MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[brizzy93]

Just about

I was lucky today, not a lot of liquids to tape and bag. It was mostly home decor and softlines.

Yeah, I like to separate my collates into single item, multi item, and softlines. I usually do softlines first because it's the smallest stack. I had the most softlines shit today

 

[SFSFun]

I did. Is that good or bad?

I had 9 pick batches, 7 of which were 25 items each. Done picking 2.5 hours into my shift, went to break, packed all 75 orders between 9:50 and 11:45

It's good if you didn't have a ton of INFs (which it seems you didn't) and if you actually used packing materials (some TMs just throw it in an empty box and tape it shut).

On a good day it usually takes 20-40 minutes to pick a full batch. And we get mostly multiple item orders, so 79 orders would probably turn into 15 batches.

Packing 35 an hour is not unheard of if it's mostly easy items and I have a good rythem going, but usually I'm much slower than that.

 

[OffYaPhone]

Did you guys run into the issue with an electric shaver being mispriced on T.com yesterday? I think they usually sell for 100+ and they were listed as 10 on the site. LOD was informed when the first guest tried to pick it up and she told him that we wouldn't honor that price.

 

[H2Owned]

Did you guys run into the issue with an electric shaver being mispriced on T.com yesterday? I think they usually sell for 100+ and they were listed as 10 on the site. LOD was informed when the first guest tried to pick it up and she told him that we wouldn't honor that price.

Yeah we had a problem to.. we had picked 5 different orders of Philips shavers.. then the LOD told us about the glitch. So we canceled all the orders.

 

[mrknownothing]

Have any of you SFS folks ever had to fulfill an order for a ship-to-store guest? Or does SFS only ship directly to guests?

 

[SFSFun]

Haven't had it happen yet, nor have I received an STS order from another store.

 

[RhettB]

Ship to store for us comes on the UPS or FedEx delivery, then the fulfillment TM processes it using the colate that came with it.

 

[SFSFun]

Ship to store for us comes on the UPS or FedEx delivery, then the fulfillment TM processes it using the colate that came with it.

But has your SFS team shipped out an STS order?

 

[RhettB]

I honestly dont pay attention when I am helping what the destination address is.

 

[Firefox]

I'm fairly certain that we have. We are also ESFS and a store that receives STS orders though, so that could be part of it.

 

[Shadowski]

Have any of you SFS folks ever had to fulfill an order for a ship-to-store guest? Or does SFS only ship directly to guests?

At our store, when the SFS TM is there, he/she is responsible for all SFS orders, all FF store pickup orders, and to process the Ship to Store orders for the day.

Receiving gives them to us, and Guest Service sets them aside and calls us on the walkie.

It's easy to get it all in, but then again we're standard SFS and get about 50-60 orders per day. Processing them is extremely easy, so it's not a big deal.

 

[H2Owned]

At our store, when the SFS TM is there, he/she is responsible for all SFS orders, all FF store pickup orders, and to process the Ship to Store orders for the day.

Receiving gives them to us, and Guest Service sets them aside and calls us on the walkie.

It's easy to get it all in, but then again we're standard SFS and get about 50-60 orders per day. Processing them is extremely easy, so it's not a big deal.

No he isn't asking about the process he is asking out of the 50 to 60 orders a day you do... do any of them go to another store for the guest to pick up... I haven't seen any honestly because I was wondering the same thing especially since we are an ESFS so we would have online only items.

 

[Shadowski]

No he isn't asking about the process he is asking out of the 50 to 60 orders a day you do... do any of them go to another store for the guest to pick up... I haven't seen any honestly because I was wondering the same thing especially since we are an ESFS so we would have online only items.

Ack. Right. I have never seen one sent to a store from my orders over the last year at a normal sfs store.

 

[Firefox]

I might have already talked about this, but have you guys been receiving more furniture/SA items? A couple of months ago, before the SA update, we would have maybe 10-20 SIO orders out of our 300 order cap. But now, SA items take up at least 50-60 of our orders. Before, we could just all pick regularly and come back to take care of the SIO items once the regular items had been picked, but now we need to have at least one person (usually two) dedicated to pulling the SA batches from 8am on in order to have them all picked in time to start packing. I have mixed feelings about it, since I actually enjoy pulling the SA batches more than the regular batches, but it can be annoying when it comes time to load up the trailer, and on weekdays we only get a regular UPS van that comes to pick up what they can at around 4pm.

