MEGATHREAD End to End team PILOT

[BigEyedPhish]

How the hell am I to be

Yeah, our pog team just moved to 8AM, and just watching them try to set the candy aisle a few days ago stressed me out, I can't imagine how frustrating it was for them. Although I definitely heard one them go "you know, this may work fine for Flow people, but they can't do this to us!" hahaha. It sucks for everyone, my dude.

I see have no idea how they would expect me to do door clings, and overheads/Large CSE Signing when we are open.

 

[H2Owned]

How the hell am I to be


I see have no idea how they would expect me to do door clings, and overheads/Large CSE Signing when we are open.

Its the New norm.... lol i feel the same way about ESFS... we barely finish on time when we start picking at 6am and now they want to move us to 8am =/

 

[No I in Team]

Here's food for thought. Once E2E is fully implemented and the DC are reset to handle pulling pieces (eaches!?!), what will happen to SFS?

I'll go out on a limb and say it will be taken out of the store due to excessive cost incurred and returned to the DC's.

 

[H2Owned]

Here's food for thought. Once E2E is fully implemented and the DC are reset to handle pulling pieces (eaches!?!), what will happen to SFS?

I'll go out on a limb and say it will be taken out of the store due to excessive cost incurred and returned to the DC's.

I doubt it the purpose of SFS/ESFS is to get guests there orders quicker and also to help target.com receive and fulfill more orders

 

[No I in Team]

I doubt it the purpose of SFS/ESFS is to get guests there orders quicker and also to help target.com receive and fulfill more orders

The purpose will have been exhausted once the DC's are reconfigured. Remember back when this is all started? The DC's were not configured to handle the Guest orders coming in.

After E2E, they will be configured to hand single pieces. Store shipments across the board will be able to be picked as pieces not exclusive to case quantities as they are now. No different than picking a Guest's order.

Also, I estimate there is an additional six touches added of cost burden to the SFS model. Not mention the addition cost of retail space vs warehouse space. This current practice is an acceptable practice until a solution can be met to the DC issues.

The only way I could see them leaving it at the store level would be based upon a tactical location or a capacity constraint. Strategically it makes no sense based on cost.

Location would only come into play when it would be more cost effective to ship from a store location vs same/next/2nd day shipping from the DC's. That would require a fairly tight inventory control model to justify shipping from store. We pay a flat rate based upon size and weight. Most freight can go coast to coast within five days without the cost of premium freight. You save where you can.

Capacity would be based upon sales projection. SFS would only be utilized as a relief for the DC's if the reach a certain volume. That of course would have to forecasted an manged throughout peak season.

Flexible fulfillment would basically remain along with store pickup from Target.com orders as long as there is no shipping charges.

 

[indigo25]

We have 3 TMS and our TL. 2 TMs are 6-12 or 12:30, 1 TM is 8-12, TL is 730-4ish We usually are done with the entire push in 3 hours, with research shot, and a little backstock left usually. Also usually done with autofill push too with only fast movers for produce and maybe the meat pull to do. But then again we dont even have anyone who is really in open market until later in the day on the truck push days since they want all 4 people there getting the truck done as fast as possible. Seems like piece wise we end up with 300-400 or so pieces per truck

Anyway, to clarify, myself, after I am done pushing the aisle, zone and research as I zone. Why wouldnt you just combine the two since you are literally right in front of the empty spots and can see them? From my understanding the whole point of this process and what was stressed to us by our STL in the meeting before we rolled this out is that it wasnt going to be the same old...Do Task A, now task B, now task C. It would be a more integrated process where you could be doing multiple things at a time

With the expanded hours that sucks you cant find more coverage. Nobody wants to stay for a full 8 on truck days or other days? I wish we got that many hours I would be full time 40.

Originally that is how I scheduled the routine, but my STL didn't like it (and we don't always have equipment at that time), but that's the way I would prefer.

 

[semantics]

I doubt it the purpose of SFS/ESFS is to get guests there orders quicker and also to help target.com receive and fulfill more orders

It's to reduce the cost of shipping. If you a ship a package next day/2day-4day in area it's vastly cheaper than doing it from out of area. The issue i have with the whole SFS STS is that we pick from the floor when guests there. That allows for a pretty faulty inventory count and ability to quickly and reliably fulfill orders meaning we burn more payroll to fulfill the order in order to ship it cheaper.

