MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[PogDog]

I know the wifi turns off at some point at night. I suspect that is probably when and why you can't print.

Semi true. The response from the database is on a 30-minute cycle. The wifi may be limited in the middle of the night and the databases might be maintenances during that time as well. But depending on when your store's cycle time is (our's is the :05 and :35 minute marks after hitting the pack station tie), you may have to wait 30 minutes before you see collates. The wifi down time would only limit you during that period.

Granted, if the data base is down it doesn't matter if the wifi works or not. The smart solution would be a local server that pulls the data when the batches are dropped. The data is stored until the batches are pulled and then it's purged for the next group of batches. The local server wouldn't be effected by the wifi and would only connect to the main database when pulling batch/collate information (once or twice a day). But I'm no IT Specialist, so what do I know?

 

[Kaveri]

What's the fastest way to do FF on a lot of orders if I'm by myself?

 

[Guest]

Run as fast as you can.

 

[IHeartCarts]

So we were told we would get even more orders now, up to 320. 175 was supposed to be our max. We don't have any TMs available to work. Everyone is at 40 hours and the BR looks like crap because everyone is doing SFS.

 

[PogDog]

So we were told we would get even more orders now, up to 320. 175 was supposed to be our max. We don't have any TMs available to work. Everyone is at 40 hours and the BR looks like crap because everyone is doing SFS.

The rollout was smooth for our store. The production level was a slow trickle. Then a few weeks in, they opened up the tap and it was a steady stream. Then a few weeks later, the tap was open more. We were handling things, nobody felt overwhelmed. Then a day or two before Black Friday, full stream. Now it feels like the tap was broken off and the influx is getting a bit outta control.

We're still managing fairly successfully, but for some of you, it sounds like the whole process is flooded. Even if you keep bailing, the waters are getting above your heads. And it's sinking your store.

Tread water people. Make it through the rest of this week. Hopefully a dam will be built and the waters will recede.

 

[Biscuit]

All I have to say about Flex is that it's killing our store instock.
We didn't get more trucks to balance off the extra sales. Black Friday and Saturday during the Holiday Shop promo was a misery. As soon as we would put stuff on the shelf, Flex was grabbing it. Customers were pissed. And online shoppers are MAD at Target.com. Congrats Target, you are a bunch of idiots.

 

[Nauzhror]

I walked into 17 batches, which was completed within 90 minutes.

Wow. You mean your store is actually staffed appropriately? No way can we do 17 batches of SFS in 90 minutes. I can maybe do 3 batches a hour or so. Usually 1-2 people picking, even if 2 we'd be looking at about 3 hours, I guess with 4 people picking 17 could be done in 90 minutes in my store.

And yeah my store is fucked.

When I left at 3:45, we had 62 flexible fulfillment orders to pick, 31 ship from store batches to pick, and 84 ship from store orders to pack.

 

[hufflepuff]

Around 175 FFs when I walked in this morning. Taken off instocks and put on them... 7am-5pm.

 

[Kroneru]

STL is blinded by sales. 50 -> 75 -> 150 was the original plan. 175 -> 220 is where we're at. In two weeks they want the limit raised to 500. Two TMs from other work centers were trained today with three more to be trained soon. And instead of 1 7am, 2 8am, and 1 9am TMs it will transition to 2 4am, 2 6am, and 2 8am TMs.

Meanwhile I'm looking at all this like

 

[brizzy93]

STL is blinded by sales. 50 -> 75 -> 150 was the original plan. 175 -> 220 is where we're at. In two weeks they want the limit raised to 500. Two TMs from other work centers were trained today with three more to be trained soon. And instead of 1 7am, 2 8am, and 1 9am TMs it will transition to 2 4am, 2 6am, and 2 8am TMs.

