Archived Equipment

[gnarlypop]

So, I've been a TM for a month - on Backroom Dayside. Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of my fellow workers and actually enjoy being busy - we are one of the busiest stores from what I'm told. We pretty much hit all our times with Research, Cafs, and the like, but I find that I waste a good amount of time because there seems to be a shortage of walkies. I've also had (several times) to track down a PDA from a TM on another team because they seem to be in short supply. We often only get one set of keys for equipment which means wasted time looking for whoever has them.

Is this an issue for other stores? I understand that my previous life where I ran company bears no weight, but I think they could do a few things that would really pay off big in efficiency and such.

 

[redeye58]

We're always in short supply of walkies, PDTs & PDAs.

 

[Lady Fitting Room]

Same here: our Backroom Team very often has to take equipment from the Salesfloor. I believe the key situation is slightly better, though: to my knowledge, almost all of our BR team members have keys to the Crown and Wave.

 

[mrknownothing]

My store never has enough walkies and PDAs. One time when I was closing, one of the Flow TMs had just come in and she was all angry because the GSTL wouldn't surrender her PDA. Not that the PDAs ever work for our GSTLs anyways, but it's ridiculous that they can't possibly order enough equipment to supply the team.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Same here. I would give up my PDA for br usually. Then I borrow the gstl or operator for a few minutes to tie sp's on typical day. Lucky me, there is price checker near the new bts transition. Whew!

 

[SrTLRep]

Promptly at 6 am every morning we hear the call for PDA's for price acc and in stocks, even when our team is already gone. There will never be enough PDA's and we always have at least 5 out for repair. Sat night and Sun morning are the worst because of ad takedown and setup. Walkies aren't so much a problem because some work centers can get away with just having one TM with one.

Most of our backroom guys have equipment keys.

Equipment and key control are a huge challenge in our store. So much so that ETL's have to perform equipment audits around mid-shift to make sure you have the PDA you checked out and not someone else's. If you don't have a holster...get ready for the lecture. Believe it or not, people lose their equipment and it disappears into the void never to be seen again.

 

[theissueoftissue]

We're so short on PDAs, that TLs have resorted to hiding them for their team.

I can't complain too much though, their hiding places suck. If they aren't locked in a cabinet, they're usually found in a matter of minutes. Yet they keep putting them in the same places

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

So, I've been a TM for a month - on Backroom . I've also had (several times) to track down a PDA from a TM on another team because they seem to be in short supply. We often only get one set of keys for equipment which means wasted time looking for whoever has them.

Our BR TL almost everyday has to track down PDAs for his dayside & instocks TMs. I give mine up readily as by that time I no longer need it for sorting the repacks. I don't think walkies is much of an issue at my store.

I believe the key situation is slightly better, though: to my knowledge, almost all of our BR team members have keys to the Crown and Wave.

All our BR team has keys to Crown and wave. The only exception being the new hires. Don't know if they have keys yet or not.

Promptly at 6 am every morning we hear the call for PDA's for price acc and in stocks, even when our team is already gone. There will never be enough PDA's and we always have at least 5 out for repair.

Equipment and key control are a huge challenge in our store. So much so that ETL's have to perform equipment audits around mid-shift to make sure you have the PDA you checked out and not someone else's. If you don't have a holster...get ready for the lecture. Believe it or not, people lose their equipment and it disappears into the void never to be seen again.

We often hear a similar page asking for PDAs. Our PDAs aren't locked up & often people neglect to sign them out or even return them. So it's no wonder we find PDAs in carts or on the electronics counter when we come in for the truck unload. As to the holsters, probably 80%-90% of our TMs don't use them. I do, as it makes it more handy & no one can grab it out of a cart without my knowledge. It's in my name & it's my responsibility.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Keeping PDA in holster makes it safer to carry. One day, I has a PDA in my back without a holster, tripped, fell flat on my back. I was black & blue with a PDA imprint on my back for a few days. I have been wearing a holster ever since then.

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

Keeping PDA in holster makes it safer to carry. One day, I has a PDA in my back without a holster, tripped, fell flat on my back. I was black & blue with a PDA imprint on my back for a few days. I have been wearing a holster ever since then.

I'm sorry you had to learn the hard way about how important holsters are. Hope the bruises were your only injury.

 

[commiecorvus]

We're doing OK on walkies since they ordered a bunch but we are still having problems with PDA/PDT's.

 

[Rarejem]

I start at 5 a.m. and need a pda to do my job. I sometimes waste 20 minutes trying to hunt down a pda as do the other members of my team. (We figure it's a total of about an hour of wasted scan time each day) The flow team does not use them. We do not have enough walkies, either. I'm sick to death of hearing "respond to guest service calls", "call the backroom", "guard the spill and call for help" at every freaking huddle when they have to know that 1/2 the team does not have a walkie. DUH - why do you think nobody is at huddle (which you called over the walkie!!)?!?!?! I have to surrender my walkie by 8 a.m. every day to a salesfloor tm and then spend more wasted time hunting down my fellow tm's or my tl or etl every time that I need them. We are supposed to sign them out and I am religious about it. Usually my name is one of 2-4 each day and because we have signed them out we are the first to be called to give them up for someone more needy (although I can't figure out who HAS to have a pda more than price accuracy, instocks and the backroom). Equipment management is a joke and the amount of equipment available is completely inadequate. I wish that they would issue a specific number for a team and let us keep them locked up so they would be available. I understand that this would make them unavailable for the next shift, but at least my job, which has time constraints attached, would be able to be worked within the appropriate time frame and with working, charged equipment.

 

[redeye58]

\I was black & blue with a PDA imprint on my back for a few days.

Did the screen display "Ouch!"?

