MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[Castagnier]

Yeah, our orders shot up, but it was almost entirely because of the clothing sale. So much folding...

Also, hours are specifically allocated for Flexible Fulfillment. I'm not sure why your ETL/STL/DTL wouldn't care about SFS to not use those hours for SFS, but they're definitely destroying your metrics.

Up until recently, they've been used to reinforce backroom. There is good news on that front, though. SFS shifts are being assigned again. None of the LODs (aside from two) give a shit, though. They're still telling us scheduled for SFS to do CAFs and push. Same story but, hey, at least the schedule looks different. I've stopped fighting for SFS altogether. I'm just waiting for the day our DTL comes by and spots the mess that is our SFS station between noon and five.

 

[anathema]

Weird. Your leadership is probably going to get shit on at the group level. I'm surprised they haven't already. Your TL must be super lax about the whole green metrics thing.

 

[Castagnier]

Interestingly, my TL does care about the metrics of getting them picked and scanned out of the system on time. Once the Pack Container number hits zero, though, that's the end of it. Actually packing them and sending them out on time is extra credit that's very rarely done. If there is a metric for that, though, I'd love to know.

 

[H2Owned]

Interestingly, my TL does care about the metrics of getting them picked and scanned out of the system on time. Once the Pack Container number hits zero, though, that's the end of it. Actually packing them and sending them out on time is extra credit that's very rarely done. If there is a metric for that, though, I'd love to know.

Yeah be careful doing that.. my TL told me corporate recorded our store one day and saw we had zero to pack but still had multiple charts to pack and sent the video to the STL... all it takes is one or two guests complaining about their item not being shipped when it says it has been shipped

 

[SFSFun]

If there is a metric for that, though, I'd love to know.

It's called doing a good job so the guests are happy and continue to spend money at Target.

 

[Castagnier]

Yeah be careful doing that.. my TL told me corporate recorded our store one day and saw we had zero to pack but still had multiple charts to pack and sent the video to the STL... all it takes is one or two guests complaining about their item not being shipped when it says it has been shipped

My STL was actually the one who taught us do this instead of actually packing, so there's no possibility of him being shocked if this ever happens. He knows the state of SFS but hasn't told us to change our methods to something more appropriate for our current daily orders.

It's called doing a good job so the guests are happy and continue to spend money at Target.

If it's not a tangible numbers metric, my TL won't care and won't change they way she wants SFS run. I'll still pack what I can when I'm scheduled for it (and thankfully there's still one other person who also still believes in packing them), but I won't vocalize my disagreement with the way its run the other days of the week since my store's leadership is fine with it. Maybe alerting the district can get something rolling, but I don't know where to begin to do that, let alone anonymously.

 

[H2Owned]

Is anyone else having problems with pictures not showing up in myFA?... tired of using my phone.

 

[Lazy]

Is anyone else having problems with pictures not showing up in myFA?... tired of using my phone.

Yes been happening the last two days.

 

[RTCry]

Is anyone else having problems with pictures not showing up in myFA?... tired of using my phone.

OMG. So annoying, especially when dealing with non-located SL items.

 

[SnorlaxTM]

Is anyone else having problems with pictures not showing up in myFA?... tired of using my phone.

Oh good its not just my store. I joked about calling CSC to ask if they fired the Item Description guy and revoked all their work.

 

[Cart king]

Oh good its not just my store. I joked about calling CSC to ask if they fired the Item Description guy and revoked all their work.

I said the same thing last night when I spent 50 minutes trying to find a SL item. New STL says we can't cancel flexes until at least 45 minutes have been spent looking. They will have fun with that 4th quarter

 

[brizzy93]

The pictures are back up for me as of today. Ok so question. Do you guys do substitutions for sfs orders? My leadership has told us that we need to substitute. Like if it's an order for a twin pack of dove body wash, and we don't have that, so type those numbers in and pull 2 single bottles of that kind. I don't like doing it but they want an little INFs as possible. Like they don't even care that it'll mess with the on hand counts and the actual sales themselves. They just want numbers to be perfect on paper. But that's what we were told, so that's what we're doing. We don't substitute food or electronics tho.

