MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[allnew2]

I think it's more likely going to cap the cart size at 7, and make multiple batches for orders larger, similar to how the Move app splits up large pull batches.

Move no longer splits batches

 

[Sweet Pea]

location barcode to fake pull & rebackstock and just get it from the floor. I don’t have the time to go all the way to our main stockroom in my store layout to get one damn bottle of Clorox, it’s stupid.

I’m sorry I looked for an explanation for this and couldn’t find it.
I hate when I have to go into backstock to pull something I’m standing right by on the floor! I mean I pulled chocolate syrup from grocery and they also wanted strawberry syrup. Instead of just having me grab the bottle right there on the shelf next to the chocolate it had me go to the back room!
So are you saying there’s a way I can “cheat” this??

 

[Bosch]

I’m sorry I looked for an explanation for this and couldn’t find it.
I hate when I have to go into backstock to pull something I’m standing right by on the floor! I mean I pulled chocolate syrup from grocery and they also wanted strawberry syrup. Instead of just having me grab the bottle right there on the shelf next to the chocolate it had me go to the back room!
So are you saying there’s a way I can “cheat” this??

We print backroom location labels and scan the label but pull product from the floor. Trick to this though is you have to backstock the item back to the backroom location.

 

[allnew2]

I’m sorry I looked for an explanation for this and couldn’t find it.
I hate when I have to go into backstock to pull something I’m standing right by on the floor! I mean I pulled chocolate syrup from grocery and they also wanted strawberry syrup. Instead of just having me grab the bottle right there on the shelf next to the chocolate it had me go to the back room!
So are you saying there’s a way I can “cheat” this??

There is a way to cheat but you will fuck up accuracy if you don’t do it right. And believe me if your logistics tl is like me I will find out who creates the problem.

 

[sfsteam]

So does anybody from a USPS pickup store know whether sorting is really necessary? When we changed from UPS to USPS we were told that we had to have everything packed and sorted by 4:30pm in order for us to be green. But sorting seems like a big was of time. Even if it's a relatively easy task its a pain in the ass scanning one barcode and then another to just put a box on a pallet. We're so low on hours that most of the time we have only one packer and they cant pack and sort all the orders on their own.

I can't answer this. I'm in a store with fedex pickup. We have express trucks come at different times than the one ground/home pickup so we have to sort by express/everthing else. it was like this even before we had to "sort" containers - we had to keep separate pallets (when we have the room, two pallets for express, two for non express). On top of it, we have two times to worry about (and I'm not sure how it works at other stores) where some stuff needs to be packed by 4:30, the rest by 9:30pm.

 

[Bosch]

There is a way to cheat but you will fuck up accuracy if you don’t do it right. And believe me if your logistics tl is like me I will find out who creates the problem.

Fully agree with that. That is the trick don't fuck up the counts.

 

[Sweet Pea]

Fully agree with that. That is the trick don't fuck up the counts.

Lol. Too late! I think all ours are already off! Drives me crazy.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

There is a way to cheat but you will fuck up accuracy if you don’t do it right. And believe me if your logistics tl is like me I will find out who creates the problem.

We print backroom location labels and scan the label but pull product from the floor. Trick to this though is you have to backstock the item back to the backroom location.

This is such an ass backwards way of doing it. You save yourself a couple minutes but then your floor is empty and your backroom is full. The only time this is an okay idea is if your backroom is super jacked up near a bulk steel location and you have to move 10 pallets from the back of the line to get a crib mattress or something. Also “remember to backstock it back into location” ?? If you’re doing this to save time on OPU deadlines you should be pulling that item to fill the floor after you finish the order

 

[Dog]

I’m sorry I looked for an explanation for this and couldn’t find it.
I hate when I have to go into backstock to pull something I’m standing right by on the floor! I mean I pulled chocolate syrup from grocery and they also wanted strawberry syrup. Instead of just having me grab the bottle right there on the shelf next to the chocolate it had me go to the back room!
So are you saying there’s a way I can “cheat” this??

