MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[LearningTree]

There needs to be a forced task when picking from a case pack designed area from the stockroom.

Epick needs to make the picker backstock the unneeded quantity. Now you need to toggle to MyWork to do this.

Nah I don't agree with this at all. This would hurt your metrics concerning deadlines. Especially this time of year, pickers have a hard enough time making the deadlines without being forced to backstock while in the middle of an order. Seconds count, especially in OPU.

 

[Kcha1234]

Nah I don't agree with this at all. This would hurt your metrics concerning deadlines. Especially this time of year, pickers have a hard enough time making the deadlines without being forced to backstock while in the middle of an order. Seconds count, especially in OPU.

My store still makes us backstock immediately. Definitely makes us fall behind on deadlines.

 

[ISMike]

Nah I don't agree with this at all. This would hurt your metrics concerning deadlines. Especially this time of year, pickers have a hard enough time making the deadlines without being forced to backstock while in the middle of an order. Seconds count, especially in OPU.

My store still makes us backstock immediately. Definitely makes us fall behind on deadlines.

What is the discrepancy in time for backstocking vs not knowing where the 5 unlocated units are when all 6 that were located were just pulled?
Especially when people are horrible and just leave the box with 5 on the shelf - wouldn't happen if they were prompted to backstock the extra.

 

[Bosch]

A someone who splits my time 50/50 SFS and BR, I have a hatred of 1000 suns for the other people on my SFS team who take one each out of casepacks and then leave the rest in location instead of putting it somewhere for backstock.

Fucking up my BRLA doing that shit.

I carry a marker for this reason, when the system wants me to pull one from a case and leave the case in location, close up box and mark it with the correct amount. My Backroom TL doesn't like it, but understands it and would rather it be labeled than a surprise for the next person. I tend to backstock when it makes me pull 6 but needs 2, or what we do is throw the entire care on our cart and then empty the left overs into a cart for backstock at the end of the day. We strip all the cases, sucks for backroom to backstock all this misc crap but it takes care of the partial case pack issue..

 

[RhettB]

Nah I don't agree with this at all. This would hurt your metrics concerning deadlines. Especially this time of year, pickers have a hard enough time making the deadlines without being forced to backstock while in the middle of an order. Seconds count, especially in OPU.

Better than higher INF %.

What would you suggest?

 

[SugarSugar]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

 

[RhettB]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

Each box size has a designated tape length. The WAT machine has buttons for each.

 

[unknown]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

Packing is pretty easy. Just keep your items sorted. Picking can be a nightmare!

 

[Bosch]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

The boxes are labeled with what tape they need 438 = 24inch tape, though a 21inch tape strip works too..

It's the tape gun that will get ya.. And you should only need that for oversize boxes or ship alone items.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

Random tip but if you ever need packing tape for personal use scotch surestart tape is the greatest tape ever invented, I am the same way about tangling but surestart is fantastic

 

[Steffy]

hm Not sure I’m following the posts above about backstocking while picking for SFS/OPU.
At my store, we pull the whole casepack of 6 light bulbs it calls for, leave the 4-5 we don’t need at the end of the aisle, scan the 1-2 we actually need into our batch, and discard the empty box.
Sometimes it calls for 2 that aren’t in a casepack and once I see I only need 1 of them then I’ll backstock the other one back into its spot.

But, that might be too much to ask for some of our newer TMs... it seems figuring out how many items to pull is hard enough. Getting them to realize they pulled a case pack, and wtf a case pack is, and to differentiate between the items they need and those that aren’t part of their order, and to realize they need to backstock the ones that aren’t, and learn how to backstock, and remember to do it, and not be afraid to climb up the ladder, and scan in the right location and the right item...

More harm than good sometimes...

 

[Bosch]

hm Not sure I’m following the posts above about backstocking while picking for SFS/OPU.
At my store, we pull the whole casepack of 6 light bulbs it calls for, leave the 4-5 we don’t need at the end of the aisle, scan the 1-2 we actually need into our batch, and discard the empty box.
Sometimes it calls for 2 that aren’t in a casepack and once I see I only need 1 of them then I’ll backstock the other one back into its spot.

