RunForACallBox
General Merchandise Expert (Presentation)
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MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment
- Thread starter Kaybee988
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I'm pretty sure it was still 90 minutes for us today. Fuck if I know though. We were so far behind and picking late units from last night half the morning that I wasn't paying that much attention to shit way down in the queue.
RunForACallBox
General Merchandise Expert (Presentation)
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- Jun 19, 2014
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She sent a video, it’s super blurry & pixelated coming from an Android to an iPhone, I don’t understand why, but from what I could make out I think I saw at least two of the Pickup batches at 01:34 & 01:37 due time.
RunForACallBox
General Merchandise Expert (Presentation)
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So they extended it for us to 3 hours so we could get caught up and now it’s back at normal time.
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- Sep 12, 2018
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- 328
Almost like...3 hours is the better time frame to work with. Yikes, corporate, lol.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2016
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- 371
I love the payroll to units math. Started backing up the gm and inbound teams with “target says the truck is going to take twice as long as they’re scheduled and fulfillment exploded so they got pulled. Everyone was green metricwise but they didn’t make goal.”
And we’ve gotta be the fastest! Damn the team members.
DatBoi9497
Born to pick, forced to INF
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- Sep 17, 2020
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- 222
We've been like 1000 over in OPU the past couple days and have been exceeding our 250 forecast for ship also. Still getting 40 hours, but I was kinda looking forward for it to slow down for a month and its literally just as crazy. Oh and fuck this pillowfort 40% off deal too.
19 hours worth of call outs yesterday, so over payroll we cant even extend shifts, and 1000 sfs unit to pick. Opu hasnt really slowed down that much. Still doing 2-3k there. My ship team has to pick atleast in the 70s to keep up and ive been packing at 250, while jumping into grocery batches because people order 3 batches worth of shit all day long.
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- Jun 30, 2020
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Are you in an area of the country where the virus isn't hitting particularly hard? My store is in SoCal in one of the hard hit counties. We are experiencing more demand now, especially for OPU and Grocery, then was expected for after the Holidays. None of our Seasonals have left, we've had 40+ virus cases in the last 6 weeks, and I'm working 40 hour weeks with occasional overtime. Was looking forward to shorter hours this month but that's not happening anytime soon. We've had carry over in the hundreds for SFS several times this week. Today wasn't bad but everyone is anticipating an increase in orders during the next few days leading up to the 3-day weekend. We're exhausted...😩
As a Fulfillment TL... yes, yes, and yes to the above statement. I would seriously argue that these 90 minute goal times are wrecking overall productivity for both the department and the store as a whole. We finished in the 80's for POT today with a skeleton store grid - easily could've been 100% if we were at 3 hours. These "waves" are the worst - 8am, lunchtime, 3pm, etc... it's like "omg, omg, omg we need a backup!" and then 45 minutes later after those backups almost nothing drops for an entire hour. When it was 3 hours, the busy/non-busy periods would just balance out. It's so annoying to find a scheduling medium, and I hate calling for backups when I know the store is behind with freight.
DatBoi9497
Born to pick, forced to INF
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- Sep 17, 2020
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- 222
Came in yesterday at 2 to 30% POT and they only scheduled 6 people in fulfillment the whole day. I don't get how target thinks that understaffing the highest comping department is a good idea when our lowest forecast from new years to march is like 1400 units and grocery being insanely popular, then on top of that having to do SFS. We've gone over the forecast by at least 600 everyday and they keep slamming us with SFS even though we have had 300 carryover everyday, me and one other person were barely able to finish what was due for that day by 10 and then had to leave and SFS wasn't even touched for the next day. After speaking to my ETL, apparently they are supposed to be giving more payroll to aid but we'll see what actually happens.
JiJi
if it fits, it ships
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- Jul 21, 2020
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- 303
The struggle is real my dude
I had an entire batch of those stupid bounty paper towels the other day - ended up using a uboat to grab them so they took up less space at the pack station
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- Sep 12, 2018
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- 328
Whoever decided to nix our 6am person I hope you enjoy the 80 opu and 600 Ship I left at 8am since I had 400+ opu to try and kill in 4 hours and didn't touch anything else today. Also: give the closer more than one person! 300 carryover is crazy for us!
Like, I know it'll get done but rip the sanity of the afternoon team.
Like, I know it'll get done but rip the sanity of the afternoon team.
- Joined
- May 13, 2015
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- 145
I am not new to Target but this was my 2nd week as a fulfillment TL and we are failing hard.
We were cut off on Wednesday and I am trying to figure out how to fix some of these problems.
I get INF is high right now and my ETL/SD does too but the pick productivity for a majority of the TMs is too low as well and we are not even coming close to our SFS goal of completing 2000 to 2500 units per day. Not to mention 1500 to 2000 drive up units per day.
My question is do you guys coach your under performers daily, weekly or every 2 weeks? I'm not trying to be a ball buster and a majority of the under performers would be fine if they would literally walk a little faster. I want to make them better but I also have to cover my own ass.
Also curious how you guys maintain your OPUs when they are dropping so crazy. We at minimum need 3 on OPU and 2 on grocery to try to make goal but we are still missing quite a few. They won't talk to each other to cover breaks which is a habit I'm trying to break because the previous lead didn't even care if they had a walkie. I'm thinking of assigning someone who is in standard to be the "breaker" so they know who to call to cover them and then I have just one person pausing a cart instead of multiples.
My ETL gets what's going on because I'm having to build a new team up and break bad habits. But I know being new in role will only save me for so long.
Any tips or advice of things that are helping you guys make it through this crazy time is greatly appreciated!
We were cut off on Wednesday and I am trying to figure out how to fix some of these problems.