I get that you want to save time, but they have you pull from the back NOT the floor because guests shopping in the store can’t buy things that are sitting in the back room. This just creates more work for other people who have to scan for outs and pull from the back to fill the floor because the SFS TM working pulled from the floor instead of the back.

 

[SFSFun]

Boy, do I ever! Here's a thread I made almost a year ago:

Archived - Demoted due to impossible SFS standards

Before anyone says I'm being dramatic in using the word impossible, SFS at my store is expected to have less than 1% INF and pull SPU batches in under 5 minutes. This is sort of a long story, so I'm going to start from the beginning. My store has been doing SFS since the summer of 2015, and I...

www.thebreakroom.org

I don't want to bump it, but this seems like a good time for me to do a follow-up. I'll change everyone's name for this, and pick random names starting at the first of the alphabet.
The girl who I mentioned near the end of that post that I'll call Andrea, around the time I got kicked off, was being scheduled mostly for SFS, but sometimes for BR or reverse logistics shifts. And if you saw her in the break room, it was very obvious what workcenter she was on for the day. If she was happy and talkative, she was BR or rev-logistics. If she was at the table in the corner not wanting to talk, she was SFS. Management wasn't happy with her numbers, so they started putting Ben there. Andrea was also incredibly good at SFS.
Ben is a good worker, but, surprisingly enough, couldn't pull off that <1% INF score, so he started getting scheduled there less and less. Then Charlie got put in. In mid October, Charlie told management point blank that he never wanted to work SFS again due to the GSTL constantly getting on his case about "missed goal times on grey orders". Because a grey line next to the name in myGo means we missed the goal time. We tried as hard as we could, but couldn't convince the GS team that this wasn't the case. Around this time, our store hired Daryll. Since nobody was applying for the SFS position from the store, they had to open it up to the outside. So he came in, and after a month started getting mostly backroom shifts. These 4 were the only people working SFS, and generally only worked it twice a week because we still needed somebody to work there.

This is where it starts to get real funny. In early November we hired Erin as a seasonal SFS worker, as well as a slew of others. Erin got about 2 days of training from Charlie (who is not the most sociable of people) and she was on her own. Not only that, but after only being there a week or so, SHE was the one who had to train the new seasonal hires! We had a seasonal training seasonals. Admittedly, she was very good for someone who had only worked there for less than a fortnight.
During Christmas, only seasonals worked on SFS. The workload last year (2018) was only about 20% of what it was in 2017 when I was running it. It dropped because we got so far behind. In 2017 we made $1.3 million for the fiscal year, and in 2018 we only made ~$700,000 or so, mostly due to the lack of Christmas orders.

I don't blame the seasonal team one bit. As far as I know they all tried their best, but how good can you be a job with minimal training and a completely new worker running it? After Christmas, all but 2 of them were let go. Erin and Frank stayed. The biggest reason they stayed is because literally nobody else in the store wants the job. An older backroom woman, Ms. Trenchbull (I'm skipping a few letters here), told me that she laughed in the face of the ETL who asked her if she wanted to run SFS, and knowing her personality, I completely believe her. TLs feel like they've given up on SFS now. They never mention the metrics, and only badger the SFS worker whenever a SPU drops.

So to sum all this up: Our store used to be the best ranked in our district in terms of fulfillment percentage and sales. Management (minus the STL, who was on LoA) wanted better, so they kept kicking the best people off blaming them for all of the supposed "problems." When I eventually find a new job (40 applications, nothing still), I'm incredibly temped to gift them a children's book about the goose that laid the golden egg as a parting gift.

Holy shit almost everything in that thread is exactly what happened to me. From starting SFS back when it was a pilot in 2015, to the increasingly ridiculous goals, to idiotic HR blaming me exclusively for everything that went wrong. The only difference is the BRTL was on my side and I noped the fuck outta there before they got to the point of cutting my hours.

Hang in there and keep looking. Consider looking into certifications you can get relatively easily from a community/technical college to help your resume and get into another job field. I took a truck driving class to get my commercial drivers license in 5 weeks, and had job offers almost immediately.