I think the change probably occurred when we got the SA batch update, but I was mostly scheduled in the Backroom at the time so I'm not certain.

 

[SFSFun]

We usually get 1 or 2 per day out of our 100 order cap (a few more if there's a furniture coupon). Today we got none.

I remember reading somewhere that Target was doing something or another to drive furniture sales, so maybe that could be what you're seeing. Or maybe the actual fulfillment centers are holding off on furniture since ESFS stores have so much of it.

If we had just tons of furniture batches, I would probably take a handful of the SIOC packslip pouches and a bcode printer and put a packslip and bcode on the side of every item to make it easier to pack. Then there would be no need to move any of those items again until they are loaded by UPS.

 

[Firefox]

Alright, so SFS is now fucked at my store. First off, right when I walk in, I was approached by my ETL-OPs, and she broke the news. We are only allowed a maximum of 5 SFS TMs a day, which is absolutely not enough to function on 300 orders. Typically, with 6 TM's (which is basically the minimum required), we'll have one person who comes in at 6:30 who will load the truck, clean up the packing area, finish any packs not finished the day before, etc. If the packing area is spic and span, then they're start picking the SA batches. The next two people come in at 7, and they start picking the regular batches. Then two people will come in at 8, and they pick regular batches until we run out. The last person comes in at 9, and they usually spend most of their time packing and once we've finished packing, they usually deal with the supply audits, refilling supplies in the packing stations, and such while everyone else goes to pick tomorrow's workload. However, it's only with 6 people that we can come clean on any given day. On particularly heavy days with 6 people staffed, we would need 7 to come clean. So to limit us to 5 is ridiculous.

Today was the day we started only have 5 people scheduled, and even though it was a fairly average day (38 batches when I walked in, probably 22-ish regular and 16-ish SA batches which doesn't account for anything that dropped in while we were picking) we were picking regular batches all the way up until 1pm, which is completely unacceptable! It's not even an issue of speed, it's an issue of practicality. Our rule of thumb is that you should be able to pick 2 full batches in an hour, and with 3 people picking regular batches it would take at least 4 hours to pick the regular batches with minimum distraction from guests. If you include breaks, it gets messy. Plus, with the staggered times that we come in, it means it wouldn't be done until noon at the earliest. And this is just on an average day, on heavy days there would be zero chance of coming clean on any given metric.

That's not even the best part. I was told that we might be going up to 500 orders within the next month, and that our limit of 5 people wouldn't change. So not only would we not be able to run a green workcenter with 5 people scheduled daily at 300 orders, we would be blood red at 500 orders. I was told that it would only go up if our order cap was increased past 500. I was very, very vocal about how terrible of an idea this is.

 

[see spot save]

I wish I worked at your store @Firefox ...I'd love a challenge like that.

I worked SFS today, I think I ended up with 57 to pick and pack in 4 hours. Other than the one order that glitched out, I think I did pretty well. Handled all of the SPU and STS orders too, most of the STS were left over from the previous day.

 

[Firefox]

I wish I worked at your store @Firefox ...I'd love a challenge like that.

I worked SFS today, I think I ended up with 57 to pick and pack in 4 hours. Other than the one order that glitched out, I think I did pretty well. Handled all of the SPU and STS orders too, most of the STS were left over from the previous day.

Please come to my store. We're even losing a few of our essential TMs.

 

[H2Owned]

Alright, so SFS is now fucked at my store. First off, right when I walk in, I was approached by my ETL-OPs, and she broke the news. We are only allowed a maximum of 5 SFS TMs a day, which is absolutely not enough to function on 300 orders. Typically, with 6 TM's (which is basically the minimum required), we'll have one person who comes in at 6:30 who will load the truck, clean up the packing area, finish any packs not finished the day before, etc. If the packing area is spic and span, then they're start picking the SA batches. The next two people come in at 7, and they start picking the regular batches. Then two people will come in at 8, and they pick regular batches until we run out. The last person comes in at 9, and they usually spend most of their time packing and once we've finished packing, they usually deal with the supply audits, refilling supplies in the packing stations, and such while everyone else goes to pick tomorrow's workload. However, it's only with 6 people that we can come clean on any given day. On particularly heavy days with 6 people staffed, we would need 7 to come clean. So to limit us to 5 is ridiculous.

