Archived Equipment Control

[greydot]

We used to take car keys in exchange for equipment. In lieu of that (for those who didn't have a car, which was may folks in a large Metro environment) we took IDs. To get the keys or IDs back they had to turn in the equipment or be prepared to have to pay for it being lost/missing. We seldom had problems with them returning the items.

i really like this idea. i've seen it in other stores and it works.

the only stores i have been in that seemed to have equipment under control were the ones that had a TSC setup with a low desk that created a barrier between those TMs and those seeking equipment. ours is just like an open room so it really doesn't do much to curb 'help-yourselfers' or TSC TMs from telling TMs to help themselves (and ETLs can't be bothered to get equipment ever either)

 

[Rock Lobster]

Best I had seen had a couple cards per TM in TSC (in a filing cabinet that someone in clerical grabbed, ya they had it staffed at all times)... You went in and asked for your cards, and put them in the spots of the equipment you were taking (or hung them on the hook of the keys you were taking)... Worked great! Problem is... NO store has clerical staffed during all open hours 🙁

 

[greydot]

Best I had seen had a couple cards per TM in TSC (in a filing cabinet that someone in clerical grabbed, ya they had it staffed at all times)... You went in and asked for your cards, and put them in the spots of the equipment you were taking (or hung them on the hook of the keys you were taking)... Worked great! Problem is... NO store has clerical staffed during all open hours 🙁

i've been at a store that did this - their equipment control was by far the best one that i've seen.

 

[grannypricing]

We have a new system that has been working really well. One of our TLs has taken on the role of equipment control. She prints out the schedules for the week and assigns specific pdas to specific people (usually just weekday day shift). If you are caught with a pda that was not assigned to you then it's an automatic coaching, if you are caught with a pda that you didn't sign out then you get coached. I am so glad that I don't have to spend the first 45 minutes of my shift hunting down the equipment required to do my job.

 

[StaticSun]

i've been at a store that did this - their equipment control was by far the best one that i've seen.

I have an HRTM staffing TSC approx 80% of daytime store hours. That includes a TL, two TMs, and one alternate TM for filling schedule gaps. Equipment control is great 🙂

 

[bikebryan]

Best I had seen had a couple cards per TM in TSC (in a filing cabinet that someone in clerical grabbed, ya they had it staffed at all times)... You went in and asked for your cards, and put them in the spots of the equipment you were taking (or hung them on the hook of the keys you were taking)... Worked great! Problem is... NO store has clerical staffed during all open hours 🙁

We did.

 

[Megaparsec]

About every 6 months they crack down on equipment control. Signing out, signing in, and embarrassing people at huddles who haven't done so (which I think works better than coachings). Occasionally, about once a year they'll do the thing where they lock them in a room in the TMSC, but it's just someone (anyone) has to hold down a button while someone else can then go into the room.

The sad thing is, most of our equipment is hardcore busted. Fully half of our walkies are now headset only because they're so broken. I'm predicting it right now, but I know in my review in a couple weeks I'm going to get dinked down because I don't have a walkie most of the time. I do everything I can to get one, but with half of them non-functional to me and the other half being used, there's no way for me to actually have equipment.,

 

[zephyr4]

At my store, all the PDAs and walkies are in a locked room, where only the door can be opened with keys only the LODs have and by a button on the underside of the desk in clerical. Each PDA, walkie, and portable printer is numbered as well as the charging locations for each. When a team member takes a piece of equipment, the tm's name is written down in a log sheet (there's a log sheet each for PDAs, LPDAs, walkies, and printers) next to the number corresponding to which numbered piece of equipment is grabbed and the time when the tm signed it out. In this way, we know who has what in the building. When equipment is returned, the time is written down for accountability. Not signing out equipment results in coaching!

Every morning, especially on truck days, one of the logistics team leads goes in the room and signs out all the PDAs for the backroom, flow, pricing, and plano teams. The equipment is properly designated to each work center in the building. Obviously, every backroom and pricing tm gets a PDA. The flow team is divided up into groups, where a "group captain" takes ownership of a PDA and walkie and shares with the group during the push.