 

[SrTLall]

Here's food for thought. Once E2E is fully implemented and the DC are reset to handle pulling pieces (eaches!?!), what will happen to SFS?

I'll go out on a limb and say it will be taken out of the store due to excessive cost incurred and returned to the DC's.

I could not disagree more. The way to compete with Amazon is to have as many distribution centers as possible in order to get merchandise to the buyer ASAP. Target's biggest asset is it's 2000+ stores around the country that can be converted into miniature DCs. Once inventory management is fixed via E2E and store's backrooms are emptied of replenishment product, they will be filled with SFS items. One store near me has already begun a remodel to increase its backroom size to help grow SFS. SFS is here to stay and must grow in order for Target to remain competitive.

 

[commiecorvus]

How the hell am I to be


I see have no idea how they would expect me to do door clings, and overheads/Large CSE Signing when we are open.

I've done them but it is no frelling fun.
Mostly involves blocking off the area with cones (which the guests customers ignore) and seeing if you can get some help (which rarely ever happens.

 

[pfreshdude]

Lack of equipment kills this every time.

Maybe im just lucky idk...We usually have at least 2 zebras and a PDA. During the meeting they said we were getting like 20 zebras for the store...not sure if that is how much we actually got though. And we have like 8 or 9 PDAs

 

[pfreshdude]

Originally that is how I scheduled the routine, but my STL didn't like it (and we don't always have equipment at that time), but that's the way I would prefer.

Ya i mean thats the ideal but if you are still able to get research done on those days the end result is the same anyway, maybe a few extra minutes of work, but hopefully it is still getting done. We usually have 1 full uboat of research that comes out each truck and our Dry Market area looks so much better since this rollout with less outs

Instocks used to go through and shoot outs but then the process changed at my store and all they were doing were the RIGS so outs might of sat there for weeks before due to OH being off

 

[No I in Team]

I could not disagree more. The way to compete with Amazon is to have as many distribution centers as possible in order to get merchandise to the buyer ASAP. Target's biggest asset is it's 2000+ stores around the country that can be converted into miniature DCs. Once inventory management is fixed via E2E and store's backrooms are emptied of replenishment product, they will be filled with SFS items. One store near me has already begun a remodel to increase its backroom size to help grow SFS. SFS is here to stay and must grow in order for Target to remain competitive.

That's not going to work and here is why:

Target does not have the number of products to offer as Amazon. Our market is primarily women, ages 20-40, attended college to earning a degree, either contemplating having a family or have a family. This would have to change.

Amazon benefits greatly from one stop shopping. We can't do that given the market we've chosen serve. Pull up Amazon, Walmart, and Target and start picking items at random. We just don't carry the same things as the other two. Or even worse, what I ran into recently, not being able to pull things up without an extended search. I ran into this looking for a computer router of all things. No problem with the other two, but not with Target.com.

While we do have a competitive edge with the numbers of store locations, these are retail locations not DC's. This does not translate into prime locations for mini DC's given their size and proximity to one another either. Would you add various products to each store location as capacity permits?

This could get expensive as each store would bear additional burden of having to receive inconsistent freight shipments vs one DC that is staffed to receive freight all day long. Your minimal on hand level would have to cover the time it would take to receive the next shipment. This could be a problem depending on the size and turn around time of the product.

With each mini DC, you loose economies of scale which translates in to increased cost. Like I posted, I can see tactical stores added, but insignificant as it relates company wide.

Our biggest problem at the moment is replenishment. Every time an article is published about Target, without fail, you'll find posts about empty shelves and low quantities. E2E offers no answers in how they plan on keeping the supply chain full. It only deals with how we are going to change moving product from the DC to the Stores. It does not address the root cause of the shortages.

I suspect our deficiencies are a result of poor forecasting, turn around times (TAT), and minimal inventory levels set to low. Not once has there been any mention of correcting the inventory replenishment system so that shortages will be a thing of the past. That problem is not going anywhere until we we change the buying/inventory management process first. We have a system that is not being utilized. Correct it and a lot of problems will literally disappear overnight.