Meanwhile I'm looking at all this like

Same. My STL just increased our cap too. We had 366ish orders today. Minus the shit we didn't have. We might have hit 400 actually. Idk. My STL wanted everything pulled by 2pm. Packed by 4pm. I was like is this a joke? We had 2 ETL's and a BR TM pulling along with me and the SFS captain. I trained a price change member on pulling. She shadowed me. Another ETL was packing the majority of the time. Had price change packing for an hour. POG team for about an hour as well. Just heard news that we are training 2 more people that will be a part of the team. A POG TM and another HL TM. I just hope they don't rotate shifts after 4Q. I was getting 3 SFS shifts. SFS captain was getting 4 SFS shifts and a BR shift.

 

[see spot save]

We went up to 300 today, are running dangerously low on 439s and 278s. We blew through three pallets of each in less than a week.

I pulled batches with two PDAs today, was able to get 4-5 in an hour rather than 2-3. I'm happy I get the first or second shift, mostly pull the whole day. We are very limited when it comes to space for packing, it's a bit ridiculous with 4 people trying to use one station.

 

[brizzy93]

We went up to 300 today, are running dangerously low on 439s and 278s. We blew through three pallets of each in less than a week.

I pulled batches with two PDAs today, was able to get 4-5 in an hour rather than 2-3. I'm happy I get the first or second shift, mostly pull the whole day. We are very limited when it comes to space for packing, it's a bit ridiculous with 4 people trying to use one station.

We are completely out of 439's and 454's. So we have resorted to bubble wrapping boxes and using poly mailers. It's bad. It's either 413 or straight up to 280. We are using more 277's than ever before. We had 5 of us at one pack station. We were able to get a folding table requisitioned a while back for additional workspace. Didn't need it til now.

 

[see spot save]

Our ETL said no to getting us an additional table, we did manage to get one from the breakroom for a few hours the other day though.

Luckily we've got one or two full pallets of 454s and ordered a two pallets of 439s two days ago and another 3 today. I'm happy I ordered what I did before this all started, we've had other stores calling trying to get some supplies. It's pretty out of control

 

[brizzy93]

Our ETL said no to getting us an additional table, we did manage to get one from the breakroom for a few hours the other day though.

Luckily we've got one or two full pallets of 454s and ordered a two pallets of 439s two days ago and another 3 today. I'm happy I ordered what I did before this all started, we've had other stores calling trying to get some supplies. It's pretty out of control

My management had no issues with another table. We are tucked into a corner of the backroom, between the hallway to bulk, and the diaper/pet run. Our backroom set up doesn't seem like its a common thing. Most are straight shots. It's not like we are blocking anything off with it. It's against the wall that is up around the cleanup janitor closet room

 

[Nauzhror]

We got an extra table today or yesterday. When I left today we had everything picked, and 2 SPU's to pick. 200+ collates to pack. STL has people coming in overnight to pack. She was immensely pleased when I told her everything was picked and all the overnight people had to do was pack.

 

[PogDog]

At least you guys still have supplies. I counted eight 439s left. No 454s. We've resorted to collecting empty boxes from the truck (and even raided the local Pet Smart for more, a TM's husband is a manager there).

It's just embarrassing and chaotic. We're at around 180 orders (but with early tomorrow and leftover from previous, we flirt with 300). Had to leave 6 batches of picks and 3 carts of pack at 7:30 tonight for the opener.

I love picking, but not much of a packing fan. One TM has an online eBay gig after work. She loves packing. Wish we could figure out a better picker/packer schedule.

How does your team determine who picks and who packs? Do you have dedicated pickers and packers? Does the TMs start time determine who does what? Do you have a picking goal before packing? Is picking more important than packing? How many batches can you fit in a cart? Do you sort your collates before packing (rush/air? order by cart? By location in cart? Just how they come off the printer? Big stuff first? Little? Boxed? Bagged?..)

