- Joined
- Jun 15, 2011
- Messages
- 84
We keep our locker, well LOCKED. But it doesn't do any good. If no one is checking the Sign Out Log afterward then it is a waste of time.
- Status
- Joined
- May 15, 2011
- Messages
- 1,846
We have 8 backroom keys, one with Electronics Stockroom and 2 with compacter key (to run it, not to open it sadly). 4 electronics keys, 4 gstl keys, and - get this - 4 stupid jewelry keys! What a waste! We don't even have a friggen jewelry boat anymore as part of the JAS renovation pilot!
PDAs are tough to come by on truck days and walkies, while available, never have a fully charged battery. Our store went through a phase where equipment control was VERY strict - had to get buzzed into the room by an LOD and they had to watch you sign out your stuff. Now...not so much. The room is always propped open and the sign out sheet hasn't had a piece of paper in it for a very long time.
PDAs are tough to come by on truck days and walkies, while available, never have a fully charged battery. Our store went through a phase where equipment control was VERY strict - had to get buzzed into the room by an LOD and they had to watch you sign out your stuff. Now...not so much. The room is always propped open and the sign out sheet hasn't had a piece of paper in it for a very long time.
We had horrible issues with Equipment at my store, and being in school for IT, I went to my STL and told her the issues. Her reply was "Well do something about it, whatever you need, fix it." She basically gave me free reign to fix it all. So I did. Now, we still have issues, but if you do a few of the things I did, you will notice things get quite a bit better. Having one person be "in charge" of it all really helps.
First off, the biggest issue at my store, and it seems at your guys stores is battery life. Now, this equipment is designed to last your shift, anything less than 8 hours is a bad or older battery. I took every battery in the store and tested them. Fully charged, how much of the battery drained in 30 minutes. Turned out ~80% of our batteries didn't last more than an hour, and most less. I created a proposal for my STL with the issue and what I wanted to fix it. I got 25 batteries, enough for every PDA, just in time for Black Friday last year. My team was so happy, and I haven't heard anybody ask for a battery during their shift since. Batteries will go bad, and need to be replaced. When you get new batteries SEND THE OLD ONES AWAY. Things won't get better if the bad batteries are still circulating. Label the batteries with the date you got them, and replace the older ones every few years. Every battery in my store has been replaced in the last year. Saves a LOT of productivity, tell your STL that and they might change their tune on spending the money.
Second, stop sending in Equipment for EVERYTHING. Things do break, but a lot of stuff can be taken care of in the store. The way the process worked at mine, if something didn't work, it was put in a basket and sent in. No question on what was wrong, just send it in. I took over that process and had the stuff come to me FIRST. 70% of the stuff just needed a rebuild or a bumper was falling off (Superglue?) At any given time we would have 5 PDA's out of the store. Thats a problem, and makes it seem like we have a LOT less. I took every piece of equipment and inventoried it, with SN's and the issues. I made a priority list of things that needed to be sent in, and things that just had minor issues. I sent in one device at a time, and 6 months later, every piece of equipment is IN the store and working. I haven't had to send anything for awhile. Keep track of what you have, and where it is at all times. Helps a LOT. Again, this is the benefit of having ONE person be the channel in which all equipment issues are taken care of. It took awhile to get that cred in the store, but now that I took it over and things work better, Team Members seem to trust me.
Those two things make sure everything that Target allows our stores to have is IN the store and WORKING. Do we have enough stuff? No. Are things a little better when we maximize the efficiency of what we have? Yes. Having everything labeled and stuff, it makes things easier to keep track of. We don't have too many issues with not having what we need when everything is in the store. Printers, PDA's and LPDA's have very little issues. There are sing out sheets, and most people sign them out, but thats mostly for my benefit so I know who to go to for issues.
Now walkies, that is another animal. I have done the same thing I did with everything else to walkies. However, we still have issues. My ETL's have been reluctant to have a stricter check out policy or to assign them. So I am doing my best. Keeping track of what we have and what is missing. I give a proposal on what we need and stuff to my STL when things are low, and she makes a choice.
To tie it all together, I have a sheet of all the equipment, and I do a weekly audit to visually verify what we have. If something is missing, I check the last person that signed it out, and hand the info over to my ETL's. They follow up on it. The Accountability has helped quite a bit over the past few months. Like my STL said, if you want to fix it, fix it. I know the reluctance to do extras, it might just be that my STL was so nice about it. She has actually given me extra hours to take care of things every week. The things I do are over the top. But things like new batteries are pretty easy to do.
Good Luck!
First off, the biggest issue at my store, and it seems at your guys stores is battery life. Now, this equipment is designed to last your shift, anything less than 8 hours is a bad or older battery. I took every battery in the store and tested them. Fully charged, how much of the battery drained in 30 minutes. Turned out ~80% of our batteries didn't last more than an hour, and most less. I created a proposal for my STL with the issue and what I wanted to fix it. I got 25 batteries, enough for every PDA, just in time for Black Friday last year. My team was so happy, and I haven't heard anybody ask for a battery during their shift since. Batteries will go bad, and need to be replaced. When you get new batteries SEND THE OLD ONES AWAY. Things won't get better if the bad batteries are still circulating. Label the batteries with the date you got them, and replace the older ones every few years. Every battery in my store has been replaced in the last year. Saves a LOT of productivity, tell your STL that and they might change their tune on spending the money.