 

[SFSFun]

Is anyone else having problems with pictures not showing up in myFA?... tired of using my phone.

Yeah it's been happening on and off for at least a week. I just take a myDevice when I pick now so I can use the Target app.

Ok so question. Do you guys do substitutions for sfs orders? My leadership has told us that we need to substitute. Like if it's an order for a twin pack of dove body wash, and we don't have that, so type those numbers in and pull 2 single bottles of that kind. I don't like doing it but they want an little INFs as possible. Like they don't even care that it'll mess with the on hand counts and the actual sales themselves. They just want numbers to be perfect on paper. But that's what we were told, so that's what we're doing. We don't substitute food or electronics tho.

No, because that's fucking idiotic. I want the exact item I ordered, not a similar one. And it will screw up the on-hands, causing the problem to get even worse. They should focus on the root problems and fixing that instead.

We have a solid backroom and instocks process right now, and my fulfillment has been a consistent 97% for the past few weeks. I wouldn't substitute items even if I was told to do it.

 

[brizzy93]

Yeah it's been happening on and off for at least a week. I just take a myDevice when I pick now so I can use the Target app.


No, because that's fucking idiotic. I want the exact item I ordered, not a similar one. And it will screw up the on-hands, causing the problem to get even worse. They should focus on the root problems and fixing that instead.

We have a solid backroom and instocks process right now, and my fulfillment has been a consistent 97% for the past few weeks. I wouldn't substitute items even if I was told to do it.

Yeah exactly. But all my ETLs are telling us to. Even STL. They don't get it. I even said that it will mess with the on hands. They don't care. They only repeatedly tell us we are the worst in the district so I can only assume the other stores were told to do that too. I've only done it less than a handful of times and that's after I really look hard. It's bullshit but it won't fall on my head when they are told to not do that. I'm just a team member. We've been told to treat our orders like SPUs. We have to call LOD now to get permission to INF something too

 

[Cart king]

The pictures are back up for me as of today. Ok so question. Do you guys do substitutions for sfs orders? My leadership has told us that we need to substitute. Like if it's an order for a twin pack of dove body wash, and we don't have that, so type those numbers in and pull 2 single bottles of that kind. I don't like doing it but they want an little INFs as possible. Like they don't even care that it'll mess with the on hand counts and the actual sales themselves. They just want numbers to be perfect on paper. But that's what we were told, so that's what we're doing. We don't substitute food or electronics tho.

Imo your leadership sounds like a bunch of dumbasses. I can understand the thinking behind it but say a guest left another store to come to your store to because they ordered that item and was expecting it to be ready. Now guest is mad they got some random ass bullshit

 

[brizzy93]

Imo your leadership sounds like a bunch of dumbasses. I can understand the thinking behind it but say a guest left another store to come to your store to because they ordered that item and was expecting it to be ready. Now guest is mad they got some random ass bullshit

Oh I'm talking about ship from store orders. But they do also substitute for SPUs

 

[Cart king]

Sfs would be even worse than spu. Way to fuck up trying to be like Amazon

 

[ISMike]

Subs are rarely ok for SPU. Never ok for SFS. At my store at least

 

[SFSFun]

Something else to consider is it will cause problems if the guest wants to return an item and you have them a different one.

 

[brizzy93]

Subs are rarely ok for SPU. Never ok for SFS. At my store at least

It shouldn't be ok at my store either, but leadership fuckin up. I'm just a team member doing what I'm told even tho I think it's stupid.

 

[skyturnedgrey]

[QUOTE="brizzy93, post: 338366, member: 11814]Do you guys do substitutions for sfs orders? My leadership has told us that we need to substitute. Like if it's an order for a twin pack of dove body wash, and we don't have that, so type those numbers in and pull 2 single bottles of that kind. [/QUOTE]

The idea of doing that pretty much gives me a retail eye twitch of horror. Just getting started back at Target, so haven't dealt with it here yet, but in my old role as GM at Best Buy, ship from Store was a HUGE part of the business. Only time we would substitute was if we couldn't find an open box item that a customer ordered, I directed the team to send a new in box version, as it was the same product in inventory so did not mess up on hands, actually gave the customer a better experience, and then we could further research why the open box version was MIA.