And then you jump into the SA batch and it's a bra

Or an Apple lightning to headphone adapter for iPhone.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Hang in there and keep looking.

I hate that I have to, myself. Before this whole thing I actually liked working here.

 

[OrderSickUp]

My TL says in the next week or so they're rolling out a new OPU model that only allows a max of 7 dpcis per order. Thatll certainly help.

I think it's more likely going to cap the cart size at 7, and make multiple batches for orders larger, similar to how the Move app splits up large pull batches.

This won't solve the time problem and I think this will actually be worse. It doesn't matter if it's a 14-item single batch or two seven-item batches, the clock is still gonna start ticking at the same time (and since many Zebras have delayed notifications, who the hell knows when that clock really started, but that's another issue). Now you'll just have to have two carts/barcodes going and risk increased confusion? I always try to have two Zebras so I don't have to leave my SFS batch to do an OPU, but now I'll actually need it to do a complete OPU? Cool. 😕

Could Spot throw us a bone by increasing pick time accordingly? Sure, but they think it'll be more effective to instead add microphones so our crying will be louder.

 

[SuperTarget]

This won't solve the time problem and I think this will actually be worse. It doesn't matter if it's a 14-item single batch or two seven-item batches, the clock is still gonna start ticking at the same time (and since many Zebras have delayed notifications, who the hell knows when that clock really started, but that's another issue). Now you'll just have to have two carts/barcodes going and risk increased confusion? I always try to have two Zebras so I don't have to leave my SFS batch to do an OPU, but now I'll actually need it to do a complete OPU? Cool. 😕

Could Spot throw us a bone by increasing pick time accordingly? Sure, but they think it'll be more effective to instead add microphones so our crying will be louder.

I don’t think the time will ever be extended except possibly during the holidays when orders are at a much higher volume. During this time of year it’s reasonable honestly. Have your store budget the hours of a second TM to work on the other batch now that they will be split.

 

[Bosch]

This is such an ass backwards way of doing it. You save yourself a couple minutes but then your floor is empty and your backroom is full. The only time this is an okay idea is if your backroom is super jacked up near a bulk steel location and you have to move 10 pallets from the back of the line to get a crib mattress or something. Also “remember to backstock it back into location” ?? If you’re doing this to save time on OPU deadlines you should be pulling that item to fill the floor after you finish the order

We pull from the floor cause we can't fucking get to the shit in the backroom cause this modern process doesn't allow for a clean backroom. Cause after 9am there is no longer access to parts of our backroom. Early in the day cause all the pallets are out on the floor we can pull from the back but after? Yeah not happening. I don't give a fuck about a full floor anymore, nor do I care about filling the floor. Why? Cause our leadership doesn't give a fuck.

Our SFS process is shut down cause they gave us 4hrs a day for four days to complete the entire process 200 orders a day 4hrs to pick them all and pack them all for one person. Then shrugged their shoulders and blamed us for it not being done. "That is what we were given for hours, we don't understand why it didn't get done.".

 

[PogDog]

Gotta love pausing a SFS batch in Epick to grab an OPU batch that just dropped. Finish the OPU and go to scan my cart to restart my SFS order, but the scanner doesn't scan anymore. 🙄 Now I'm waiting for my device to reboot. Time sinks all around me.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

We pull from the floor cause we can't fucking get to the shit in the backroom cause this modern process doesn't allow for a clean backroom. Cause after 9am there is no longer access to parts of our backroom. Early in the day cause all the pallets are out on the floor we can pull from the back but after? Yeah not happening. I don't give a fuck about a full floor anymore, nor do I care about filling the floor. Why? Cause our leadership doesn't give a fuck.

Our SFS process is shut down cause they gave us 4hrs a day for four days to complete the entire process 200 orders a day 4hrs to pick them all and pack them all for one person. Then shrugged their shoulders and blamed us for it not being done. "That is what we were given for hours, we don't understand why it didn't get done.".