The only thing I can say about E2E is that we will be receiving pieces instead of case pack quantities. Imagine a truck full of repacks when the DC is running low on product to ship. That'll be fun.

E2E is not an inventory system. It's a process of handling merchandise. We moved the truck unload from receiving to the sales floor. Not only are we doing that, we're increasing the number of team members needed to carry this out by stretching the process out to an all day multi task function.

Like I mentioned, each time we touch merchandise, it drives up the cost of goods sold and drives down margin. SFS will eventually move out of the stores back into the DC's. The only time is should be utilized is when we can't effectively ship out of the DC's.

 

[SFSFun]

Its the New norm.... lol i feel the same way about ESFS... we barely finish on time when we start picking at 6am and now they want to move us to 8am =/

Thank god they aren't moving SFS at my store yet. We were told that nobody except the truck team would be coming in earlier than 7am, and the new schedule reflects that with pog, pricing, and grocery starting at 7. SFS is still scheduled at 4am for now.

Besides not wanting to deal with guests, doing it earlier also helps with fulfillment rates because we can get more picked before a guest comes in and decides to buy it.

Here's food for thought. Once E2E is fully implemented and the DC are reset to handle pulling pieces (eaches!?!), what will happen to SFS?

I'll go out on a limb and say it will be taken out of the store due to excessive cost incurred and returned to the DC's.

Target.com fulfillment was never in the DCs, and it would require significant remodels and expansions to fit them there. It doesn't matter if there are more people "touching" the products with SFS when the shipping for many orders will be significantly cheaper.

My prediction is they will use the now empty backrooms to store online-only merchandise in every SFS store, in addition to adding SFS to even more stores to increase capacity for the double-digit growth in online sales.

Picking from the sales floor won't negatively effect eaches replenishment because the items will still get replenished the same as when guests in the store buy them.

 

[SFSFun]

Target does not have the number of products to offer as Amazon. Our market is primarily women, ages 20-40, attended college to earning a degree, either contemplating having a family or have a family. This would have to change.

Target isn't trying to compete with Amazon on everything. They are trying to compete with Amazon in the key areas in which we do well in (clothing, home decor, baby, etc.)

Would you add various products to each store location as capacity permits?

Yes.

This could get expensive as each store would bear additional burden of having to receive inconsistent freight shipments vs one DC that is staffed to receive freight all day long. Your minimal on hand level would have to cover the time it would take to receive the next shipment. This could be a problem depending on the size and turn around time of the product.

The few dozen ESFS locations have been doing it for a few years and I haven't heard of them planning to stop. It makes sense to expand it if it's working for them.

Our biggest problem at the moment is replenishment. Every time an article is published about Target, without fail, you'll find posts about empty shelves and low quantities. E2E offers no answers in how they plan on keeping the supply chain full. It only deals with how we are going to change moving product from the DC to the Stores. It does not address the root cause of the shortages.

The root cause of shortages in many cases is at the store level. I rarely see any issues at my store that aren't caused by TMs not using the tools given to fix them. I often notice items I picked for SFS coming in on the next truck (noticeable things like large furniture or mass quantities of the same item).

 

[IDoStuffHere]

Here's my list of E2E problems with my store.

Lack of equipment. We need much more to the point of maybe 20 pdas.
Lack of people and knowledge. If you remember way back I said we had a walkout well it's hard to keep new workers when they can make the same doing much easier work.

Working the truck,backroom and stocking with customers asking a thousand questions.

 

[No I in Team]

Thank god they aren't moving SFS at my store yet. We were told that nobody except the truck team would be coming in earlier than 7am, and the new schedule reflects that with pog, pricing, and grocery starting at 7. SFS is still scheduled at 4am for now.

Besides not wanting to deal with guests, doing it earlier also helps with fulfillment rates because we can get more picked before a guest comes in and decides to buy it.


SFS was never in the DCs, and it would require significant remodels and expansions to fit them there. It doesn't matter if there are more people "touching" the products with SFS when the shipping for many orders will be significantly cheaper.

My bad on SFS. I meant Target.com orders original shipping point. It doesn't matter what industry your in. The closer you get from manufacturer's back door to the end user, the greater opportunity to increase margin. The goal of any retailer is to limit the number of steps to get it to the customer due to the nature of the beast.

