MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[SFSFun]

Order as many supplies as you have room for (double-stack full pallets of boxes for more space). It's not like they will go bad if you order too much and they sit around for a while.

The supplies auditing guide on workbench has recommended amounts of supplies based on a 100 order maximum, so you could just order 75% more of what it says. But on some items, it suggests way too many (who needs 8 rolls of bubble wrap?) so don't order just based on those recommendations.

Your orders take less than a week?? Including boxes?? We get them 10+ days from our order cutoff day, so it could be over 2 weeks depending on when we order them. And our GM trailers are usually closed several days ahead of when we actually get it at the store, so the supplies could also be sitting at the DC for a few days.

 

[H2Owned]

We are suppose to be going from 50 to 300 next Sunday so that should be fun

 

[SFSFun]

We are suppose to be going from 50 to 300 next Sunday so that should be fun

That can't be right... Stores going up to 300 should have a gradual build-up every few weeks until November 22nd.

Unless there is some huge sale or promo coming up to justify it, there isn't any reason stores would see a 600% increase in orders in the middle of October.

 

[H2Owned]

Idk I thought it was weird too but my ETL is trying to get everything together. They are trying to get a trailer to put the boxes on for that Sunday. Idk we will see tho.

 

[H2Owned]

Okay so you were right this week we have 150. Next week 300. And then in November it is suppose to be like 600 to 900. So they are hiring more team members. They also added a Flexible Fullilment TL just for 4th quarter so I guess they are expecting it to be really busy o.o....

 

[see spot save]

Order as many supplies as you have room for (double-stack full pallets of boxes for more space). It's not like they will go bad if you order too much and they sit around for a while.

The supplies auditing guide on workbench has recommended amounts of supplies based on a 100 order maximum, so you could just order 75% more of what it says. But on some items, it suggests way too many (who needs 8 rolls of bubble wrap?) so don't order just based on those recommendations.

Your orders take less than a week?? Including boxes?? We get them 10+ days from our order cutoff day, so it could be over 2 weeks depending on when we order them. And our GM trailers are usually closed several days ahead of when we actually get it at the store, so the supplies could also be sitting at the DC for a few days.

My steel is full, but I could open up 2 pallet spaces on the floor, I could probably double stack pallets there. I'll take a look at the auditing guide.

I've made three orders so far. The first one took a long time...it was a bigger order, I got kinda scared that I'd run out of 413s. The last two were delivered in < 7 Days but they were only two pallets of boxes and collates/gripper tape.

 

[Moosechives]

Last week we had a small order of 11 pallets come in. 6 439s, 2 280, 2 285, 1 full air pillow *thumbs up* That's down from 18 the week before. lol

 

[SFSFun]

Okay so you were right this week we have 150. Next week 300. And then in November it is suppose to be like 600 to 900. So they are hiring more team members. They also added a Flexible Fullilment TL just for 4th quarter so I guess they are expecting it to be really busy o.o....

Are you ESFS (Enhanced Ship from Store)?

For 900 orders you would need at least 4 packing stations and several dozen TMs. Hiring a dedicated TL is a good call.

My steel is full, but I could open up 2 pallet spaces on the floor, I could probably double stack pallets there. I'll take a look at the auditing guide.

We double stack on the top layer of steel too. Although only a couple of TMs are able to maneuver the crown well enough to get them down without taking out the lights and sprinkler system.

 

[H2Owned]

Are you ESFS (Enhanced Ship from Store )

But for 900 orders you would need at least 4 packing stations and several dozen TMs. Hiring a dedicated TL is a good call.



We double stack on the top layer of steel too. Although only a couple of TMs are able to maneuver the crown well enough to get them down without taking out the lights and sprinkler system.

Yeah we are an ESFS we just switched to it in the summer. And yeah we have 4 work stations.

 

[Moosechives]

IMO anything over 700 orders requires more than 4 pack stations. We're at 800 with 4 and we're packing on top of each other. Also 800 needs about 15-16 people per day to come clean with about 25-30 total for the whole team.

We're expected to bump up another 400-500 in nov.. So with a little estimation I'm thinking we'd need 22-25 people a day with a 50 person crew...on four pack stations...and only 21 carts. Yeah no thanks lololol

 

[H2Owned]

IMO anything over 700 orders requires more than 4 pack stations. We're at 800 with 4 and we're packing on top of each other. Also 800 needs about 15-16 people per day to come clean with about 25-30 total for the whole team.

We're expected to bump up another 400-500 in nov.. So with a little estimation I'm thinking we'd need 22-25 people a day with a 50 person crew...on four pack stations...and only 21 carts. Yeah no thanks lololol

Hmm well I don't think you really need that many people a day and if that is the case then instead of packing on top of each other I would have one group pick and have four pack. Then swap out every two hours maybe. Need my elbow space o.o...

 

[Moosechives]

We usually have between 12-15 people a day and barely come clean. There's normally at least 4-6 dedicated packers during the day while 8-10 pick. The inevitable always happens where the batches are done and we have 3+ people per station packing.

 

[anathema]

and I'm just chilling with my 50 orders a day...

 

[Bosch]

I just want this to get to my store already. It is something I would be super good at.

