MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

Same, except this was supposed to be our first box of hazmat stickers. Our previous orders went missing somehow.

What are those, anyways? Are those things ESFS uses? Or are these new? We can probably get some mileage out of the "This Side Up" sticker, at least.
 
Lazy said:
Anyone order more hz labels and get this?
Click to expand...
I did not order any HZ stickers recently but I still got those "this end up" stickers and those other weird ones. Have not yet heard an explanation, and SFS communication at my store has been pretty good so far this year.

I also got our roll of plastic for bagging rugs (separate box from those labels). We're going to have to rig something to hold all of these labels and bags that we have now.
 
vendordontmesswithme said:
There's info on redwire about the new hazard labels. The roll of plastic covering for rugs is very heavy and large. It's going to be difficult figuring out how to hang the roll.
Click to expand...
We got info about hazardous item labels a few weeks ago, and we have since received them and started using them. I didn't see anything about these newest ones on redwire as of this morning.
Edit: Never mind, I found it. One of the ETLs had marked it as completed on Monday before I had a chance to check. And then they didn't say anything about it.

I'm thinking about using the yellow bubble wrap fixture for hanging the rug plastic. Depends how easy or hard it is to lift it above my head.
 
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Well today on redwire i saw that they are adding 2 more packing stations to the 5 we have now and sending more pdas and carts for SFS this 4th quarter.....so im guessing our order will be over 1500 this year lol
 
H2Owned said:
Well today on redwire i saw that they are adding 2 more packing stations to the 5 we have now and sending more pdas and carts for SFS this 4th quarter.....so im guessing our order will be over 1500 this year lol
Click to expand...
I am going to laugh hysterically at the computer screen if I see that for my store. Sure we could add packing stations...by taking over more space currently used for FURN and IFUR backstock.
 
SFSFun said:
I did not order any HZ stickers recently but I still got those "this end up" stickers and those other weird ones. Have not yet heard an explanation, and SFS communication at my store has been pretty good so far this year.

I also got our roll of plastic for bagging rugs (separate box from those labels). We're going to have to rig something to hold all of these labels and bags that we have now.
Click to expand...

We use bungie cords...
 
SFSFun said:
I am going to laugh hysterically at the computer screen if I see that for my store. Sure we could add packing stations...by taking over more space currently used for FURN and IFUR backstock.
Click to expand...
They don't need it. They can use walkways, high steel levels and occasionally the fire aisle.
 
An idea I initiated for Q4 the last two years to make SFS easier was picking to flats. The order cap peaked at 1,100-1,200 and we didn't have enough carts to support. Additionally big box items from ELEC and TOY would fill a cart mid batch sometimes. One trick we do Q1-Q3 is locate big items to a Single Location (no parent/child, usually a flat or tub) in our pack station and reserve smaller items for the carts. For Q4 this translated into using pallets as Single Locations to locate TVs, big TOY and FURN. Picking to a larger vehicle just made sense for the holidays despite my team calling it silly. The first day with the 1,200 orders and 1-2 hours into picking most are on their 2nd-3rd cart and I'm still on my 1st flat. My idea was soon adopted by everyone and ETL-LOG told the team to reserve carts for the tail end of orders due for the day. I usually plopped two 278's on a flat and gave it a Single Location.

This year I've started early with using a flat and compartmentalization was an addition. The following is how I organize:
All 413 boxes are taped as one unit. I made two such units to stack after the first six are filled. Each of the nine boxes are a Single Location.
FqQZRMw.png

cbDynVQ.jpg
vQ6yDCI.jpg

This method may look like madness but it works.
 
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Kroneru said:
An idea I initiated for Q4 the last two years to make SFS easier was picking to flats. The order cap peaked at 1,100-1,200 and we didn't have enough carts to support. Additionally big box items from ELEC and TOY would fill a cart mid batch sometimes. One trick we do Q1-Q3 is locate big items to a Single Location (no parent/child, usually a flat or tub) in our pack station and reserve smaller items for the carts. For Q4 this translated into using pallets as Single Locations to locate TVs, big TOY and FURN. Picking to a larger vehicle just made sense for the holidays despite my team calling it silly. The first day with the 1,200 orders and 1-2 hours into picking most are on their 2nd-3rd cart and I'm still on my 1st flat. My idea was soon adopted by everyone and ETL-LOG told the team to reserve carts for the tail end of orders due for the day. I usually plopped two 278's on a flat and gave it a Single Location.

This year I've started early with using a flat and compartmentalization was an addition. The following is how I organize:
All 413 boxes are taped as one unit. I made two such units to stack after the first six are filled. Each of the nine boxes are a Single Location.
FqQZRMw.png

cbDynVQ.jpg
vQ6yDCI.jpg

This method may look like madness but it works.
Click to expand...
I may have to steal this...
 
I don't think we could do that at my store. They need every single flat for the unload (except for the two dedicated SFS flats). Plus, it seems like a ton of stuff goes into those boxes, meaning the packer is going to have to do a lot of digging.