Our store has trouble with the walkies however. In the mornings, all the walkies get taken if they're available. On truck days, each team lead and backroom tm get a walkie until the batches are done being pulled. Flow group captains get walkies, and if there are any walkies available, they go to whomever might make best use of them. When the store opens, walkies are taken away from the morning team one by one for the GSTL, other team leads, and sales floor tm's. There are mornings especially in the summer when waves of guests arrive in the store before noon, and a lot of the flow team members are still out on the floor pushing. There are a bunch of tm's on the floor but because there is a shortage of walkies, only a few respond to fast service at the lanes, call buttons, and any other guest requests prompted on the walkie. We can only know what's going on in the store when all the walkies are at max volume.

As for keys, they are signed out like the equipment. Backroom and flow tm's working in receiving share only two sets of keys. With the shortage of walkies, sometimes it's hard to track down who has the keys to use the wave, the crown, the baler, or to get into lock-up for pulling batches for MMB and electronics.

 

[VibeNup]

We used to be bad and now we are a lot more strict. We have a separate locked "control room" across from the offices and only Senior TL+ can unlock it. And even then, the keybox inside is locked (incase they feel like leaving the door propped open). Our walkies are great, they always work and if they don't, they are sent in to be repaired. Each walkie is labeled per department, along with about 8 sales floor for general use.

PDAs on the other hand are in such high demand in our store, that it is impossible to lose one. Everyone knows who has a PDA because they are always breathing over your shoulder in order to use it themselves. They can't be labeled, only numbered because there are too few to assign to each department (we have about 12-14 PDAs for a B volume SuperTarget). Control is great, but available equipment sucks and it isn't because we keep losing them, it's because we apparently aren't able to order them. Probably because ordering new PDAs affects the ETL's bonus' or something ridiculous.

 

[Maverick]

Probably because ordering new PDAs affects the ETL's bonus' or something ridiculous.

Trust me its not about the ETL bonus! At my store the ETLS got so tired of every team asking them for a PDA that we got to the point where we would have rather bought pdas out of our own pocket...PDAs are just ridiculously expensive and unorderable expect for 2x a year and you have to have your GTL's approval, 10 PDA's would cost a Group about $10,000, so once a pda gets lost its extremely hard to replace it.

 

[nolongerspecial]

Our equipment is a total joke anyway so we hardly bother with equipment control. Most of the regular pdas are barely functioning, but as long as the TL's/ETL's have shiny new LPDAs to carry around and do nothing with, no one seem to care that the rest of the team is struggling with their jobs. Every few months they'll get on a lock the cabinet kick, but then the etls get busy and start leaving it open again.

 

[insiteful1]

Probably because ordering new PDAs affects the ETL's bonus' or something ridiculous.

Trust me its not about the ETL bonus! At my store the ETLS got so tired of every team asking them for a PDA that we got to the point where we would have rather bought pdas out of our own pocket...PDAs are just ridiculously expensive and unorderable expect for 2x a year and you have to have your GTL's approval, 10 PDA's would cost a Group about $10,000, so once a pda gets lost its extremely hard to replace it.

So why can't we order our own LPDA's? I have never understood that or received an acceptable answer. 1,000 bones. Boom. Done and done. No, you can't borrow it.

 

[anathema]

Probably because ordering new PDAs affects the ETL's bonus' or something ridiculous.

Trust me its not about the ETL bonus! At my store the ETLS got so tired of every team asking them for a PDA that we got to the point where we would have rather bought pdas out of our own pocket...PDAs are just ridiculously expensive and unorderable expect for 2x a year and you have to have your GTL's approval, 10 PDA's would cost a Group about $10,000, so once a pda gets lost its extremely hard to replace it.

So why can't we order our own LPDA's? I have never understood that or received an acceptable answer. 1,000 bones. Boom. Done and done. No, you can't borrow it.

Using your own money? Sure.

 

[doxie71]

All of our walkies/PDAs/LPDAs/Portable printers/keys are kept in their own room up in TSC. You can get in by having someone hit a button on the wall or by having and ETL open the room. Sometimes if you hip-check it just right though, it will open up. PDAs/LPDAs you just log in to in order to sign out,everything else has a sign out sheet. The keys are all kept in a locked box and they are VERY strict about keys. But then again we had an incident with a set of electronics keys going missing a month or so ago so that's kind of understandable cause it caused a huge mess.

 

[usojelly]

Our equipment control has been lacking, but with this new report that tells who had the equipment last it is starting to look promising. Since then there have been several PDA's found that were hidden by some teams (backroom and plano). The printers are about the get the lockdown treatment on them, we're getting new ones, and had to do an audit on them. So we found a couple of hidden printers and some teams being greedy and stockpiling them just in case there's a national printer shortage or something.