Today was the day we started only have 5 people scheduled, and even though it was a fairly average day (38 batches when I walked in, probably 22-ish regular and 16-ish SA batches which doesn't account for anything that dropped in while we were picking) we were picking regular batches all the way up until 1pm, which is completely unacceptable! It's not even an issue of speed, it's an issue of practicality. Our rule of thumb is that you should be able to pick 2 full batches in an hour, and with 3 people picking regular batches it would take at least 4 hours to pick the regular batches with minimum distraction from guests. If you include breaks, it gets messy. Plus, with the staggered times that we come in, it means it wouldn't be done until noon at the earliest. And this is just on an average day, on heavy days there would be zero chance of coming clean on any given metric.

That's not even the best part. I was told that we might be going up to 500 orders within the next month, and that our limit of 5 people wouldn't change. So not only would we not be able to run a green workcenter with 5 people scheduled daily at 300 orders, we would be blood red at 500 orders. I was told that it would only go up if our order cap was increased past 500. I was very, very vocal about how terrible of an idea this is.

Wow that sucks . .. I can't imagine our store cutting down to 5 a day... we barely make it with 6. We have 5 people in the day and 1 closer. My FFTL did say something about a new system tho.. idk if she said everything has to be done picked and packed by 1pm now or everything has to be picked by 1:00pm... and idk how we are going to do 500 orders a day with just 6 people..

 

[Shadowski]

Alright, so SFS is now fucked at my store. First off, right when I walk in, I was approached by my ETL-OPs, and she broke the news. We are only allowed a maximum of 5 SFS TMs a day, which is absolutely not enough to function on 300 orders. Typically, with 6 TM's (which is basically the minimum required), we'll have one person who comes in at 6:30 who will load the truck, clean up the packing area, finish any packs not finished the day before, etc. If the packing area is spic and span, then they're start picking the SA batches. The next two people come in at 7, and they start picking the regular batches. Then two people will come in at 8, and they pick regular batches until we run out. The last person comes in at 9, and they usually spend most of their time packing and once we've finished packing, they usually deal with the supply audits, refilling supplies in the packing stations, and such while everyone else goes to pick tomorrow's workload. However, it's only with 6 people that we can come clean on any given day. On particularly heavy days with 6 people staffed, we would need 7 to come clean. So to limit us to 5 is ridiculous.

Today was the day we started only have 5 people scheduled, and even though it was a fairly average day (38 batches when I walked in, probably 22-ish regular and 16-ish SA batches which doesn't account for anything that dropped in while we were picking) we were picking regular batches all the way up until 1pm, which is completely unacceptable! It's not even an issue of speed, it's an issue of practicality. Our rule of thumb is that you should be able to pick 2 full batches in an hour, and with 3 people picking regular batches it would take at least 4 hours to pick the regular batches with minimum distraction from guests. If you include breaks, it gets messy. Plus, with the staggered times that we come in, it means it wouldn't be done until noon at the earliest. And this is just on an average day, on heavy days there would be zero chance of coming clean on any given metric.

That's not even the best part. I was told that we might be going up to 500 orders within the next month, and that our limit of 5 people wouldn't change. So not only would we not be able to run a green workcenter with 5 people scheduled daily at 300 orders, we would be blood red at 500 orders. I was told that it would only go up if our order cap was increased past 500. I was very, very vocal about how terrible of an idea this is.

That's terrible. I have no idea where they get these ideas from, but it's not from people in any store.

We're just a SFS store, but around Christmas last year we were at 250 per day. We were allowed 3 TM's at once to do it and we still fell behind. And throughout the year we are average in the top 3 for the group score. So we know what we're doing.

At one point during Christmas, we actually had our DTL and the Group Leader...... yeah, the freaking Group Leader (or whoever the person directly above the District TL, I dunno for sure, but it was her boss )..... actually picking orders on the floor while we packed. They weren't too bad to be honest. But it's good to see leadership at the upper level at least trying it for a day to see what it's all about.

Normally we are capped at the 50 mark right now, but we might get like... 55 each day. With one person it's fine. Translates to about 7 batches total, at least one is a SA and we can add like one rush to it in the middle of the day.

