MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[jenna]

@Kroneru

What's the STS steel locations for? My understanding is, when UPS drops off a package, the receiver calls over the FF TM to immediately take it to guest services, and open it up and put it into hold.

Should be fun in 4th quarter.

 

[see spot save]

@Kroneru's avatar pretty much sums up my thoughts on these last few posts. I can't even keep my area clear of flow's bulk and trash, empty vehicles or price change.

 

[Kroneru]

@Kroneru

What's the STS steel locations for? My understanding is, when UPS drops off a package, the receiver calls over the FF TM to immediately take it to guest services, and open it up and put it into hold.

Unless your store is anticipating pallets of orders coming in at the same time.

ETL-LOG said the notice gave no indication of initial quantities. Also Receiver has to process them like all other deliveries apparently. He's taking the better-safe-than-sorry route buy making more than adequate space. Plus think realistically; BRTMs wouldn't always be available to transfer the packages in the moment.

 

[SFSFun]

ETL-LOG said the notice gave no indication of initial quantities. Also Receiver has to process them like all other deliveries apparently. He's taking the better-safe-than-sorry route buy making more than adequate space. Plus think realistically; BRTMs wouldn't always be available to transfer the packages in the moment.

Nobody knows what the initial quantities will be. It depends entirely on the guests in your area and how often they will use it.

The steps changed in the past week or so, and the receiver shouldn't be doing anything with packages that have Ship to Store Guest as the name on the shipping label. The whole package, including the box (it will sometimes need the tracking number from the shipping label), needs to be brought to the store pickup hold area to process.

 

[backroomguy]

The receiver should process the orders under the receive app on pda and then place them in a designated hold location, then either he/she or a BR TM are to take the orders can scan the items into an existing hold location just like you were processing a regular flexible fullfillment order.

 

[SFSFun]

The receiver should process the orders under the receive app on pda and then place them in a designated hold location, then either he/she or a BR TM are to take the orders can scan the items into an existing hold location just like you were processing a regular flexible fullfillment order.

That's what we were initially told, and that's how most of the pilot stores are doing it. But the receiver is being cut out of the process when it goes live.

 

[Kroneru]

Nobody knows what the initial quantities will be. It depends entirely on the guests in your area and how often they will use it.

Stating the obvious; he's just making enough space. Nothing stopping him from re-sizing it later...

That's what we were initially told, and that's how most of the pilot stores are doing it. But the receiver is being cut out of the process when it goes live.

I read the update pdf for STS and it instructed the FF/BRTMs to use the Receive App.

 

[PullMonkey]

Question, does an active flex order take away from the on hand count? I had three orders come in for the same fridge today, of which we only had one...

 

[SnorlaxTM]

Question, does an active flex order take away from the on hand count? I had three orders come in for the same fridge today, of which we only had one...

It's my understanding that it removes however many from the on hand count during an active flex. So if you had an on hand of 1, you actually had four floating around somewhere.

 

[SFSFun]

Plus think realistically; BRTMs wouldn't always be available to transfer the packages in the moment.

I glossed over that part, and you're right it does make sense for most stores to have somewhere to put them until they can be processed.

 

[Kroneru]

Not sure how strict it will be but the pdf also stated STS items have to be processed by 2pm in bold text.

 

[SFSFun]

I'm sure they will put it into a percentage and tell stores to stay green on it...

I wonder how they will track/enforce it though? If UPS drops off an order at 1:55pm, is it still due at 2pm? What if they drop it off at 4pm?

The 2pm deadline assumes that UPS always gets to the stores in the morning, but that may not be the case for everyone (especially communities that are far from a UPS sorting facility).

 

[Kroneru]

Mhmm.

 

[SnorlaxTM]

That'll be interesting for sure, because I know from talking with our two different UPS guys that they're way to busy to be doing all these routes solo. Weekday guy tends to load repeatedly, dude never seems to get a break.

 

[pfreshdude]

ETL-LOG shared details about STS (Ship To Store) with BR today. Items will get shipped to your store via UPS and processed by the Receiver. BRTMs present today watched a 4min training vid and took a test. They didn't specify the space needed to start with so he cleared two steel locations for pallet just to be safe. As for SFS, in preparation for out order limit increase from 50 to 150, ETL-LOG is relocating two vendor steel locations so we'll have four consecutive pallet spots. To the right of that is the new STS steel pallets.

Also... ETL-LOG mentioned something terrifying. I mentioned knowing about STS beforehand. I'm referring to here but didn't say that obviously. He assumed I meant RedWire I guess and responded,
"Oh! So you saw the whole Curb Side thing too right?"
Me: *blank stare* No...
"Oh yeah it's gonna be fun"

Let that sink it in. Curb Side.

You know I was thinking today. Im all for innovation, all for doing whatever we can for the guest, great im totally on board! What im not on board with is them adding all of these new things yet still cutting hours or giving us barely enough hours just to keep the store in a passable state

I try to have a positive attitude, try to be a problem solver and try to figure out an effecient way to do things but lately...no matter what we do theres just not enough hours anymore

 

[Kroneru]

Indeed.

