MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[gracefulfillment]

I think the sortation centers are a good idea, but I don't see much benefit at the store level from my personal experience. Both stores I've worked at have been UPS only, so the only real 'sorting' we do is the few rush orders we get; we're not separating out to different carriers. For stores with multiple carriers, I could see this is as a plus. Or, if it eliminates the sort process entirely and we can just put the packages straight onto the truck.

Those sortation centers are only going to work if there's a lot of them, and that's where we seriously lag behind amazon. If it's shorter to still go to a carrier center, I don't see it making any sense to go out of the way to a sortation center. I definitely think that new stores designed with SFS and OPU in mind could be much more efficient and handle more volume that stores that have had it jammed into their backroom. But I also think that they can better utilize the foundation they already have. My store has 6 pack stations and lately, we've only been shipping ~1,300 units/day.

There are of course other things they could do to improve fulfillment, at minimal cost such as improvements to ePick and myDay, increasing cooler space, increasing the 90 min timer, working to improve inventory accuracy and reduce mispicks, etc.

 

[lifeblows10]

I think the sortation centers are a good idea, but I don't see much benefit at the store level from my personal experience. Both stores I've worked at have been UPS only, so the only real 'sorting' we do is the few rush orders we get; we're not separating out to different carriers. For stores with multiple carriers, I could see this is as a plus. Or, if it eliminates the sort process entirely and we can just put the packages straight onto the truck.

Those sortation centers are only going to work if there's a lot of them, and that's where we seriously lag behind amazon. If it's shorter to still go to a carrier center, I don't see it making any sense to go out of the way to a sortation center. I definitely think that new stores designed with SFS and OPU in mind could be much more efficient and handle more volume that stores that have had it jammed into their backroom. But I also think that they can better utilize the foundation they already have. My store has 6 pack stations and lately, we've only been shipping ~1,300 units/day.

There are of course other things they could do to improve fulfillment, at minimal cost such as improvements to ePick and myDay, increasing cooler space, increasing the 90 min timer, working to improve inventory accuracy and reduce mispicks, etc.

I think the 6 they are going to start with are going to prove if it is an effective model. Probably the top 6 markets for SFS deliveries.

Anyone remember last year when we acquired Deliv? These new sortation centers would conveniently allow for their crowdsourced delivery structure to be possible.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

I think the 6 they are going to start with are going to prove if it is an effective model. Probably the top 6 markets for SFS deliveries.

Anyone remember last year when we acquired Deliv? These new sortation centers would conveniently allow for their crowdsourced delivery structure to be possible.

What are the top 6 markets, anyone know?

 

[MrPerfectNot]

SFS Cart survey task for my PML this week - he's got parts to repair maybe 5 or 6 carts (on a task I put in mid last year), and we probably need to replace at least 50%, rather than repair them. But, we'll keep them, because I understand we won't be able to receive new carts until sometime this fall, if at all.....

Cant wait until one falls apart with a big batch on it.....or collides with a guest when a TM is hurrying to keep up their pick rate.....

 

[MrT]

SFS Cart survey task for my PML this week - he's got parts to repair maybe 5 or 6 carts (on a task I put in mid last year), and we probably need to replace at least 50%, rather than repair them. But, we'll keep them, because I understand we won't be able to receive new carts until sometime this fall, if at all.....

Cant wait until one falls apart with a big batch on it.....or collides with a guest when a TM is hurrying to keep up their pick rate.....

We were supposed to get new carts last month. They sent them to the "wrong" store and told us we will have to wait. Half of my caets are folding in half 😑. Also 2 of my 3 zebra printers for packing are broke as well waiting for somwonento come out and fix them. Its been fun times at my store trying to pack 1200 sfs units with 1 working pack station

 

[MrPerfectNot]

We were supposed to get new carts last month. They sent them to the "wrong" store and told us we will have to wait. Half of my caets are folding in half 😑. Also 2 of my 3 zebra printers for packing are broke as well waiting for somwonento come out and fix them. Its been fun times at my store trying to pack 1200 sfs units with 1 working pack station

New carts last month? I wish - I brought up the status of many of our carts last summer, well before the holiday season - seems it was never a PML priority, so nothing happened - not going to start holding my breath now......