That's a fucked up situation though. I'd be super mad if my SFS team had to deal with that. :/

 

[anathema]

We had 5 for 500 orders during holiday season, easily doable. A lot of it just comes down to time management and simply working faster. 2 pick, 2 pack, and 1 flex.

 

[Firefox]

We had 5 for 500 orders during holiday season, easily doable. A lot of it just comes down to time management and simply working faster. 2 pick, 2 pack, and 1 flex.

2 people picking isn't anywhere near enough for 500 orders though. Are you sure that's right? Because the only time that it might work is when almost all of your orders are in a small area, like toys during Q4, but any other time of the year we are going all across the store. We aim to be done picking by 10am, packed by 2pm, and trailer loaded by 3:30pm, and even with our two fastest pickers we might finish picking by 12:30pm at 300 orders.

 

[brizzy93]

Alright, so SFS is now fucked at my store. First off, right when I walk in, I was approached by my ETL-OPs, and she broke the news. We are only allowed a maximum of 5 SFS TMs a day, which is absolutely not enough to function on 300 orders. Typically, with 6 TM's (which is basically the minimum required), we'll have one person who comes in at 6:30 who will load the truck, clean up the packing area, finish any packs not finished the day before, etc. If the packing area is spic and span, then they're start picking the SA batches. The next two people come in at 7, and they start picking the regular batches. Then two people will come in at 8, and they pick regular batches until we run out. The last person comes in at 9, and they usually spend most of their time packing and once we've finished packing, they usually deal with the supply audits, refilling supplies in the packing stations, and such while everyone else goes to pick tomorrow's workload. However, it's only with 6 people that we can come clean on any given day. On particularly heavy days with 6 people staffed, we would need 7 to come clean. So to limit us to 5 is ridiculous.

Today was the day we started only have 5 people scheduled, and even though it was a fairly average day (38 batches when I walked in, probably 22-ish regular and 16-ish SA batches which doesn't account for anything that dropped in while we were picking) we were picking regular batches all the way up until 1pm, which is completely unacceptable! It's not even an issue of speed, it's an issue of practicality. Our rule of thumb is that you should be able to pick 2 full batches in an hour, and with 3 people picking regular batches it would take at least 4 hours to pick the regular batches with minimum distraction from guests. If you include breaks, it gets messy. Plus, with the staggered times that we come in, it means it wouldn't be done until noon at the earliest. And this is just on an average day, on heavy days there would be zero chance of coming clean on any given metric.

That's not even the best part. I was told that we might be going up to 500 orders within the next month, and that our limit of 5 people wouldn't change. So not only would we not be able to run a green workcenter with 5 people scheduled daily at 300 orders, we would be blood red at 500 orders. I was told that it would only go up if our order cap was increased past 500. I was very, very vocal about how terrible of an idea this is.

That's insane. You need at least one person per 50 orders. The people who make these decisions don't get how it works. In 4th quarter, they were only scheduling me and my SFS captain... for 300+ orders. We came in at 7am, didn't leave til 7pm. Even with help.
We are only at 50 orders rn. Maybe we'll have a rare day when we hit 60, but one person is enough to get it done.

 

[Moosechives]

It's okay~ we're a 600 ESFS with a 9 cap. Yesterday I came in to 70+ batches (50 regular and 20+ SAs). We barely finished. Part of me just wants to see every store in the red so HQ can see how dumb it is to cut sfs hours. 600 with 9 people is completely doable if you don't account for the 110 pieces of 60+ lb furniture/bulk baby junk, 60+ boxes of diapers, loading the truck etc. Half my team will probably quit because of the hour cuts, and the other half because of how freaking exhausting this workcenter has gotten.

 

[Firefox]

It's okay~ we're a 600 ESFS with a 9 cap. Yesterday I came in to 70+ batches (50 regular and 20+ SAs). We barely finished. Part of me just wants to see every store in the red so HQ can see how dumb it is to cut sfs hours. 600 with 9 people is completely doable if you don't account for the 110 pieces of 60+ lb furniture/bulk baby junk, 60+ boxes of diapers, loading the truck etc. Half my team will probably quit because of the hour cuts, and the other half because of how freaking exhausting this workcenter has gotten.

SFS is definitely one of those workcenters that you simply can't cut very much before everything goes to shit. The loss of even one person below our minimum requirement means that we aren't going to make goal in one way or another, which is why even a single callout can completely fuck us.