I get INF is high right now and my ETL/SD does too but the pick productivity for a majority of the TMs is too low as well and we are not even coming close to our SFS goal of completing 2000 to 2500 units per day. Not to mention 1500 to 2000 drive up units per day.
My question is do you guys coach your under performers daily, weekly or every 2 weeks? I'm not trying to be a ball buster and a majority of the under performers would be fine if they would literally walk a little faster. I want to make them better but I also have to cover my own ass.
Also curious how you guys maintain your OPUs when they are dropping so crazy. We at minimum need 3 on OPU and 2 on grocery to try to make goal but we are still missing quite a few. They won't talk to each other to cover breaks which is a habit I'm trying to break because the previous lead didn't even care if they had a walkie. I'm thinking of assigning someone who is in standard to be the "breaker" so they know who to call to cover them and then I have just one person pausing a cart instead of multiples.
My ETL gets what's going on because I'm having to build a new team up and break bad habits. But I know being new in role will only save me for so long.
Any tips or advice of things that are helping you guys make it through this crazy time is greatly appreciated!
I have to schedule breaks and lunches, you don't follow it? Documented conversation. If they radio me (or a pacesetter when I'm off) and say they were supposed to go to lunch in 10 minutes, should they go now, or it just dropped a ton should I grab another batch then that's ok. I've emphasized with them how much they screw each other over when they go to lunch too close together, go to break at the same time, call out a lot, etc... I hate micromanaging them at times, but when it's necessary I have to.
For metrics teach them how to read MPM and tell them where they need to be. I made goal sheets to see how much they should be picking and they fill in their units, speed, and INF. They should know how they are doing when I ask. I also print out recaps each week with the most units, highest speed, and highest and lowest INF. They get competitive with each other and want to see their names on top. The ones who don't care? Performance them out. My team has bad days, but if they are upset about their performance that shows me they care, they fight to get back to green, ask for help, etc... The ones who don't care won't do that, if anything they spread that bad attitude.
Lately we have had to write down who is using what carts for opu so I can keep track of them better. You should be starting a new batch immediately on the floor, not strolling to the back and doing it there. I also have to watch TMs who only pick regular or only pick grocery even if another batch is lower on time.
With OPU they need to be picking 4-6 batches at a time from 4am-8am to get it done on time. After that regular opu should be 2-3 at a time depending on batch sizes. If it's an hour or more you can do at least 2.
Teach them to ignore pathing. Start a batch, look at the tasks, skip to the area you are nearest. If they don't find something right away, skip it and get everything else, then go back and look. Utilize other TMs for help. Share RFID guns. I ordered 4 more, and extra batteries with chargers.
I became a TL to a team where their old lead checked out and didn't even tell them they were leaving. I got dropped into it when SFS went insane at the beginning of the pandemic. It was hard. It still is. I'm still learning, we are all adjusting to the constant changes.
For metrics teach them how to read MPM and tell them where they need to be. I made goal sheets to see how much they should be picking and they fill in their units, speed, and INF. They should know how they are doing when I ask. I also print out recaps each week with the most units, highest speed, and highest and lowest INF. They get competitive with each other and want to see their names on top. The ones who don't care? Performance them out. My team has bad days, but if they are upset about their performance that shows me they care, they fight to get back to green, ask for help, etc... The ones who don't care won't do that, if anything they spread that bad attitude.
Lately we have had to write down who is using what carts for opu so I can keep track of them better. You should be starting a new batch immediately on the floor, not strolling to the back and doing it there. I also have to watch TMs who only pick regular or only pick grocery even if another batch is lower on time.
With OPU they need to be picking 4-6 batches at a time from 4am-8am to get it done on time. After that regular opu should be 2-3 at a time depending on batch sizes. If it's an hour or more you can do at least 2.
Teach them to ignore pathing. Start a batch, look at the tasks, skip to the area you are nearest. If they don't find something right away, skip it and get everything else, then go back and look. Utilize other TMs for help. Share RFID guns. I ordered 4 more, and extra batteries with chargers.
I became a TL to a team where their old lead checked out and didn't even tell them they were leaving. I got dropped into it when SFS went insane at the beginning of the pandemic. It was hard. It still is. I'm still learning, we are all adjusting to the constant changes.
Analyze your opu waves on greenfield and schedule accordingly. Our biggest rush is 12-4ish. We schedule to have at least 5 carts going during that time. I will call for backup when needed and pull cross-trained tms from other departments. Call for help when it starts ticking up, not when it's at critical mass. I leave at least 1 person in sfs all the time now, we have a few who can knock out the workload alone. There are days when it goes so over forecast we just can't plan for it, like 3000 units over last Sunday. At that point it's all hands on deck. My store prioritizes fulfillment and drive up so we get support when we ask.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2018
- Messages
- 3,116
Today was a weird day. When I got back from meal, my TL called me over the walkie and said, "Hey it looks like they're all caught up on OPUs, can you push some domestics frieght for me?" It's been months since I've done anything else. Of course, I got called back to OPUs an hour later and when I checked to see why on MPM the rest of the team had slowed waaayyyyy down and were all under 30 UPH. Thanks, guys, for letting me have one day, one day!, to break up the monotony with something else. Assholes.
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2020
- Messages
- 46
^This. I just checked Kronos for the week of Jan. 24th and am scheduled for 40 hours. For the past two weeks and next week I've been scheduled for 25-28 hours but worked 40 - every day it's "Can you work a full shift?" almost as soon as I get in at 4am. Glad someone finally saw the light. The risk they run when scheduling the shorter hours is that not everyone will stay. Quite a few of the part-time students or others who just wanted a break, would decline to stay which just put more work on everyone else. We're doing more SFS than at Christmas and OPU is just insane. Not totally unexpected for a store in a hard-hit-by-the-virus part of LA County.
