all and go to the freezer to finish the pulls while you are over there... You now have the timer running on 6 batches at once! So when your TL adds up the times to see what is taking you so long, each minute you don't get over to complete those batches is counting for 6 minutes on the monitor! Uh oh, 3 minutes go by and its now 18 minutes worth of pulls not getting done on paper... If its a tool that they don't utilize then i wouldn't worry about it, but that is how it works!

I got into it with my STL about the CAF Monitor times. She said you're not supposed to x-out, when you toggle to conduct location checks, because you're always supposed to have two people working the backroom, at all times, during the hours that CAFs are generated. This second person, if they're on the floor pushing, is supposed to take the location checks. This way, you don't have to x-out and toggle to SUBT. In addition, she said you shouldn't x-out of batches because you're supposed to finish them. It's a bunch of crap.

It sounds like the engineer who came up with this penalty for getting in and out of batches didn't/doesn't know the concept of a time stamp and "real" time metrics.

 

[itvgeo]

One problem is when the batch contains locations outside and from one end of the store to another.

 

[ptl]

I got into it with my STL about the CAF Monitor times. She said you're not supposed to x-out, when you toggle to conduct location checks, because you're always supposed to have two people working the backroom, at all times, during the hours that CAFs are generated. This second person, if they're on the floor pushing, is supposed to take the location checks. This way, you don't have to x-out and toggle to SUBT. In addition, she said you shouldn't x-out of batches because you're supposed to finish them. It's a bunch of crap.

It sounds like the engineer who came up with this penalty for getting in and out of batches didn't/doesn't know the concept of a time stamp and "real" time metrics.

Sounds like your STL never had a rotation as ETL-LOG and could stand to work a couple of backroom shifts so that she'll have a chance to know what she's talking about. Also sounds like something you need to bring up (or have your TL bring up) the next time the GOL visits the store.

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

ptl - My STL has been at this store since for a long time. Most of the ETLs and the STL don't have logistics experience. Only during the Christmas season do we receive SF help and it stinks. Too many vehicles are either abandoned on the floor during that time of year, or as is the case any time of the year when the SF is forced to help, they sneak the vehicles, mostly unpushed into the backroom and put a Backstock tag on them.

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

The ONLY thing that goes to "CAF Pull Timeliness" is, as others have stated, getting the batches completed within the hour. It doesn't matter if you finish them at 1:14pm or 1:59pm. It doesn't matter if you 'took longer' than the computer thought they should take. Nothing matters except for, at 1:59pm, if you went into the PULL program, did it show 0 CAF batches. I have no idea why your scores would have been red if the batches were completed on time, because they shouldn't have been.

BTW, ptl, I think it stinks that you don't get the whole hour to pull all batches that drop, and more recently, the batches keep populating as late as :15 past the hour.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Wait till you see the pulls for bts.

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

BTS has been a joke, pulling tons of crayons, pens, pencil sharpeners and index cards every hour. In my opinion, no BTS merchandise should ever be backstocked in casepack form. You end up with case after case of crayons because 1 or 2, during slow times, are purchased in an hour. It has sucked every year because the new backroom TMs don't know how to pull this stuff and end up making more of a mess.

What's worse, they assign someone on the floor as the miniseasonal captain. This person is supposed to push the CAFs for this area, but they always end up flaking out.

Target would be better off roping this area off and running it like a short order kitchen, having TMs take orders and fill them for each guest. Those people in Minnesota need to work HV store, in miniseasonal during BTC and see how bad their concepts are.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I am poor person who has push all that bts stuff. Training new tm's to use their brains is hard to do. it's better to keep all that stuff in a case pack. Usually, my br folks call me & ask if I will take the case(for ex: gluesticks). My answer is, Yes!

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

I don't mind pushing cases except that too many of the small items such as crayons, glue sticks, pencil sharpeners, and index cards, to name a few, come cellophane or boxed sub quantities, taking up valuable time when it comes to Push, or for that matter, being pushed out of the way by the rude guests.

 

[Fast Service Needed In]

Target would be better off roping this area off and running it like a short order kitchen, having TMs take orders and fill them for each guest. Those people in Minnesota need to work HV store, in miniseasonal during BTC and see how bad their concepts are.

That definitely wouldn't work. The reason large stores like Target are so successful is because customers don't keep track of how much they are putting in their cart. People don't stick to lists, it's a well known fact. If you blocked off BTS, we would sell a lot less and use more payroll (taking/filling orders during the busy times would require 5+ TMs).

I used to believe that Electronics should be gated off from the rest of the store (I think Sears does this?) to prevent theft and minimize time-wasting guests.

I still think video games should be in vending machines. ardon:

 

[Asst Pipo Hipster]

I still think video games should be in vending machines. ardon:

I second the video games in vending machines. I think one of those Apple vending machines should be in order, too.