 

[MrT]

New carts last month? I wish - I brought up the status of many of our carts last summer, well before the holiday season - seems it was never a PML priority, so nothing happened - not going to start holding my breath now......

It was a long time in the making for us to get the carts with escalation after escalation. It got approved but we didnt get our supply in and were told it went to another store. Idk if they ever had any intention on giving it to us tbh.

 

[Bosch]

That’s when I’d quit.

Same I will not be a DBO and letting any yahoo pick OPU is going to result in a mess bigger than the shit show we have now.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

We were supposed to get new carts last month. They sent them to the "wrong" store and told us we will have to wait. Half of my caets are folding in half 😑. Also 2 of my 3 zebra printers for packing are broke as well waiting for somwonento come out and fix them. Its been fun times at my store trying to pack 1200 sfs units with 1 working pack station

What's wrong with your printers?

 

[slowhands]

Half of my caets are folding in half 😑

I'd like to see this lol

 

[MrT]

What's wrong with your printers?

One needs a new printer head the other was recalibrated wrong apparently, i fixed that one.

 

[MrT]

I'd like to see this lol

Im serious the bottoms are off on almost all of them and the skinny legs start bending in. We have had to throw a couple out because they bent so much welds starting popping off, goes to show you how crap they were made. The new ones say reinforced so they supposedly fixed some issues but ill believe it when i see it.

 

[JiJi]

Im serious the bottoms are off on almost all of them and the skinny legs start bending in. We have had to throw a couple out because they bent so much welds starting popping off, goes to show you how crap they were made. The new ones say reinforced so they supposedly fixed some issues but ill believe it when i see it.

I feel this - some of the old ones at my store it's like "yikes why are still using this??"

 

[gracefulfillment]

Im serious the bottoms are off on almost all of them and the skinny legs start bending in. We have had to throw a couple out because they bent so much welds starting popping off, goes to show you how crap they were made. The new ones say reinforced so they supposedly fixed some issues but ill believe it when i see it.

The reinforced ones use bolts instead of welds to hold everything together. I can't speak to how much stronger they are because my last store still had the welded ones and we hadn't lost the bottom shelf on any of our carts yet. Here are a couple pics I found online of the bolted ones. They look more janky imo.

 

[JiJi]

omg i really wanna spray paint our OPU carts a different color after seeing yours green ugh

 

[RunForACallBox]

Bolted ones definitely hold better. My store has the shitty welded ones. Most have lost their bottom shelves & instead of 18 sub carts most have about 5 now because the dividers break off. We can’t get anyone to get new carts.

 

[MrT]

The reinforced ones use bolts instead of welds to hold everything together. I can't speak to how much stronger they are because my last store still had the welded ones and we hadn't lost the bottom shelf on any of our carts yet. Here are a couple pics I found online of the bolted ones. They look more janky imo.

Yeah they dont look as nice but they do look stronger.

 

[Bosch]

Yeah they dont look as nice but they do look stronger.

They are stronger in structure until people break all the dividers and the wheel bearings gum up and they are horrible to shove across the store. And I use the word shove intentionally.

 

[slowhands]

They are stronger in structure until people break all the dividers and the wheel bearings gum up and they are horrible to shove across the store. And I use the word shove intentionally.

Shove it straight into the compactor?

 

[Switchto4]

The reinforced ones use bolts instead of welds to hold everything together. I can't speak to how much stronger they are because my last store still had the welded ones and we hadn't lost the bottom shelf on any of our carts yet. Here are a couple pics I found online of the bolted ones. They look more janky imo.

Is that one batch?

 

[SnorlaxTM]

God reading about newer better carts really makes me wish my STL would order some more. Provided a list of bad carts last year (most of them) and we’ve already scrapped like 7 out of the 16 or so bad ones? Been repairing what we can with the PML, but like it’s not much because some of those repairs have fallen apart already

 

[gracefulfillment]

Is that one batch?

this is where the pic is from. apparently 4 batches

 

[moninity]

Looks like you got lucky if those are your 100 items, with my luck I normally have to have a flat as well with quite a bit of items too big for the cart.

 

[gracefulfillment]

now that opu batch sizes have shrunk, we're back to grabbing multiples to make 20-30 DPCI. it's always when there's a bunch of small ones that its a freezer, bookshelf, lawn chair, etc. and all on the top level of the steel

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Market tm had batch of 70 plus eaches.