MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[jenna]

When newbies are super slow, it is frequently because they don't really know how to use locations. They head to G19, then just start looking for the peanut butter from their order.

Yep. I have seen several new (and old) tms walk into an aisle, and look around all *confused.* Several times the wrong item is picked up, scanned, and put back. Then the correct item is chosen.

And the product is where it's supposed to be. It's not a zoning issue, in my area.

I had a regular tm ask me 2x for help finding a product that was in the correct location... on the shelf. But I appreciate that he asked before hitting INF.

 

[vngoghlvr]

We don't get a ton of opus, we are one of 3 stores all within 15 minutes of each other. Plus they cut my team to lots of 4 hour shifts and pull them to help guest service. But whatever motivates them to do better works for me.

Yes RFiD is a good tool, but I also want them to see it's AND, or Stars Above, or AIM and know exactly where to look to start with. How many of us can see an item, especially when it's not tied, but still know where it is or where it should be? That's what I want them to develop, if that makes sense.

 

[Bosch]

We don't get a ton of opus, we are one of 3 stores all within 15 minutes of each other. Plus they cut my team to lots of 4 hour shifts and pull them to help guest service. But whatever motivates them to do better works for me.

Yes RFiD is a good tool, but I also want them to see it's AND, or Stars Above, or AIM and know exactly where to look to start with. How many of us can see an item, especially when it's not tied, but still know where it is or where it should be? That's what I want them to develop, if that makes sense.

Totally understand that. Learn the floor. Why my store pulled former In-Stocks people when SFS started we knew where everything was. Now we get kids on their first day and it's just deer in the headlights. I have suggested them doing all the reshop(I know its a sucky thing to do) but it would teach the basic layout of the store. Since we don't really work the store anymore its' just your assigned spots. But even that I see new people over on the GM side and no one shows anyone how to do anything anymore. It's sad. Three weeks in and your TL hasn't taught you how to read a pick label or a shelf label? WTF???

 

[Dog]

These are some great suggestions everyone, keep them coming! These are mostly new team members and don’t know how to audit, so I don’t believe they’re doing that or fixing things as they go, but I’ll see if my very small amount of seasoned team members are doing that lol

 

[Yetive]

Back in the day, I tested my Price Change peeps by giving them a list of 5 locations, and timing them how fast they could bring the dpcis back to me. You could tell immediately who was just searching, and who could find locations.

 

[seasonaldude]

One of my mantras is that fulfillment should look for everything within reason. What's reasonable can of course vary under different circumstances. But, I have a question for the peanut gallery Break Room experts. My store's Beauty team is consistently way behind on their freight. Almost always over a week anymore. They'll often "sort" their repacks out into three tiers, which doesn't help because they mix stuff from several different trucks onto the same vehicle so we can't narrow down where to look. That shit never gets pushed to the floor. Their TL, ETL and the SD have done nothing to resolve this. In talks with my ETL we thought it would be reasonable to adopt a blanket policy that if we need something from unpushed beauty freight we're only going to look if it has been delivered less than X days ago. But, what does everyone think that X day number should be? We were thinking 3 if we're currently green on INFs and we just need one thing. 5 if we're not green and/or need multiple eaches.

What say you all?

 

[Yetive]

What the heck are they doing all day?

 

[seasonaldude]

What the heck are they doing all day?

They literally spend all day in receiving "sorting" their frieght. It's a shitshow. Every other team is pissed. They have at any given time 7-10 three tiers full of crap so no one else can use them for pulls. Plus they have several U-boats full of more crap. Last I checked there were a couple of guest carts with beauty frieght in receiving too. It's a shitshow of epic porportions. We're thinking if we just start INFing their stuff maybe someone will finally get on them to get their act together. We're out of other ideas. We've sent them help from GM and fulfillment to stock. That works for a day. Then it just gets backed up again. We've had inbounds sort for them. That didn't work at all. They spent all day "resorting" because it wasn't done right. We're discussing a reasonable time period where we just say Nah, fuck it and INF beauty shit because no one has time for that.