Second, stop sending in Equipment for EVERYTHING. Things do break, but a lot of stuff can be taken care of in the store. The way the process worked at mine, if something didn't work, it was put in a basket and sent in. No question on what was wrong, just send it in. I took over that process and had the stuff come to me FIRST. 70% of the stuff just needed a rebuild or a bumper was falling off (Superglue?) At any given time we would have 5 PDA's out of the store. Thats a problem, and makes it seem like we have a LOT less. I took every piece of equipment and inventoried it, with SN's and the issues. I made a priority list of things that needed to be sent in, and things that just had minor issues. I sent in one device at a time, and 6 months later, every piece of equipment is IN the store and working. I haven't had to send anything for awhile. Keep track of what you have, and where it is at all times. Helps a LOT. Again, this is the benefit of having ONE person be the channel in which all equipment issues are taken care of. It took awhile to get that cred in the store, but now that I took it over and things work better, Team Members seem to trust me.
Those two things make sure everything that Target allows our stores to have is IN the store and WORKING. Do we have enough stuff? No. Are things a little better when we maximize the efficiency of what we have? Yes. Having everything labeled and stuff, it makes things easier to keep track of. We don't have too many issues with not having what we need when everything is in the store. Printers, PDA's and LPDA's have very little issues. There are sing out sheets, and most people sign them out, but thats mostly for my benefit so I know who to go to for issues.
Now walkies, that is another animal. I have done the same thing I did with everything else to walkies. However, we still have issues. My ETL's have been reluctant to have a stricter check out policy or to assign them. So I am doing my best. Keeping track of what we have and what is missing. I give a proposal on what we need and stuff to my STL when things are low, and she makes a choice.
To tie it all together, I have a sheet of all the equipment, and I do a weekly audit to visually verify what we have. If something is missing, I check the last person that signed it out, and hand the info over to my ETL's. They follow up on it. The Accountability has helped quite a bit over the past few months. Like my STL said, if you want to fix it, fix it. I know the reluctance to do extras, it might just be that my STL was so nice about it. She has actually given me extra hours to take care of things every week. The things I do are over the top. But things like new batteries are pretty easy to do.
Good Luck!
redeye58
Hasta Ba Rista, Baby!
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
- Messages
- 21,301
I like those ideas. I just wish I was far up enough on the totem pole to be able to take ownership & accomplish what you have. I just found out our SFT is going to be handling equipment repairs, etc. He's not too happy because he has so much to do around the store anyway.
- Joined
- May 15, 2011
- Messages
- 1,846
Our receive/reverse guy does all the equipment repair...and by that I mean he fills out the Compucom tickets and ships them out.
I'm just an InStock TM I know how to do the whole send out process, but the HR TM usually does it when she is in the building. I only learned how to do it after she was gone for a week and we had an LPDA that needed to be sent it and nobody knew how to do it. I know all STL's are different, but if you show the initiative to take ownership and present results, that always gets somebody's attention. Our Reverse Logistics person brings all equipment that comes in straight to me now too, that way I can get the information, label it, and get it out on the floor quickly.
I know how to do the whole send out process, but the HR TM usually does it when she is in the building. I only learned how to do it after she was gone for a week and we had an LPDA that needed to be sent it and nobody knew how to do it. I know all STL's are different, but if you show the initiative to take ownership and present results, that always gets somebody's attention. Our Reverse Logistics person brings all equipment that comes in straight to me now too, that way I can get the information, label it, and get it out on the floor quickly.- Joined
- Jun 17, 2011
- Messages
- 208
My store split the equipment in half - half for Flow, half for Dayside. Day can use the Flow stuff as long as we're not in the building. Problem is is that some of the younger Day team members didn't sign out our stuff & then lost 2 PDAs & 1 LPDA. That's half our backroom and 1 repacker. And Dayside PDAs have gone missing of course so they tell us they need our stuff while we're using it. Always fun having a team lead tell me I don't need to do my Backstock because they need to do Audits :blowup:
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2011
- Messages
- 65
Apparently, we've been having major issues with our O'Neil portable printers for quite awhile, and I'm pretty skeptical of our PATL's insistence that they are caused by hardware failure. We periodically send out 3-5 printers at a time to Compucom ... It seems unlikely that so many devices would fail at once. The problems seem to be centered around the (re)configuration process. Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips for these printers?
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2011
- Messages
- 1,652
We are almost never in shortage of walkies or PDA's, only happens around the holidays, ect. TO my knowledge the Back Room team members always have keys, a walkie, and a pda. Not once have I heard of a BRTM at my Super having to borrow, even for a second, equipment from the floor.
The Mule
Jack Of All Workcenters
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
- Messages
- 344
That's crazy to have that many printers out at once. We have 10 total and have only ever had 1 out at a time for repairs. Definitely sounds like an error at the user level somewhere.
RunForACallBox
General Merchandise Expert (Presentation)
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2014
- Messages
- 2,492
Official, O’Neil Printers will be deactivated next month. My store will be receiving the rest of the Zebra printers here in a few weeks.
- Status