Most of the regular pdas are barely functioning, but as long as the TL's/ETL's have shiny new LPDAs to carry around and do nothing with, no one seem to care that the rest of the team is struggling with their jobs.

Take better care of your equipment then or have it sent off and repaired, I guess that's to hard when you could just bitch that a TL or ETL has an LPDA huh. I used to hide an LPDA for over a year, during that time I had no issues with it at all. If you look at our equipment now, it's all broken half, screens are cracked, triggers don't work, etc. Rest assured it's not from the ETL's or TL's. As for your comment about having it and not having anything to do with it, that goes to show you have no clue what other people have to get done, try to step out of your bubble and realize that in addition to you just having to have a PDA to push (yeah right) the backroom team is backstocking, the pharmacy has to place orders, SB & FA have to place orders, SFTL's have to do PCV, receiving needs one to check in vendors, the fitting room needs one for repackage, pricing needs them for pricing, sales floor needs them for labels, etc,etc. If you want to bitch and place blame, then do it to HQ for making rules or your fellow TM's for not taking care of shit/following said rules, not the people in your store who do what is required of their position. Do you think we like logging in under LOD and keeping a gun on us, because TM's do not comprehend the meaning of GO TO LUNCH AT YOUR 5TH HOUR, and we have to watch for alerts. Or having to carry it because TM's can't clock out when they are scheduled and you have to hunt them down. Or that idiotic sign audit that has to be done daily. None of that matters because you need it to set a planogram huh.

 

[Santee]

We just take equipment willy nilly, I honestly haven't signed out anything in months! Our HR office is left opened almost all the time, and when its closed, I see even new TM's punching in the key code to open the door.

 

[nolongerspecial]

Our equipment control has been lacking, but with this new report that tells who had the equipment last it is starting to look promising. Since then there have been several PDA's found that were hidden by some teams (backroom and plano). The printers are about the get the lockdown treatment on them, we're getting new ones, and had to do an audit on them. So we found a couple of hidden printers and some teams being greedy and stockpiling them just in case there's a national printer shortage or something.

Most of the regular pdas are barely functioning, but as long as the TL's/ETL's have shiny new LPDAs to carry around and do nothing with, no one seem to care that the rest of the team is struggling with their jobs.

Take better care of your equipment then or have it sent off and repaired, I guess that's to hard when you could just bitch that a TL or ETL has an LPDA huh. I used to hide an LPDA for over a year, during that time I had no issues with it at all. If you look at our equipment now, it's all broken half, screens are cracked, triggers don't work, etc. Rest assured it's not from the ETL's or TL's. As for your comment about having it and not having anything to do with it, that goes to show you have no clue what other people have to get done, try to step out of your bubble and realize that in addition to you just having to have a PDA to push (yeah right) the backroom team is backstocking, the pharmacy has to place orders, SB & FA have to place orders, SFTL's have to do PCV, receiving needs one to check in vendors, the fitting room needs one for repackage, pricing needs them for pricing, sales floor needs them for labels, etc,etc. If you want to bitch and place blame, then do it to HQ for making rules or your fellow TM's for not taking care of shit/following said rules, not the people in your store who do what is required of their position. Do you think we like logging in under LOD and keeping a gun on us, because TM's do not comprehend the meaning of GO TO LUNCH AT YOUR 5TH HOUR, and we have to watch for alerts. Or having to carry it because TM's can't clock out when they are scheduled and you have to hunt them down. Or that idiotic sign audit that has to be done daily. None of that matters because you need it to set a planogram huh.

A little presumptuous there. I have a designated lpda that I barely put my hands on - more often than not I give it to the back room so they don't have to waste time trying to pry one out of the hands of the multiple plano team members who are working in the same aisle, or the tl's who are offstage working on vibe walks or simply pushing pulls. We have two tl's in particular that insist on carrying lpdas who seldom if ever need them. How we got so far behind on sending pda's out is beyond me, but now the situation is so dire that we're rotating a couple out at a time for repair because anymore and our building wouldn't be able to function. I'm VERY aware of what everyone in the building has to do. Compliance is never an issue at our store, and the etl's more often than not delegate the pcv. Luckily we've been approved for a slew of new pda's finally, and nearly everyone has been stripped of their keys to the equipment cabinet so they can be more properly allocated. So just as you presumed that I have no idea how MY store functions, don't assume that you do.