 

[Yetive]

2 trucks.

 

[Dog]

They literally spend all day in receiving "sorting" their frieght. It's a shitshow. Every other team is pissed. They have at any given time 7-10 three tiers full of crap so no one else can use them for pulls. Plus they have several U-boats full of more crap. Last I checked there were a couple of guest carts with beauty frieght in receiving too. It's a shitshow of epic porportions. We're thinking if we just start INFing their stuff maybe someone will finally get on them to get their act together. We're out of other ideas. We've sent them help from GM and fulfillment to stock. That works for a day. Then it just gets backed up again. We've had inbounds sort for them. That didn't work at all. They spent all day "resorting" because it wasn't done right. We're discussing a reasonable time period where we just say Nah, fuck it and INF beauty shit because no one has time for that.

Wtf? They should just push the shit instead of sorting it into vehicles jesus christ

 

[Bosch]

They literally spend all day in receiving "sorting" their frieght. It's a shitshow. Every other team is pissed. They have at any given time 7-10 three tiers full of crap so no one else can use them for pulls. Plus they have several U-boats full of more crap. Last I checked there were a couple of guest carts with beauty frieght in receiving too. It's a shitshow of epic porportions. We're thinking if we just start INFing their stuff maybe someone will finally get on them to get their act together. We're out of other ideas. We've sent them help from GM and fulfillment to stock. That works for a day. Then it just gets backed up again. We've had inbounds sort for them. That didn't work at all. They spent all day "resorting" because it wasn't done right. We're discussing a reasonable time period where we just say Nah, fuck it and INF beauty shit because no one has time for that.

INF that shit and doing frequently and when it tops the INF list and catches the DM's attention heads will fucking roll. That was how our style side finally got cleaned up. Believe me they will push back hard that you just need to look harder, take pictures lots of pictures. Just INF that shit. You need your TL and ETL on your side if not, you fucked cause they will just drop it back on you guys.

We finally had to just give up on style cause you could waste hours looking for ghosts. We stopped and it became a problem for others.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Our beauty team member quit & part timers come in after 1pm, because they don't want to do the truck. So my etl style & gm are doing the truck.

 

[RealFuckingName]

One of my mantras is that fulfillment should look for everything within reason. What's reasonable can of course vary under different circumstances. But, I have a question for the peanut gallery Break Room experts. My store's Beauty team is consistently way behind on their freight. Almost always over a week anymore. They'll often "sort" their repacks out into three tiers, which doesn't help because they mix stuff from several different trucks onto the same vehicle so we can't narrow down where to look. That shit never gets pushed to the floor. Their TL, ETL and the SD have done nothing to resolve this. In talks with my ETL we thought it would be reasonable to adopt a blanket policy that if we need something from unpushed beauty freight we're only going to look if it has been delivered less than X days ago. But, what does everyone think that X day number should be? We were thinking 3 if we're currently green on INFs and we just need one thing. 5 if we're not green and/or need multiple eaches.

What say you all?

In searching for a product for SFS, when I have trouble, I check:
1. When was it delivered? Recently?
2. When was it last sold?
If it was delivered two days ago, but last sold 25 days ago, and there should be 8 on hand, but it's no where to be seen, even on the end caps and other displays, and no backroom location, I know there's a problem. It's somewhere in the back. Why hasn't it been pushed?

I saw a box with the big letters P U S H written on it. It sat in TBR for three days.

I know we are swamped with deliveries, but bring people in to put the products AWAY! Then I'll stop INFing stuff!

 

[slowhands]

1 truck only. And call the hotline IMO.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

Wtf? They should just push the shit instead of sorting it into vehicles jesus christ

This. The point of sorting is to make pushing more efficient. Clearly, OP's TMs' milked opportunity to socialize in the backroom sorting system defeats its own purpose. I'd get the whole fulfillment team on board to INF-brigade the department.