 

[anathema]

Question. Orders that drop after 10 that are "due tomorrow" still count towards daily order max and I assume still due at 2pm.

What if orders that come in after 2pm (non-rush)? They must be picked by 2pm tomorrow, right? We had a bit of a hiccup with inventory and the orders are dropping weirdly.

 

[Kroneru]

Not sure myself. Here orders after 11am fall under Due Tomorrow. In the beginning it was manageable to pick and pack them within a shift. Not so much now. During my most recent day while I was packing an addition 24 orders came in under Due Tomorrow. That was at 1pm and my shift ends at 3:30pm. No possible way they were getting done.

They sent us to another store for training whose order limit was pretty high. Their SFSTM said they leave Due Tomorrow orders for the following day so I feel nothing wrong with doing so as well. But if he was wrong please let me know.

 

[SFSFun]

Question. Orders that drop after 10 that are "due tomorrow" still count towards daily order max and I assume still due at 2pm.

What if orders that come in after 2pm (non-rush)? They must be picked by 2pm tomorrow, right? We had a bit of a hiccup with inventory and the orders are dropping weirdly.

Everything that is due "today" drops in before 10AM CST and need to be picked by 2PM and packed by 4PM (or 2:30/4:30, can't remember).

Everything that is due "tomorrow" drops after 10AM and is not due until 2PM the next day.

You will occasionally get orders due "today" after 10AM (rush orders, or regular orders if there was a service outage earlier).

10PM is when everything resets and is effectively the next day. So if you have hit your order cap during the day, it resets and new orders start dropping in at 10PM.

 

[SFSFun]

Not sure myself. Here orders after 11am fall under Due Tomorrow. In the beginning it was manageable to pick and pack them within a shift. Not so much now. During my most recent day while I was packing an addition 24 orders came in under Due Tomorrow. That was at 1pm and my shift ends at 3:30pm. No possible way they were getting done.

They sent us to another store for training whose order limit was pretty high. Their SFSTM said they leave Due Tomorrow orders for the following day so I feel nothing wrong with doing so as well. But if he was wrong please let me know.

He was wrong.

There is no penalty for getting things done early, and I can't think of a reason why he would purposefully let them pile up. It is also mentioned multiple times in the guides on workbench that due "tomorrow" doesn't mean leave it until tomorrow.

Here is the example I like to give when we train other SFS teams:
What happens if only 10 orders are due "today" but then 90 more due "tomorrow" drop in fast after 10AM? And then let's say when the daily order cap resets, you have all 100 orders up to the cap drop in overnight. Now someone is going to come in at 6am and find they have 190 orders to deal with.

 

[anathema]

Right, you're not working ahead, just half a day behind, based on the orders you're leaving in the gun on a daily basis. I always do the 'due tomorrow', I was just curious about it affecting metrics, which I don't believe it to as long as they're not 'due today'.

 

[see spot save]

I can't think of a reason why he would purposefully let them pile up

I let my tomorrows pile up so that I have something to do the next day. One TM who works my days off always does tomorrows stuff and I come in with like 14 orders for the whole day. Being at 50 orders max sucks.

 

[Leonhart621]

We don't do the ones for tomorrow because they always send us to the backroom after we finish everything.

 

[SnorlaxTM]

He was wrong.

There is no penalty for getting things done early, and I can't think of a reason why he would purposefully let them pile up. It is also mentioned multiple times in the guides on workbench that due "tomorrow" doesn't mean leave it until tomorrow.

Here is the example I like to give when we train other SFS teams:
What happens if only 10 orders are due "today" but then 90 more due "tomorrow" drop in fast after 10AM? And then let's say when the daily order cap resets, you have all 100 orders up to the cap drop in overnight. Now someone is going to come in at 6am and find they have 190 orders to deal with.

So if we start the pick for tomorrow before two, no penalty? I know there's been many times when we have everything done by 2 PM, but we never bother with the batches tomorrow since we don't know if that affects the "score".

 

[Kroneru]

He was wrong.

There is no penalty for getting things done early, and I can't think of a reason why he would purposefully let them pile up. It is also mentioned multiple times in the guides on workbench that due "tomorrow" doesn't mean leave it until tomorrow.

Ok, thanks for clarifying; I will spread the word around.

Here is the example I like to give when we train other SFS teams:
What happens if only 10 orders are due "today" but then 90 more due "tomorrow" drop in fast after 10AM? And then let's say when the daily order cap resets, you have all 100 orders up to the cap drop in overnight. Now someone is going to come in at 6am and find they have 190 orders to deal with.

Another reason I accepted leaving them until later was for the reason @see spot save mentioned:

"...I come in with like 14 batches for the whole day. Being at 50 orders max sucks."

We share the same order limit and we are gradually receiving less orders it seems or guest just ordering few items. Orders drop infrequently throughout the day compared to when we launched. If this wasn't the case I would have been courteous from day one and pulled the following day orders. Point being is I like to have enough work to at least carry me over til my first 15.

"...but we never bother with the batches tomorrow since we don't know if that affects the "score."

Another concern I considered yet should have asked about.