My prediction is they will use the now empty backrooms to store online-only merchandise in every SFS store, in addition to adding SFS to even more stores to increase capacity for the double-digit growth in online sales.

Empty backroom space would have to generate more sales consistently per sq ft. than the current sales floor sq ft sales. The only competitive advantage to the backroom is the height aspect. However, given the limitations on floor space, I could easily see Target utilize that space to increase the merchandise at the store level to match their higher volume on line offerings. This would enhance flexible fulfillment.

Also, retail space cost considerably more than warehouse space.

Picking from the sales floor won't negatively effect eaches replenishment because the items will still get replenished the same as when guests in the store buy them.

Every time we touch merchandise, it ads to the cost of goods sold. So by reducing the number of touches, we reduce the burden which in turn increases margin.

 

[SrTLall]

That's not going to work and here is why:

Target does not have the number of products to offer as Amazon. Our market is primarily women, ages 20-40, attended college to earning a degree, either contemplating having a family or have a family. This would have to change.

Amazon benefits greatly from one stop shopping. We can't do that given the market we've chosen serve. Pull up Amazon, Walmart, and Target and start picking items at random. We just don't carry the same things as the other two. Or even worse, what I ran into recently, not being able to pull things up without an extended search. I ran into this looking for a computer router of all things. No problem with the other two, but not with Target.com.

While we do have a competitive edge with the numbers of store locations, these are retail locations not DC's. This does not translate into prime locations for mini DC's given their size and proximity to one another either. Would you add various products to each store location as capacity permits?

This could get expensive as each store would bear additional burden of having to receive inconsistent freight shipments vs one DC that is staffed to receive freight all day long. Your minimal on hand level would have to cover the time it would take to receive the next shipment. This could be a problem depending on the size and turn around time of the product.

With each mini DC, you loose economies of scale which translates in to increased cost. Like I posted, I can see tactical stores added, but insignificant as it relates company wide.

Our biggest problem at the moment is replenishment. Every time an article is published about Target, without fail, you'll find posts about empty shelves and low quantities. E2E offers no answers in how they plan on keeping the supply chain full. It only deals with how we are going to change moving product from the DC to the Stores. It does not address the root cause of the shortages.

I suspect our deficiencies are a result of poor forecasting, turn around times (TAT), and minimal inventory levels set to low. Not once has there been any mention of correcting the inventory replenishment system so that shortages will be a thing of the past. That problem is not going anywhere until we we change the buying/inventory management process first. We have a system that is not being utilized. Correct it and a lot of problems will literally disappear overnight.

The only thing I can say about E2E is that we will be receiving pieces instead of case pack quantities. Imagine a truck full of repacks when the DC is running low on product to ship. That'll be fun.

E2E is not an inventory system. It's a process of handling merchandise. We moved the truck unload from receiving to the sales floor. Not only are we doing that, we're increasing the number of team members needed to carry this out by stretching the process out to an all day multi task function.

Like I mentioned, each time we touch merchandise, it drives up the cost of goods sold and drives down margin. SFS will eventually move out of the stores back into the DC's. The only time is should be utilized is when we can't effectively ship out of the DC's.

Target doesn't have to be good at everything, just great in its staples. There's a quote directly from Cornell on this somewhere.

Of course you would distribute different items to stores in an area where they are concentrated.

You either pay Target TMs for touching merchandise the extra few times or FedEx/UPS.

Compared to other major retailers, Target OOS really isn't that bad. Ever since the triggers changed, the shelves look empty because the product is in the backroom. Why do you think there has been a push to do manuals each day? I don't know why they don't just change the triggers back. Since we have been doing daily manuals for each fillgroup, our floor is stuffed.

Buying/inventory levels are currently being addressed by carrying less variety of the same product. Example: my store has about 10 different sizes of the same Charmin roll. Additionally, Spot is working on changing shelf space to fit a full casepack, partnering with suppliers on their packaging as well.

The number of TMs is not increasing, Spot is just shifting the time they work.

Digital sales are currently increasing exponentially. Do you really think our 25ish DCs can handle that? SFS is not going anywhere, rather it will expand to compensate for increased digital sales.

 

[No I in Team]

Target isn't trying to compete with Amazon on everything. They are trying to compete with Amazon in the key areas in which we do well in (clothing, home decor, baby, etc.)