 

[H2Owned]

I kind of wonder tho how 900 orders a day will affect a stores in-stock especially like toys or items that everyone want for the holidays. I am also wondering how upset guests who actually come to store will be when they find out we ran out of the item they wanted b/c SFS got to it first lol. I guess they will make the trucks bigger to make up for all the orders. Or the majority of the 900 orders will be online only items.

 

[SFSFun]

I kind of wonder tho how 900 orders a day will affect a stores in-stock especially like toys or items that everyone want for the holidays. I am also wondering how upset guests who actually come to store will be when they find out we ran out of the item they wanted b/c SFS got to it first lol. I guess they will make the trucks bigger to make up for all the orders. Or the majority of the 900 orders will be online only items.

You will be getting a shit-ton more trucks... Hopefully corporate recognizes this and instructs the stores with high order caps to hire additional Flow and BR TMs to deal with the extra trucks.

@Moosechives is also at an ESFS and may have some insight.

 

[Moosechives]

Our instocks are legit terrible atm though sfs isn't necessarily to blame for it. (It's our overnight team) Our web only merch is literally spread across the backroom even though we have dedicated light duty and steel for it. Sometimes it's taken to the floor which proceeds to make it very difficult to find due to it not having a planogram.

As for holiday sfs. Be prepared for a battle royale with guests for stuff and always keep your cart within reaching distance because they will take your stuff. (Especially iPads and electronics) it would be awesome if we could switch back to gray shirts cause contrary to popular belief they did work.

 

[SFSFun]

@Moosechives I thought the web-only stuff was marked with a "W" on the pick label and that it was supposed to beep for backstock when scanned during the unload. I had to train some ETLs on ESFS recently and that's what I told them based on the rollout guide.

Now I feel bad if they are having issues similar to yours but also glad that we didn't get ESFS.

 

[see spot save]

I spiked to over 100 orders today. 20 Shopkins Ice Cream Trucks, 30-40 bottles of shampoo (which all shipped 1 per box - multiple boxes to the same guests), 30 orders of face wash. It was nice actually having work to do today.

 

[Moosechives]

@Moosechives I thought the web-only stuff was marked with a "W" on the pick label and that it was supposed to beep for backstock when scanned during the unload. I had to train some ETLs on ESFS recently and that's what I told them based on the rollout guide.

Now I feel bad if they are having issues similar to yours but also glad that we didn't get ESFS.

Oh, that is correct. The only problem is that they're still not paying attention to the pick label. Also, web-only aisles are supposed to be detrashed and no case packs above quantity 1 which means that the majority of our stuff has no pick labels anymore. Then theres always the possibility of the problem I ran into a few days ago...The pick label had a W AND a sales floor location. Now wtf do I do with that? lol Also, since the only way to distinguish between web only and in store items without a pick label is that it's NOP, people have also started shoving literally everything thats NOP in those aisles regardless of if they are web-only or not. At least when we had fake FF77 locations, we were able to tell what was what. Now, with over 1000 DPCIs of crap to sort through, theres no way to easily organize it anymore.

 

[Bosch]

@Moosechives I thought the web-only stuff was marked with a "W" on the pick label and that it was supposed to beep for backstock when scanned during the unload. I had to train some ETLs on ESFS recently and that's what I told them based on the rollout guide.

Now I feel bad if they are having issues similar to yours but also glad that we didn't get ESFS.

That would mean paying attention, which they don't. Add in an STL who believes "Just flex it" overnight has NO incentive to sort it correctly.

 

[H2Owned]

Smh so what are they going to do when a guest try to buy it and it comes up... how much is this? ... we had a team member go to ESFS backroom aisles and sell one of our online items to a guest... my ETL was very upset

 

[SFSFun]

That would mean paying attention, which they don't. Add in an STL who believes "Just flex it" overnight has NO incentive to sort it correctly.

Well the STL at stores just getting ESFS recently should be doing everything possible to help out the process. After all, they just won the lottery by getting the guaranteed extra sales when things go right. The weekly report even lists the dollar amount in sales lost due to items not found (week/month/year).

Smh so what are they going to do when a guest try to buy it and it comes up... how much is this? ... we had a team member go to ESFS backroom aisles and sell one of our online items to a guest... my ETL was very upset

That problem has supposedly been solved now with Ship TO Store and the myFA updates. Guests should be able to order online-only items for store pickup if you have them in your backroom.

 

[Moosechives]

I've had a bunch of guests come up to me asking for a web only items. They all show up as "in stock" at my store online. Whats more annoying to me is the fact that more and more often I have to pick items that are in store clearance and not marked down online. Yeaaah

 

[Bosch]

Well the STL at stores just getting ESFS recently should be doing everything possible to help out the process. After all, they just won the lottery by getting the guaranteed extra sales when things go right. The weekly report even lists the dollar amount in sales lost due to items not found (week/month/year).

I would agree with you, however our STL is a brand new to target STL and was handed a High Volume Store with No experience other than her training. It worked so well two years ago when the last newbie STL got the keys and our sales took a nose dive cause he was from a ULV store and ran our high Volume the same way. He disappeared when the basket size needed to increase by $120. I don't hold out hope for the current one, cause she is a "Hide in the office with her girlfriend ETL's".