Doing that with separate skus is incredibly short sighted and will just snowball the issue. Now what happens when your on hands are incorrect for the item you substituted? Then what do you substitute when somebody orders the item that was subbed in? Not to mention that the shrink values are probably higher on the ones we gave away than on the multi-pack, which was probably purchased at a promotional rate. Soooo many issues. Then there's the integrity piece of padding reporting....

 

[anathema]

Here's your store's actual problems:

1) Inaccurate OHs - aka if the issue is so bad that they're recommending subbing, the answer is that leadership gets off their collective ass and starts fixing OHs for the entire store, especially if leaders own blocks at your store.
2) Possible culture issue - are TMs actively looking for items? How's reshop look daily? BRLA?
3) Proper staffing - enough TMs for the job? Rushing to completion causes higher rate of INF.

Here is the wrong answer:

1) subbing. I can't fathom an STL dumb enough to recommend this. They will destroy their store. You might as well just start untying shit and LOCUing the backroom and light stuff on fire.

 

[brizzy93]

Here's your store's actual problems:

1) Inaccurate OHs - aka if the issue is so bad that they're recommending subbing, the answer is that leadership gets off their collective ass and starts fixing OHs for the entire store, especially if leaders own blocks at your store.
2) Possible culture issue - are TMs actively looking for items? How's reshop look daily? BRLA?
3) Proper staffing - enough TMs for the job? Rushing to completion causes higher rate of INF.

Here is the wrong answer:

1) subbing. I can't fathom an STL dumb enough to recommend this. They will destroy their store. You might as well just start untying shit and LOCUing the backroom and light stuff on fire.

I knowwww. I hate it. It's a struggle to get the ETLs on the same page, yet we are told that we are wrong, basically.
Like for #3- My ETL LOG said that corporate says one person is supposed to get 100 orders done, picked and packed, by themselves. So come in at 8, happen to see 100+, run around non stop pulling til orders stop dropping at 1pm, try to avoid helping guests, inevitably help guests, go on meal after finishing last batch, get back 2-2:30, magically speed pack over 100 orders. (Me and my sfs captain were told we need to explain why we need help if we call for backup to finish.) But how does that give me enough time to really look for everything. Spoiler: It doesn't. That is why our INF list was really bad for a while. Not enough time to look. "BUT CORPORATE SAYS..!" Maybe try to do it all yourself then @my ETLs lol

(Also if any of you can do 100+ in an 8 hour shift, tell me how because that seems like magic and I need to know your secrets)

 

[Bosch]

I knowwww. I hate it. It's a struggle to get the ETLs on the same page, yet we are told that we are wrong, basically.
Like for #3- My ETL LOG said that corporate says one person is supposed to get 100 orders done, picked and packed, by themselves. So come in at 8, happen to see 100+, run around non stop pulling til orders stop dropping at 1pm, try to avoid helping guests, inevitably help guests, go on meal after finishing last batch, get back 2-2:30, magically speed pack over 100 orders. (Me and my sfs captain were told we need to explain why we need help if we call for backup to finish.) But how does that give me enough time to really look for everything. Spoiler: It doesn't. That is why our INF list was really bad for a while. Not enough time to look. "BUT CORPORATE SAYS..!" Maybe try to do it all yourself then @my ETLs lol

(Also if any of you can do 100+ in an 8 hour shift, tell me how because that seems like magic and I need to know your secrets)

They did it in an overnight store after it was closed when there were not guests to deal with.

 

[SFSFun]

(Also if any of you can do 100+ in an 8 hour shift, tell me how because that seems like magic and I need to know your secrets)

We get like 12-16 hours per day and we use the extra hours for a closing TM since our store is dead after 6pm. So on a typical morning, I'll only have to pick whatever dropped in after 10pm and pack that plus whatever the closer didn't get to.

Last week I had to ask for help packing once when I came in to like 70 to pick.