That's were the problem lies, one stop shopping. We have to get a better online presence in regards to what we have to offer. Once a guest can rely upon us for most things, incidental items won't matter if we don't carry them.


The few dozen ESFS locations have been doing it for a few years and I haven't heard of them planning to stop. It makes sense to expand it if it's working for them.

This will work short term as long as it is not a substitute for a full fledged DC for online orders. One issue we'll face in the immediate future is profitability. Inefficiency/excess costs are a profitability killer.

The root cause of shortages in many cases is at the store level. I rarely see any issues at my store that aren't caused by TMs not using the tools given to fix them. I often notice items I picked for SFS coming in on the next truck (noticeable things like large furniture or mass quantities of the same item).

Is it the tools or the lack of understanding of how to use them. Training is not very good at Target in general. Look no further than this website for of proof of that. Everyone here has helped me out tremendously in that regards. We don't practice as company a comprehensive training policy on all aspects of our retail environment. E2E is not going to help that all unless we practice it in that manner either.

That being said, my ETL and I for quite some time have been practicing a limited form E2E functions in a certain area.

We watch an area like a hawk and we are still plagued with low inventory and/or shortages. It's never the same items either.

We have product in back stock, correct counts, correct shelf quantity, and a empty shelf. Then we have the scenario with zero on hand none showing up on order. Or we're down to the last couple of items and none showing up on the horizon. Not enough product to fulfill a planogram or revision so forth and so on. He has been with Spot for three decades and has made some disparaging comments on these problems. I have been with Spot for over five years my self. It plagues us everywhere were it shouldn't. Especially in those items we should be competitive with.

We will take care of what we can and hopefully a couple of trucks later we might see it.

This is an area which we should never experience any type of shortage. I check other retailers out and I don't see the problem in their stores either.

This is sign of system failure. I recognize this from my past. I have experience managing all aspects of inventory for manufacturers, wholesalers, and assembly plants. What I know is that inventory is literally the life blood of your operations. Without it, your done.

Our achilles, forecasting, turn around times, and minimal inventory levels - company wide has to be fixed or we going to fail miserably.

 

[BoxCutter]

Picking from the sales floor won't negatively effect eaches replenishment because the items will still get replenished the same as when guests in the store buy them.

But, there is a glitch in the replenishment system. In more than a few instances I will scan for a product doing RIGS or Research and then occasionally check the history of the item. Not only do we not have any OHs but there is nothing populated in any of the history fields. That item went to zero and a replenishment order wasn't automatically tripped.

I don't think E2E is a bad idea. In fact, I'm kind of looking forward to it. Give me ownership of my aisles and I'll give you a well stocked aisle, and God have mercy on any other TM f$&*IMG it up.

However, these are the things that may doom E2E:

1. Forcing stores into full E2E mode before their DCs are shipping eaches on segmented pallets.

2. No clear, consistent, and continual communication from Corporate to each STL, ETL, TL, and TM as to how the new system is supposed to work and how stores are allowed to deviate from that to embrace the uniqueness in their particular store.

3. Not enough of hardworking, trustworthy, well-trained, knowledgeable TMs in the stores. You will not attract or retain that type of TM giving them 20 to 26 hours a week.

4. Not enough reliable, properly configured equipment for as many TMs who need them.

5. Not having a nearly flawless replenishment supply chain. That means virtually no mispicks and product properly segmented in repacks and on pallets, then safely loaded on to the truck and delivered to each store.

Now, tell me, based on your experience at Target, which of the above does the company currently excel at in a majority of their stores or DCs?

 

[No I in Team]

Target doesn't have to be good at everything, just great in its staples. There's a quote directly from Cornell on this somewhere.

Of course you would distribute different items to stores in an area where they are concentrated.

That gets expensive. I have been associated with split warehouse inventory systems. The end analysis is always the same, get it under one roof and reduce multiplicity.

You either pay Target TMs for touching merchandise the extra few times or FedEx/UPS.

Your already paying a carrier to ship it to the Guest. It's the touches before it gets there that erodes profitability.