 

[vngoghlvr]

We had a positive Covid case at our store so TMs are freaking out and going on leave. I've lost 2 so far. Our orders are ticking up and between end of the month payroll slashes and TMs calling out we are struggling. My DSD is on us about having no carry-over, but we barely have coverage. Sometimes it feels like I'm just doing crisis management. Lol

 

[RunForACallBox]

Hours slash Is killing us, too. And we lost TMs to GM because they are tired of getting bitched at about picking speeds & INF and in two weeks we start fresh & frozen pickup 🙄

 

[Dog]

There’s no way with our current staffing that we’ll be able to handle fresh grocery OPU in like a week lol

 

[vngoghlvr]

We we're supposed to have that roll out this summer, but the list we got didn't have our store. Hopefully it won't happen for a bit. I don't even know where the coolers would go, and using the backroom would be problematic. Our store was retrofitted for Target so it's set up weird.

 

[Dog]

We we're supposed to have that roll out this summer, but the list we got didn't have our store. Hopefully it won't happen for a bit. I don't even know where the coolers would go, and using the backroom would be problematic. Our store was retrofitted for Target so it's set up weird.

We have to use the coolers in our backroom because our ones behind guest services aren’t being built until October

 

[Antennae]

Lol love that Priority orders that drop after we leave the store count to the carryover units.

Also please fix the networks issues. Can't really work efficiently if I have to wait 10 seconds for the app to think and then time out.

 

[seasonaldude]

There’s no way with our current staffing that we’ll be able to handle fresh grocery OPU in like a week lol

Fresh still isn't very much. Expect to get a lot less orders for it than what you might have been told. It's quick to do as well because you are mostly picking from one section of the store. Baby food and OTC protein bars/drinks drop into those batches too, but that doesn't complicate it too much.

I wouldn't worry about having the staff to do it. INFs with it are another issue, however. There's nothing like trying to pick a package of bread at -141 on hand that the vendor hasn't brought in for at least a week. Well, maybe trying to pick, let's say limes, when your market team just tossed them all in the trash instead of QMOSing them out. Oh, and there's also trying to pick, let's say kiwis, which your store could technically order and sell but they don't because everytime they try it no one buys it. Finally, enjoying picking meat. Yes, we can technically leave it on the shelf until it's sell by date. But, we can't pick it then. So be prepared to groan when someone orders 5 packages of 93/7 gound beef and you have it, but it's all past the acceptable 3 day picking date.

 

[RunForACallBox]

Target can’t roll shit out right to save anything. 🙄🙄

 

[Bosch]

We had a positive Covid case at our store so TMs are freaking out and going on leave. I've lost 2 so far. Our orders are ticking up and between end of the month payroll slashes and TMs calling out we are struggling. My DSD is on us about having no carry-over, but we barely have coverage. Sometimes it feels like I'm just doing crisis management. Lol

That is all I am doing this week. Our receiver is sick so between myself and the unload TL we are tag teaming the receiving stuff while I am trying to prep and pack all the SFS without help until a half hour before I leave. And then the STL asks why I have 12 carts stacked up? "Are you fucking serious? Taking in all the Vendors, dealing with the crap left by everyone that has to be cleaned up, I am supposed to keep up with the people picking? Ok. Sure Jan.." Today I didn't touch any SFS for my first three hours since it was vendorpalooza this morning. And it just got worse from there. At least I didn't really have to load the sweep.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

We've been doing Fresh for almost two weeks. Trying to find out how many orders we are not getting due to spaces being filled. Any ideas on how to find out?

We're using the deli cooler and freezer up front to hold our cool/frozen items, with a rack in between for dry. Suggested to our higher-ups we just remodel Target Cafe as it brings in about $1.50/week in good times - that didn't fly, so I really don't know where we'll put dedicated holding space.

Sigh.