But, that might be too much to ask for some of our newer TMs... it seems figuring out how many items to pull is hard enough. Getting them to realize they pulled a case pack, and wtf a case pack is, and to differentiate between the items they need and those that aren’t part of their order, and to realize they need to backstock the ones that aren’t, and learn how to backstock, and remember to do it, and not be afraid to climb up the ladder, and scan in the right location and the right item...

More harm than good sometimes...

Yep. Ladders jebus you would think we were asking them to climb into actual fire!

Cause we have a couple that should not be on SFS/OPU they cancel items way to fast, part of that is being 16 years old and not having the patience to keep looking, the rest is that pressure to pick quickly in our pig sty.

 

[Steffy]

Yep. Ladders jebus you would think we were asking them to climb into actual fire!

Cause we have a couple that should not be on SFS/OPU they cancel items way to fast, part of that is being 16 years old and not having the patience to keep looking, the rest is that pressure to pick quickly in our pig sty.

Ours aren’t supposed to cancel anything. For OPU they need to contact the LOD, for a Ship order they need to pause it for one of us to audit. They do neither 🙄.

We have this one guy who is TERRIFIED of heights (like can’t even go half up the backroom aisle ladders), but he’s amazing other than that. He knows to call for me and I’ll monkey my way up to the top rungs for him and he carries heavy stuff for me.

We get eachother I guess 🤷‍♀️

 

[essie]

I have my first shift in SFS under packing next week. Does the tape auto cut for you to the correct length or how does that work? I have a bad habit of tangling tape lol

The tape spits out quick, and it's warm and slimy. I don't notice it anymore but every new person I train says they wish I'd warned them.

 

[Steffy]

The tape spits out quick, and it's warm and slimy. I don't notice it anymore but every new person I train says they wish I'd warned them.

Hehe part of the initiation process! Make sure to warn them that the gross sticky deposit it leaves on their fingers goes away after you wash your hands with just water for a few minutes.

 

[seasonaldude]

Yep. Ladders jebus you would think we were asking them to climb into actual fire!

Cause we have a couple that should not be on SFS/OPU they cancel items way to fast, part of that is being 16 years old and not having the patience to keep looking, the rest is that pressure to pick quickly in our pig sty.

Ladders are tough in general for them it seems. Found a new SFS guy stuck behind a ladder the other night. Skinny guy who somehow squeezed himself around the ladder to get something behind it. But, then couldn't figure out how to get himself and the casepack he was picking back around the ladder. I thought for a second about telling him I would need to call AP and an LOD to get him out, but decided to spare him and let him out.

 

[Bosch]

Ours aren’t supposed to cancel anything. For OPU they need to contact the LOD, for a Ship order they need to pause it for one of us to audit. They do neither 🙄.

We have this one guy who is TERRIFIED of heights (like can’t even go half up the backroom aisle ladders), but he’s amazing other than that. He knows to call for me and I’ll monkey my way up to the top rungs for him and he carries heavy stuff for me.

We get eachother I guess 🤷‍♀️

Yep, kinda how the backroom guys will lift heavy stuff for me, cause I will always take items out on the floor for them. Example a call for a TV from electronics, they bring it down I will take it out for them.

I make them pull the batch skipping over what they can't find, then at the end we go through how to find stuff. Do we need, the RFID gun, how to search mywork to see if we should bother to search. Is it in another backroom location, happens sometimes. The secret stash places aka not tied flex that always seems to happen. Then we cancel stuff, if we can't find it together. So they can see the work and learn the tricks that can help you find things.

 

[Steffy]

Yep!!! I love the way you work Bosch!! Any openings in your store?

 

[Steffy]

I’m looking to move soon...

 

[OrderSickUp]

At my store, if it calls for us to pull a casepack of, say, 6, but we only need 1-5 of it, we leave the rest (usually in the box) at the end of the backroom aisle and the backroom people backstock it into wacos.