Compared to other major retailers, Target OOS really isn't that bad. Ever since the triggers changed, the shelves look empty because the product is in the backroom. Why do you think there has been a push to do manuals each day? I don't know why they don't just change the triggers back. Since we have been doing daily manuals for each fillgroup, our floor is stuffed.

I have agree about Target inventory system and have posted as much in this thread. It is an excellent system, but it needs attention.

I agree with the triggers, inventory moved better before, but that's not the problem. The problem is we are not receiving replenishment like we have in the past (distant). We just seem like we are running short all of the time. When we do address it, it takes IMO way too long for the product to reach our store. I can't give you an example or I'd give myself away.

Buying/inventory levels are currently being addressed by carrying less variety of the same product. Example: my store has about 10 different sizes of the same Charmin roll. Additionally, Spot is working on changing shelf space to fit a full casepack, partnering with suppliers on their packaging as well.

This is the buying and planogram teams not working together along with a lack of understanding of the stores layouts. That being said, we have to be more proactive on filling the supply chain and keeping it full. Running short or out of toilet paper, well you know the outcome on that.

The number of TMs is not increasing, Spot is just shifting the time they work.

We did the math one day given our current make up and we were told we had enough team members prior to E2E. We're short when it comes to the demands of E2E. We have to bring considerable more team members.

Digital sales are currently increasing exponentially. Do you really think our 25ish DCs can handle that? SFS is not going anywhere, rather it will expand to compensate for increased digital sales.

No I don't. But I also don't know their capacity, crew sizes, and docking spots. In other words, I don't know what their TAT (turn around time) is for merchandise. But if Spot is going to compete with Amazon, he'll have to learn to quit pissing like a puppy. In other word invest in serious infrastructure, not the backroom of a store.

 

[SigningLady]

How the hell am I to be


I see have no idea how they would expect me to do door clings, and overheads/Large CSE Signing when we are open.

If the last few overheads are any indication, it wouldn't be impossible to do while open. I've been able to solely use the one up to hang them which hasn't happened in so long. CSE would be trickier, but again, not impossible, especially if done in the morning. Door clings...yeah, not sure about that either!

 

[IDoStuffHere]

But, there is a glitch in the replenishment system. In more than a few instances I will scan for a product doing RIGS or Research and then occasionally check the history of the item. Not only do we not have any OHs but there is nothing populated in any of the history fields. That item went to zero and a replenishment order wasn't automatically tripped.

I don't think E2E is a bad idea. In fact, I'm kind of looking forward to it. Give me ownership of my aisles and I'll give you a well stocked aisle, and God have mercy on any other TM f$&*IMG it up.

However, these are the things that may doom E2E:

1. Forcing stores into full E2E mode before their DCs are shipping eaches on segmented pallets.

2. No clear, consistent, and continual communication from Corporate to each STL, ETL, TL, and TM as to how the new system is supposed to work and how stores are allowed to deviate from that to embrace the uniqueness in their particular store.

3. Not enough of hardworking, trustworthy, well-trained, knowledgeable TMs in the stores. You will not attract or retain that type of TM giving them 20 to 26 hours a week.

4. Not enough reliable, properly configured equipment for as many TMs who need them.

5. Not having a nearly flawless replenishment supply chain. That means virtually no mispicks and product properly segmented in repacks and on pallets, then safely loaded on to the truck and delivered to each store.

Now, tell me, based on your experience at Target, which of the above does the company currently excel at in a majority of their stores or DCs?

I want to hear your opinion after doing E2E for a month. No I'm not being a smart ass just generally curious how it works out for you and your store.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

@dabeastfromtheeast, any details from D.C.?

 

[Logo]

Well i just heard from a source that the STL told them all work centers are going to be moving to 8am because it is all about the guest ... so pog and pricing are moving on the week of june 12.... idk about other work centers

Our POG and pricing don't answer calls now, moving them to 8 isn't going to help.

 

[Flow Warrior]

We had team member who worked at Target as a second job. They told me they do less for more in their primary job and would most likely move on because of this.

The team member moved on shortly afterwards to a better paying position with less responsibilties. If it would have worked for me, I would have followed them.

Our lady in cosmetics is doing just that. She found a better paying job as a manager where its more structured. So far everyone save me and one person from when we started E2e is gone. They all have quit because the load is too much for them. Its simply not worth it to them.