 

[usojelly]

A little presumptuous there. I have a designated lpda that I barely put my hands on - more often than not I give it to the back room so they don't have to waste time trying to pry one out of the hands of the multiple plano team members who are working in the same aisle, or the tl's who are offstage working on vibe walks or simply pushing pulls. We have two tl's in particular that insist on carrying lpdas who seldom if ever need them. How we got so far behind on sending pda's out is beyond me, but now the situation is so dire that we're rotating a couple out at a time for repair because anymore and our building wouldn't be able to function. I'm VERY aware of what everyone in the building has to do. Compliance is never an issue at our store, and the etl's more often than not delegate the pcv. Luckily we've been approved for a slew of new pda's finally, and nearly everyone has been stripped of their keys to the equipment cabinet so they can be more properly allocated. So just as you presumed that I have no idea how MY store functions, don't assume that you do.

So you are behind in sending your PDA's out for repair, I guess I was correct on some points huh. So did you got super defensive and not actually read what I wrote. Notice I said OUR equipment, meaning at MY store. I was referring to the TMs who have broken just about every piece of equipment there, they are to blame, not the TLs who are carrying it around because they have to carry it. Of course you won't pay attention to what's said in this either and somehow twist it as if it's a personal attack against you.

 

[dannyy315]

There's always a shortage of walkies and PDAs, so I always hide mine behind boxes in the backroom when I go on break.

 

[NitroKing2110]

My store's equipment control is basically "everything is signed out, all the time" and it's enforced because all the equipment is in a locked cabinet that only ETLs can open.

That said, the exception (weird) is keys. Often times I see the sheet for yesterday up when I go to sign out mine.

There's always a shortage of walkies and PDAs, so I always hide mine behind boxes in the backroom when I go on break.

I'm a bit surprised (ASANTS, I know) that your TMs don't just keep them as they go on break. Our TMs keep their equipment on them or in a locker at all times even on break or lunch. Lovely when people don't shut off their walkies in the break room.

 

[dannyy315]

My store's equipment control is basically "everything is signed out, all the time" and it's enforced because all the equipment is in a locked cabinet that only ETLs can open.

That said, the exception (weird) is keys. Often times I see the sheet for yesterday up when I go to sign out mine.



I'm a bit surprised (ASANTS, I know) that your TMs don't just keep them as they go on break. Our TMs keep their equipment on them or in a locker at all times even on break or lunch. Lovely when people don't shut off their walkies in the break room.

We keep them on 15s, not on 45s

 

[Quattro]

We used to be able to go grab equipment at will, but that changed when we got MyDevices in. Rather than hang around and wait for the LOD to unlock the cabinet, the opening BRTM will grab 3-4 PDAs/walkies so we're all stocked for the day.

 

[Amaazingdude]

We used to be able to go grab equipment at will, but that changed when we got MyDevices in. Rather than hang around and wait for the LOD to unlock the cabinet, the opening BRTM will grab 3-4 PDAs/walkies so we're all stocked for the day.

From a AP standpoint...this is terrible

 

[NitroKing2110]

From a AP standpoint...this is terrible

How about the BR signing out one of the three electronics keys for themselves (of which we need all 3 on the floor) and simply leaving it magnetized at the top of the doorframe to the locked stockroom? Not visible unless you looked, but still out in the open. New electronics TL nearly had a brain aneurysm when they saw it. At first, they asked which of us had done it, and when confronted with the fact that we had our keys signed out and on our person, realizing that the one signed out simply to "BR" was the one left, nearly tore off the BRTL's head (who knew they were getting the key and leaving it around so they "didn't sacrifice speed waiting" on us) This is the screams at TMs in the back, CCA'd the ETL-AP BRTL I've mentioned before, who decided that his team waiting on Electronics or Photo to open the door was too much of a hassle, so he told his team to sign out a key and leave it where all of them could get to it (but not in the back, no, that would be too incriminating as if the signing out the key to BR wasn't.) Thankfully, this BRTL is now on very very thin ice once the STL and ETL-AP (who is very pleasant, until you piss her off) found out.

 

[EagleEye]

Half of our walkies are lacking an antenna and it's difficult to hear someone on the other side of the store. Most of the other half have exposed metal antennas that will burn you if you are somehow touching that antenna and transmitting at the same time. No intention on ordering new ones or repairing them.