Lately, though, ever since ePick was introduced I believe, it'll sometimes call for us to pull only 1 of something even though it was in a casepack of six, so it means leaving incomplete boxes on the shelf. The log etl asks us to not leave the 5 or however many items in the incomplete boxes, and I try to abide by that because the backroom people may think it's full when it's not, makes sense. But if it comes from an open shelf and I'm opening a box of, say, tiny ornaments, it may not be appropriate to leave them loosely in their current location because they belong in wacos now, but I don't always have time to open MyWork and remove them from the lower/upper shelf location and backstock them appropriately. And that's what happens with an employee who DOES know how to backstock; I don't think many, if any, of our seasonal SFS workers were trained in MyWork! (I know I've taught many how to check counts in MyWork, so there's no way in hell they would know backstock or the backroom location report.) But leaving it at the end of the aisle obviously isn't appropriate either, since that would mean stuff that's supposed to be in the backroom location isn't there. I agree that the "Set aside any for backstock" isn't ideal, since it removes stuff from the backroom that another SFSer could need (like the damn LOL Surprise cases) and they may not realize it was just at the end of that aisle and INF it.

I'm honestly not sure what would be the best answer to the problem.

 

[Antennae]

Lol can't "Train these three seasonals for SFS only " when I'm the closing OPU and BR guy. Instead I trained them on OPU until I went to lunch. LOD decided that was the perfect time to get the three of them to pull their own SFS carts and wondered why they each took an hour or more to pull.

Good thing I have some Lagunitas!

 

[RhettB]

No.
Epick should pick floor locations first, to avoid breaking open that casepack in the first place.
In the event that we have to break a casepack, it's doing it right. The point is to make the picking process as fast as possible. Backstocking unneeded eaches adds time.

Then your only creating more auto fills. In the end, with the backroom pulling it and the sales floor stocking it... how much time is going to be saved under your suggestion?

 

[Bosch]

I’m looking to move soon...

Seattle, expensive, rains nine months of the year and our management is a bunch of morons. And in January we go to a 6am unload.. Yeah that may be the end of my time with spot.. I can't wait 4hrs to get the packing side started and that is how long it is going to take to clear the truck from our packing area. With the 4am unload I can get things going by 8ish but with them going at six am its not going to work at all.

 

[LearningTree]

What is the discrepancy in time for backstocking vs not knowing where the 5 unlocated units are when all 6 that were located were just pulled?
Especially when people are horrible and just leave the box with 5 on the shelf - wouldn't happen if they were prompted to backstock the extra.

Better than higher INF %.

What would you suggest?

I'm not saying leave stuff unlocated on the shelf or in a random cart for someone else to do later. Having flex tms backstock that stuff flies directly against Target's big push to get all orders picked on time. Stores should come up with a better solution that works for their team. For example, I had my team walk down the line and put the extras on the correct push vehicle. That way they can take care of it after the order is picked and it's quicker than going around the store to push on the floor. The items will eventually get pushed and can still be found in the meantime.

 

[LearningTree]

hm Not sure I’m following the posts above about backstocking while picking for SFS/OPU.
At my store, we pull the whole casepack of 6 light bulbs it calls for, leave the 4-5 we don’t need at the end of the aisle, scan the 1-2 we actually need into our batch, and discard the empty box.
Sometimes it calls for 2 that aren’t in a casepack and once I see I only need 1 of them then I’ll backstock the other one back into its spot.

But, that might be too much to ask for some of our newer TMs... it seems figuring out how many items to pull is hard enough. Getting them to realize they pulled a case pack, and wtf a case pack is, and to differentiate between the items they need and those that aren’t part of their order, and to realize they need to backstock the ones that aren’t, and learn how to backstock, and remember to do it, and not be afraid to climb up the ladder, and scan in the right location and the right item...

More harm than good sometimes...

Others are saying leaving the box at the end of the aisle isn't ideal for various reasons (e.g. who's going to do it, if someone else needs it now they can't find it, etc.) If that works for your store and you have enough BRTMs that it'll get dealt with quickly then that's great. However I think most stores operate with very few BRTMs (since the company wants none during the day) so those items would just sit there, or get kicked around, stuffed in a random corner...

In an ideal world where Target's systems are perfect and everything was in the correct place and flex didn't have to haul ass to Mordor and waste time looking for it...then having them backstock right away wouldn't be an issue. It becomes a problem when you've already spent so much time looking for other items in your batch (hello softlines) that you're racing the clock to get your batch done on time. I've seen TMs miss a goal by just a few seconds. It's even happened to me. So if they can shave a few seconds here and few seconds there off their pick time by not backstocking themselves, then I'm all for it. This right here is what corp doesn't understand from their nice air conditioned offices where they only think in terms of ideals and not reality.