I don’t understand people who work at target, hate their job, and don’t do anything about it. It’s retail you’re not losing much. Quit and find another job

 

[RunForACallBox]

🙄

 

[PackAndCry]

There's plenty of reasons to pull from the floor. Doing FAs is about speed, if I'm at the service desk putting something in hold, and the item that drops in is located at the checklanes, why should I go to the back and be less productive when I could just pull from a checklane endcap and get right back to the ship batch I was in? Or, of course, it's in bulk and the Crown can't be used/the item is blocked.

Oh, and IF YOU DONT THINK TARGET IS PERFECT AND BRIAN CORNELL IS GOD, YOU SHOULD JUST QUIT. 😉

 

[CassRoslyn]

I don’t understand people who work at target, hate their job, and don’t do anything about it. It’s retail you’re not losing much. Quit and find another job

I dont know where you live, but where I am jobs aren't just falling out of the sky...especially at $12 an hour. I love this job and hate it in equal measure. Just let peeps complain dude.

 

[Bosch]

I don’t understand people who work at target, hate their job, and don’t do anything about it. It’s retail you’re not losing much. Quit and find another job

I don't hate my job, there are just things are not my paygrade to give a fuck about. Can't access things in the backroom so we take them from the floor. Leadership doesn't care, so neither do I. I keep my job stats as good as I can and what I can control I do. What I can't = I don't give two shits about it.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

I don't hate my job, there are just things are not my paygrade to give a fuck about. Can't access things in the backroom so we take them from the floor. Leadership doesn't care, so neither do I. I keep my job stats as good as I can and what I can control I do. What I can't = I don't give two shits about it.

I agree it’s not your job to fix the problem but saying it’s not your job to pull the product from the backroom is stupid. That’s exactly your job.

 

[OrderSickUp]

I don’t think the time will ever be extended except possibly during the holidays when orders are at a much higher volume. During this time of year it’s reasonable honestly. Have your store budget the hours of a second TM to work on the other batch now that they will be split.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Another person? You're funny. It's much easier to have me running around like a chicken with my head cut off as OPU times and SFS pack times/pickups creep up and have to beg for packing help from leadership, making me look like a crappy employee!

 

[Bosch]

I agree it’s not your job to fix the problem but saying it’s not your job to pull the product from the backroom is stupid. That’s exactly your job.

I pull from the backroom all day long. In these cases its either take it from the floor or kill the order, cause you are not getting to product in the back.. Unless you can levitate your ass up there. I long for the days of move a couple pallets and grab a wave or the crown. You can't use either since there is nowhere to clear the stuff you are clearing to.

 

[flexin]

New way of scanning OPU items into hold locations is killing my times. :-(. Combine that with now having to backstock partial cases, it has a big impact. They need to increase goal times, or make the goals tied to the size of the order.

I have a love/hate relationship with this new system of back stocking partial cases. It slows things down a lot, especially when the back room aisle I'm in is packed full with boxes, pallets, and U-Boats. I'm sure leadership wouldn't approve, however I've decided that squeezing myself through and/or climbing over boxes to get to a location is significantly faster than moving everything out, just to push it all back in. But with this new way of back stocking partial cases, it usually means I have to get myself in and out of the aisle twice. Once to retrieve the item and scan it into my cart, and a second time to scan the partial case into nearby hold location.

I do like that it forces TMs to back stock partial cases, rather than just leave them in an aisle for someone else to deal with another day. I'm hopeful that it'll help keep our back room cleaner. But honestly, I don't know if it's really making much of a difference. I'm trying to stay positive though.

 

[seasonaldude]

I agree it’s not your job to fix the problem but saying it’s not your job to pull the product from the backroom is stupid. That’s exactly your job.

No, not exactly. The job is to fulfill orders in the allotted time. That's priority 1 through 100. If we have to cut corners to get it done so be it. If I "cheat" and pick something from the floor instead of the back, no one is going to say shit. On the other hand, if I miss goal times because I'm moving crap around in the back to get to an item, STL is going to tell me to go to 3 so he can bitch about it.