 

[Nauzhror]

I've just always packed collates in the order they printed. I've picked far more than I've packed, we have a few TM's that prefer to pack, I prefer to pick, so works fine for me. There's no leadership direction involved though in who does what, just a matter of whoever is scheduled on a given day deciding among themselves. I guess leadership'd step in obviously if two of us came in and both refused to pack, but that'd never happen. I'll do whatever the other person doesn't want to do more or less, but I prefer to pick over pack and have done far more picking than packing. That also works well because we can teach new hires to pack way quicker because learning the layout of the store is just something that is learned over time through repetition than is taught IMO. A-G are all pretty explanatory, but things like knowing which A aisle the back wall starts at can save a lot of time (walk to the far end of the store for A53 only to realize the aisles end at A49 and that !53 is the wall at the other end of the store is a large time-waster for example), as can knowing which side of Ready to Wear H3 is at, etc.

 

[see spot save]

How does your team determine who picks and who packs? Do you have dedicated pickers and packers? Does the TMs start time determine who does what? Do you have a picking goal before packing? Is picking more important than packing? How many batches can you fit in a cart? Do you sort your collates before packing (rush/air? order by cart? By location in cart? Just how they come off the printer? Big stuff first? Little? Boxed? Bagged?..)

I come in first (most days - right now I'm rotating 1st/2nd shift). By default I'm the picker for the day. I have three other TMs who come in staggered, the first one will usually help me pick for a few hours before breaking off to start packing. When the other two come in they go straight to packing. I usually pick for 6 or 7 hours of my shift.

Picking is more important to me because guests can buy things that I need to pick which lowers my metric. As far as packing goes, there's 3+ TMs packing <300 orders, 8 hours each....they're fine. If they can't finish there's something wrong.

I usually fit two batches per cart. Going into 4th quarter we had 6 dedicated carts, since then I've acquired 4 more 3-tiers and printed up a few cards with parent/child locations on them that I'll tape to guest carts if I'm desperate. I've learned the way the batches are routed which helps me minimize my trips around the store. I can usually pick 2-3 batches per hour. Today I managed to fit 4 batches per cart, but it was mostly cosmetics.

Since I average one full cart per 30 minutes, I get it scanned into the hold one at a time and the collates print mostly in order. When you've got 10+ carts filled with orders you need to sort the collates, and with +3 TMs packing you need to streamline it. As far as the order in which things get packed....I'm lazy and usually defer the multi item orders (like 6+ items) till the end of the cart.

 

[Kroneru]

How does your team determine who picks and who packs?

Watch them and see there strong suits for the most part

Do you have dedicated pickers and packers?

Yes and depending on when certain TMs arrive we'll tell people to switch rolls as others clock in.

Does the TMs start time determine who does what?

Currently is 1 @ 7am, 2 @ 8am, and 1 @ 9am TM. Depending on the previous days load the first three pick and the fourth pack or first two pick and other two pack. Once everything is picked all TMs pack.

Do you have a picking goal before packing? Is picking more important than packing?

We try to meet the official deadline of 2:30pm for pick timeliness. At the end the of the day I prioritize picking everything then blitz packing as much as we can or until completion.

How many batches can you fit in a cart?

Typically I can fit 3 thought it all depends on what the guest orders so this is hard to give any number too.

Do you sort your collates before packing (rush/air? order by cart? By location in cart? Just how they come off the printer? Big stuff first? Little? Boxed? Bagged?..)

We sort by cart off the bat. Our fastest packer separates softlines to a separate pile per cart but just when packing solo.

 

[H2Owned]

At least you guys still have supplies. I counted eight 439s left. No 454s. We've resorted to collecting empty boxes from the truck (and even raided the local Pet Smart for more, a TM's husband is a manager there).

It's just embarrassing and chaotic. We're at around 180 orders (but with early tomorrow and leftover from previous, we flirt with 300). Had to leave 6 batches of picks and 3 carts of pack at 7:30 tonight for the opener.

I love picking, but not much of a packing fan. One TM has an online eBay gig after work. She loves packing. Wish we could figure out a better picker/packer schedule.

