Day in the Life Fulfillment Ops TL

[CTL]

I am looking into stepping into the fulfillment ops TL role soon. I am just wondering what does a day look like in this role. I have seen how my old store handled it and it was not the best. I just want some ideas on how I can handle it better at another store. Some things that would be helpful to touch on:
-Volume of fulfillment in your store.
-Headcount of FOTL and if you have a FO ETL.
-Services your store offers (OPU/DU, SFS).
-How do you set up your day for success? Obviously you can see who you have scheduled and what your forecast is, but how do you use those to set up your team for the day?
-How much of your day is spent actually picking?
-How do you work with the other leaders in your building to manage back ups? My old store just took people whenever they wanted and it was a headache because we never knew what to expect with when we would see our team back.
-How do you manage team performance? Do you spend time observing your team? Do you just go off of MPM metrics?
-How do you make sure you communicate important information to your whole team? I know fulfillment can be chaotic, so huddles are most likely out of the question. Do you utilize check ins/outs? Do you just post the information somewhere and hope they read it? How is it validated on this team?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I am looking into stepping into the fulfillment ops TL role soon. I am just wondering what does a day look like in this role. I have seen how my old store handled it and it was not the best. I just want some ideas on how I can handle it better at another store. Some things that would be helpful to touch on:
-Volume of fulfillment in your store.
-Headcount of FOTL and if you have a FO ETL.
-Services your store offers (OPU/DU, SFS).
-How do you set up your day for success? Obviously you can see who you have scheduled and what your forecast is, but how do you use those to set up your team for the day?
-How much of your day is spent actually picking?
-How do you work with the other leaders in your building to manage back ups? My old store just took people whenever they wanted and it was a headache because we never knew what to expect with when we would see our team back.
-How do you manage team performance? Do you spend time observing your team? Do you just go off of MPM metrics?
-How do you make sure you communicate important information to your whole team? I know fulfillment can be chaotic, so huddles are most likely out of the question. Do you utilize check ins/outs? Do you just post the information somewhere and hope they read it? How is it validated on this team?

Inf is not your friend. Good training & tm attendance is important. @seasonaldude please assist.

 

[Anelmi]

^^ TM attendance is everything. Seriously will make or break you…

 

[MrT]

Don't rely on pick productivity and rely on output. IE. Someone may pick at 50 units an hour but only has 200 units picked. It is very easy to have a green pick productivity but that just means they are being productive while they are picking. You don't want some tms to pick up all the slack when 1 tm picks 400 units during an 8 hour shift and others pick 200. Attendance will always be your biggest problem.

 

[Nauzhror]

Not a fulfillment TL, but as someone who works both the front end and fulfillment on a regular basis, at least at my store, the bagging of orders needs to be a bigger focus than it is.

The fulfillment team needs to bag in a way that makes the job of the driveup team easier.

Out fulfillment team frequently bags food and chemicals together - when I see it when pulling orders I rebag them - this wastes my time, and the time of the guests waiting for their orders.
They also crush chips, and bread, and other fragile items by bagging haphazardly.
Worst of all, they will put too many items in a bag, to the point that it becomes a safety concern - I had a TM bag 6 dumb bells a few months back, I didn't know what was in the bag till I lifted it and they tore through the bottom and landed on my foot. My toe is still screwed up from it.

INF and productivity matter, but I think Flex TL's should also partner with the front end and ensure their team is bagging orders properly.

 

[Dream Baby]

^^ TM attendance is everything. Seriously will make or break you…

In our store TM attendance is not an issue because they don't schedule enough people.

We are currently expanding our OPU area but without the TMs to process the order it's pointless.

 

[seasonaldude]

Inf is not your friend. Good training & tm attendance is important. @seasonaldude please assist.

Well, it's been over a year since I was in fulfillment and a lot has changed in that time. I'm really not up on the current goings on.

I will say that training is key and fulfillment TMs need to be steered into asking questions before hitting INF. Just yesterday, I watched as a TM came into girls and searched around my C&J bottoms table for about 5 minutes. Without saying a word to me this TM who has been at the store and in fulfillment for over a month started wandering off. I wasn't particularly busy. I was just doing some zoning at the end of my shift.

I called the TM back and asked what she was looking for. She showed me her device and in all caps above the product image was printed, "ART CLASS." So clearly we have some training issues. The TM was looking in the wrong area, looking for folding instead of hanging and not asking the DBO working in the area. That was a waste of time looking for the wrong thing and potentially INFing an item we had. It took me less than 30 seconds to explain why the TM was looking for the wrong thing and to grab the correct item.

Train TMs to ask. If they do they'll eventually learn enough to not have to ask. They'll become more productive and accurate. Asking style TMs is how I Iearned when I was in fulfillment and how I eventually became proficient.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Well, it's been over a year since I was in fulfillment and a lot has changed in that time. I'm really not up on the current goings on.

I will say that training is key and fulfillment TMs need to be steered into asking questions before hitting INF. Just yesterday, I watched as a TM came into girls and searched around my C&J bottoms table for about 5 minutes. Without saying a word to me this TM who has been at the store and in fulfillment for over a month started wandering off. I wasn't particularly busy. I was just doing some zoning at the end of my shift.

I called the TM back and asked what she was looking for. She showed me her device and in all caps above the product image was printed, "ART CLASS." So clearly we have some training issues. The TM was looking in the wrong area, looking for folding instead of hanging and not asking the DBO working in the area. That was a waste of time looking for the wrong thing and potentially INFing an item we had. It took me less than 30 seconds to explain why the TM was looking for the wrong thing and to grab the correct item.

Train TMs to ask. If they do they'll eventually learn enough to not have to ask. They'll become more productive and accurate. Asking style TMs is how Iearned when I was in fulfillment and how I eventually became proficient.

Thanks! In certain areas i covered, I tell flex folks to ask me before you do inf.

 

[BackupTL]

Thanks! In certain areas i covered, I tell flex folks to ask me before you do inf.

This works best for us as well. You need to go through the respective department's TL to INF. If they're not there then ETL or FOTL.

Fulfillment TMs that INF essentials would have to talk to the GMTL over essentials, for example.