 

[Pettjm54]

Equipment inventory seems to be a global issue. PDAs need to be locked up and signed out.. It's the only way to keep them available. As for store ordering more, each store is allotted a certain amount based on volume. PDAs cost 1000 dollars each. It is up to your DTL to order more if they deem it needed

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I'm sorry you had to learn the hard way about how important holsters are. Hope the bruises were your only injury.

Did the screen display "Ouch!"?

It was my own feet that made me trip. PDA has no issues. Ap did ask if was ok & wanted a picture of it. I declined it, I have a better image on my back.

 

[FiFoMaster]

We get the occasional shortage of walkies and PDA's, but that's only when we've got a big visist coming up or its a holiday prep day (resetting endcaps and stuff like that).

Our store has each PDA numbered and each Team has a specific set of numbers they are allowed to use. For instance, Dayside BR has numbers 19 and 20, and receiving has number 2. The amount given to each team is based on how many TM's are normally working on that team at any given time. Works out pretty well. We used to have to surrender our car keys to sign out a pda and walkie, but no one ever enforced it expect the STL, so it stopped soon after.


My question is how do you guys deal with the horrible PDA battery life. Ill grab one early in the morning and have it be dead in less than 15 minutes. Only 3 of our PDA's actually last longer than 2 hours before needing a new battery. Its starting to become ridiculous!

 

[Formina Sage]

I always turn the screen backlight all the way down, that is pretty much the fool proof way to make your PDA last through an 8 hour shift. I still have around 45 percent battery when I punch out.

Do it by pressing the Blue Key + I

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Also, being in the freezer drains the battery too.

 

[team member 316]

Keeping PDA in holster makes it safer to carry. One day, I has a PDA in my back without a holster, tripped, fell flat on my back. I was black & blue with a PDA imprint on my back for a few days. I have been wearing a holster ever since then.

Do you mean a PDA holster? or the PDT ones?

I put l my PDA hostler on the side of my hip to avoid that type of thing. I'd be a little paraniod a TM would swipe my PDA if I wore it of over my back pocket. I guess it comes from my how I don't ever keep my wallet in my back pocket.(I don't understand how people can comfortably sit with their wallet there) It is good that the bruise was your only injury though.


As for this topic. Yes my store is experiencing a bad equipment shortage. We rarely have enough supplies for the closing team which. We are short on walkies PDAs, PDTs, and the PDA and PDT holsters. In addition are batteries are dieing out too. It also seems we are not sending equiment to be repaired anymore because I said to the HR TM where are all the PDAs/PDTs there can't be that many out for repairs and she relpied "oh we don't get them repaired anymore. Now we keep the broken equipment in the cabinet as if it is going to be magically repaired. Why don't we just throw it out(or whatever process we have of getting rid of equipment) if it is not going to be repaired and not longer works?

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

Our huddles are always paged over the intercom. Not many would attend otherwise. The battery on my PDA usually last my entire shift if I keep it that long or until I have to give it up. Usually it's down to about 65% by then.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Do you mean a PDA holster? or the PDT?

As for this topic. Yes my store is experiencing a bad equipment shortage. We rarely have enough supplies for the closing team which. We are short on walkies PDAs, PDTs, and the PDA and PDT holsters. In addition are batteries are dieing out too. It also seems we are not sending equiment to be repaired anymore because I said to the HR TM where are all the PDAs/PDTs there can't be that many out for repairs and she relpied "oh we don't get them repaired anymore. Now we keep the broken equipment in the cabinet as if it is going to be magically repaired. Why don't we just throw it out(or whatever process we have of getting rid of equipment) if it is not going to be repaired and not longer works?

The pdt bolsters were great. Made of leather & didn't move out of it.
PDA replaced pdt, the new PDA bolsters are crappy.
It sounds like your stl needs to talk to your dtl & ask for new equipment.

 

[Logicstics Slave]

The key situation is alright at our stoor, two sets of backroom keys but in the AM we have about 4 TMs working but we usually are working in groups of two on each half of the backroom.

electronic keys we have four sets but AP locked up 3 and only brings them out for Q4.

PDAs are a nightmare, we have a lot that drain batteries in literally 20-30 mins, also when I come in to backstock freezer/cooler on mon/thur at 8am it is a nightmare to get one from someone because there are none in the TFC.

People hide them and say they don't have any. I seen one of our SFTL hide one under a grill lid. Last halloween I found one buried under bags of candy when it went on clearance, looked like it had been dead for quite a while. Found out later it had been there since halloween was first set.

 

[stupid rules]

I hide my LPDA every day, the only people who know where it is are my cosmetics brand team member and my ETL.

 

[coolcatmom]

The STL doesn't have to "ask" for new equipment. They can send PDAs and LPDAs out and have them repaired. The repairs come out of the store's budget. Radios get thrown in the trash. You can only order 6 at a time.

We have all the PDAs we are supposed to have. We can't seem to keep radios. We find them all over the store. Heck, we even have guests return them to us as they find them. I can't help but wonder how many walk out though.

 

[The Mule]

Wow, sounds like there are a lot of problems with equipment/key control out there. We never have problems with our keys really. There are 5 sets of BR keys(one has lockup keys) which FLOW takes 2 sets on truck days to handle trash, 5 sets of electronics keys(one has baler and a WAV key). I would say between our two key boxes we have around 35 sets of keys for different positions throughout the store.

Equipment is another matter. We do our best to share, but on some days we are short as well. We keep on top of sending things out and don't really have any major problems(maybe if people could just make sure they properly seat their PDAs when they're done to charge, that would help). We do have to sign out PDAs and walkies. We have a closet that is left unlocked with a sign out/in sheet on the door. If you are found without having signed out your equipment, it can be a coaching.