How does your team determine who picks and who packs? Do you have dedicated pickers and packers? Does the TMs start time determine who does what? Do you have a picking goal before packing? Is picking more important than packing? How many batches can you fit in a cart? Do you sort your collates before packing (rush/air? order by cart? By location in cart? Just how they come off the printer? Big stuff first? Little? Boxed? Bagged?..)

Honestly I don't know how my TL picks who picks and who packs but if it was me I would pick the team members who pick the fastest pick and the same for packing. My TL is starting to keep track of how long it takes people to pick and pack a batch which is so annoying...but needed.
Picking is more important to my STL ...she is always asking how many we have left.... we normally only put one batch in a cart because our batches are normally 25 items each. To make packing faster we separate the collates by carts so that way each station can focus on one cart instead of 30 carts at a time. Also we normally try to scan the whole cart before they start to pack so we can pass the cart on to a picker. But we are an ESFS so we have a lot of big batches to pick.

 

[Nauzhror]

One batch to a cart now. I did more for a while, but it lead to issues. I'd click pick another batch, rather than return to pack station. It'd lead to collates printing in a delayed manner and the people packing running out of collates so they asked me to switch to 1 batch per cart so as to allow collates to print in a more productive manner.

 

[PogDog]

But we are an ESFS so we have a lot of big batches to pick.

So many questions to ask about ESFS. But I'll leave that for another time/thread.

It sounds as if most of us are in the same boat / at the same level. I'm fast and organized at picking. I can get 4-5 batches in a cart in about an hour/1.5 hours, depending on the orders. Dropping off large items is essential to that process. I usually keep smalls/SL items in the top (poly / 126s), medium items (413/439/454) in the middle and larger stuff/drop-offs on the bottom. I sort my collates to reflect that and found that packing goes quicker if I start at the bottom and go up. I can do a cart in about 2/2.5 hours start to finish. But, we don't typically own our own carts. The first two TMs pick upon arrival. After the third TM arrives, the first TM goes back to pack or stays picking until about noon/1ish, depending on workload. Staggered packing after that; the second TM goes back, when the first leaves; and the third goes back, when the second leaves. The third loads the UPS pickup and does closing duties.

 

[SFSFun]

How does your team determine who picks and who packs? Do you have dedicated pickers and packers? Does the TMs start time determine who does what? Do you have a picking goal before packing?

Some TMs prefer picking and some prefer packing, but all of them are willing to move around depending on where the workload is. We try to keep two TMs packing at all times if most of the carts are full. We have so many orders now that we can't possibly pick everything before packing (not sure what the actual cap is now, but it's 50+ batches).

Is picking more important than packing?

Yes! In an ideal world, you would pick every order as soon as it drops, because every minute you don't pick it is another minute that guests on the floor could buy the last of an item that you needed to pick.

How many batches can you fit in a cart?

One or two. If you have enough carts, try not to overstuff them because it makes packing harder to find/dig out the needed items.

Do you sort your collates before packing (rush/air? order by cart? By location in cart? Just how they come off the printer? Big stuff first? Little? Boxed? Bagged?..)

Yes, we sort the collates by cart so that we can free up a cart quickly for someone to use to pick.

 

[PogDog]

One batch to a cart now. I did more for a while, but it lead to issues. I'd click pick another batch, rather than return to pack station. It'd lead to collates printing in a delayed manner and the people packing running out of collates so they asked me to switch to 1 batch per cart so as to allow collates to print in a more productive manner.

Yeah, if too many TMs are picking multiple batches, it can get hairy when you go to print collates. Especially if one TM takes over another's batch or splits a batch into multiple carts.

I probably should get used to less batches in a cart. We have 7 carts, and 4 backup parent/child labels. We have the space and the carts could be turned around quicker with less to pack. I'll have to consider doing that.

 

[H2Owned]

So many questions to ask about ESFS. But I'll leave that for another time/thread.

Well im here to answer any questions you have about it. So feel free to ask.

 

[Nauzhror]

How high is your order limit in an ESFS store? Ours is 300 still to the best of my knowledge, assuming ESFS is probably over 1,000 orders a day?