What we do for larger items is put them in the top tier standing straight up, and put smaller items in the middle basket. When the top tier gets full, we start putting them on the bottom. Anything excessively large gets keyed in to one of the flats and they just put it wherever it fits until they get back to the pack station.

It also helps that we have 16 carts (plus 34 laminated sheets of extra cart locations), and every tier of every cart is setup as a single hold location to give us more flexibility.

Lazy said:
So each box is a parent location or child??
Click to expand...
Right above the picture he said each box is a single hold location.
 
I locate items to 413s in sequential order of the hold location number and put what can't fit into the 439s and 278. Having only one vehicle to pack from and an aerial view has decreased my packing time; no sifting through crowded cart tiers and switching of them. Sort the collates from lowest numbered box to highest and the rest is easy.

I plan to scale the concept further but just for myself as everyone won't like pushing a heavy a flat all day and methodically scanning items into the Single Locations. We have folding tables from before they finally gave us additional "packing stations" (big, silver shelved carts Starbucks/Food Ave didn't want). We stored supplies and packed on them. I'm thinking of making a dozen or such of the 413 combo units for hot swapping. When full I'll place them on the 6' banquet tables (249-00-0012) and replace with an empty one. If we need support with packing while still picking we don't need to prematurely send a cart to pack station. *plop* Keep it moving.

bkCGckc.png
 
SFSFun said:
I don't think we could do that at my store. They need every single flat for the unload (except for the two dedicated SFS flats). Plus, it seems like a ton of stuff goes into those boxes, meaning the packer is going to have to do a lot of digging.

What we do for larger items is put them in the top tier standing straight up, and put smaller items in the middle basket. When the top tier gets full, we start putting them on the bottom. Anything excessively large gets keyed in to one of the flats and they just put it wherever it fits until they get back to the pack station.

It also helps that we have 16 carts (plus 34 laminated sheets of extra cart locations), and every tier of every cart is setup as a single hold location to give us more flexibility.


Right above the picture he said each box is a single hold location.
Click to expand...

This store is poorly managed. Too many corners are cut and no sense of urgency from a lot. After three years we still only have 6 designated carts and no flats despite our stockrooms and salesfloor being one of the largest in sqft in the district.

The only box I remotely crowd is the 276. The items are large and few so it would only take a few seconds to identify something. The 413s are packed where every item is visable from above.

I wanted to replace the parent/child system years ago with single locations on the carts but didn't out of fear people would screw it up. The talent pool is shallow here; I don't doubt how stupid people can be here. I think I'll reconsider now. It would be very beneficial for my system.
 
Out of curiosity, are the carts you guys use only used for SFS? Do your overnight teams actually understand you need those and stay away or do they use them and leave them lying around when they're done?
 
Kroneru said:
I wanted to replace the parent/child system years ago with single locations on the carts but didn't out of fear people would screw it up. The talent pool is shallow here; I don't doubt how stupid people can be here. I think I'll reconsider now. It would be very beneficial for my system.
Click to expand...
I just decided to do it one day without really asking anyone. I explained to the regular SFS TMs that it's basically the same but you now scan any label instead of the parent. Anyone who's been trained at my store is going to be very confused if they ever transfer and do SFS at another store...

Castagnier said:
Out of curiosity, are the carts you guys use only used for SFS? Do your overnight teams actually understand you need those and stay away or do they use them and leave them lying around when they're done?
Click to expand...
We don't have an overnight team, so SFS usually starts at the same time as the truck team. I've tried being an asshole about carts and I've tried being nice but firm by explaining what they're for. Most TMs now know to ask to borrow one and put it back when they're done.

When we got extra carts last year I finally labeled each one with a placard that says SFS and the cart number. It makes it easier to spot them.
 
We tried that from the beginning, but the signs were just ignored. Then we tried locking them up with a cord once we were done, but they somehow found the key. After that my team pretty much just gave up. I almost got to a breaking point when we had to use shopping carts for around week, but I just pushed that vitriol down.

With Q4 coming up, I'll probably make another push to hang on to a certain amount of carts since now my word carries a bit more weight and I've long since run out of fucks to give to people that aren't in my team or I've had negative experiences working alongside (overnight).
 
can someone walk me through the process of forgoing the parent locations and only having single locations like you're talking about?
 
mammoth said:
can someone walk me through the process of forgoing the parent locations and only having single locations like you're talking about?
Click to expand...
MyFA > Pack and Ship > scroll down > Create Shipping Hold Locations > New

From there, you can choose parent/child or single locations. All single hold locations start with "SHP Z" and you can type any letter followed by two numbers for a hold location. To replace the cart locations, it makes the most sense to stick with the same format already being used: 1 letter for each cart, followed by a number for each tier in the cart. So you would type something like ZA01, then ZA02 and ZA03 and put one on each tier in place of the old ones. Print duplicates for the other side of he cart, remove the old parent locations labels, and repeat on each cart.

The single hold locations locations were intended to be used for flats or tubs, and have the benefit of being able to add multiple batches, even after scanning it in to the pack station. This was really helpful before they added the "release cart" option and you had to call the CSC for every "hold location in use" error, but I still like it for the flexibility.
 

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