"Good" INF vs "Bad" INF - Audit - Greenfield

[MrPerfectNot]

Hey all -

I am looking to see if there is a way to tell "Good" vs "Bad" INFs after audits are done the next day. Does anyone know of a report / function that will tell me (SFS Team Lead) what INFs that TMs took the day before which were valid ("Good") vs invalid ("Bad") when compared with audit results? Thinking about using something like this as a tool to help identify opportunities to improve TMs' performance in searching problem areas, as well as sharing with TLs and DBOs to better understand their areas. For newer TMs we're requiring a check-in before INFing items, with DBO or TL for an area, etc.

Not sure if there is a card in Greenfield that someone has already developed that might show this type of nuance? Or some magical function in my Zebra that I don't yet understand? I can see a way to do this manually (exporting CSVs to Excel, doing some vlookups, etc.), but would love to find something requiring less brain damage. We've dropped our weekly SFS INF from approx 9% to 6% consistently over the last 8 weeks, looking to get it lower.

Thx.

 

[Mikuhl]

wat

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

@allnew2 or @seasonaldude, please assist.

 

[seasonaldude]

Hmmm.....I don't know of anything in Greenfield. I will say that determining what is a good vs. bad INF is an inexact science, especially when trying to do so through guided audits.

Just as an example, let's say your picker needs to get a candle. They go to the floor location and don't see it. They look around and can't find it. They check the appropriate backroom area. No candle. They look at the inventory info and see nothing of use so they INF it. Now, a couple of hours later another TM is zoning and they see that particular candle abandoned on a shelf in pets. Eventually, that candle makes its way to where it's supposed to be. Later, someone does the guided audits and they spot the candle exactly where it's supposed to be. Your store actually does have the item. But, that's not a bad INF. Can't expect fulfillment to check every shelf in the store. This kind of thing happens routinely though.

Another issue is that guided audits can be done by the laziest people in the building. You just have to do them, you don't have to do them right. If the person doing the audits doesn't feel like actually looking for the item, they can just "audit" the item to the on hands. They can do that from the comfort of their desk in TSC. Can't fault fulfillment for not finding something a lazy TM audited to the on hands when you really don't have it.

Ideally, if you want to check on how your team is doing, you need to keep an eye on the INFs listed in MPM. Check on those as close to the INF time as possible so you can see what the TM was seeing. But, do keep in mind, that if an item is not where it is supposed to be it's really tough to blame the TM for not finding it. They should look. However, spotting out of place items depends on things like the angle you're looking at, how similar the item is to others in the location, whether or not the TM gets distracted by guests, etc.

The best thing to do is to look at INF% over time. You want large sample sizes to account for any randomness. That will tell you who is good and who is bad.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Another issue is that guided audits can be done by the laziest people in the building. You just have to do them, you don't have to do them right.

What is a guided audit?

 

[seasonaldude]

What is a guided audit?

Most items that are INF'd by fulfillment will drop into a guided audit. The store is required to go through them one by one and determine whether or not they really have the item. These have to be done everyday. How many are done is yet another metric for the store to meet. They are normally done at night, so long after flow leaves. Doing them correctly is important for fulfillment's sucess.

 

[Bosch]

Hmmm.....I don't know of anything in Greenfield. I will say that determining what is a good vs. bad INF is an inexact science, especially when trying to do so through guided audits.

Just as an example, let's say your picker needs to get a candle. They go to the floor location and don't see it. They look around and can't find it. They check the appropriate backroom area. No candle. They look at the inventory info and see nothing of use so they INF it. Now, a couple of hours later another TM is zoning and they see that particular candle abandoned on a shelf in pets. Eventually, that candle makes its way to where it's supposed to be. Later, someone does the guided audits and they spot the candle exactly where it's supposed to be. Your store actually does have the item. But, that's not a bad INF. Can't expect fulfillment to check every shelf in the store. This kind of thing happens routinely though.

Another issue is that guided audits can be done by the laziest people in the building. You just have to do them, you don't have to do them right. If the person doing the audits doesn't feel like actually looking for the item, they can just "audit" the item to the on hands. They can do that from the comfort of their desk in TSC. Can't fault fulfillment for not finding something a lazy TM audited to the on hands when you really don't have it.

Ideally, if you want to check on how your team is doing, you need to keep an eye on the INFs listed in MPM. Check on those as close to the INF time as possible so you can see what the TM was seeing. But, do keep in mind, that if an item is not where it is supposed to be it's really tough to blame the TM for not finding it. They should look. However, spotting out of place items depends on things like the angle you're looking at, how similar the item is to others in the location, whether or not the TM gets distracted by guests, etc.

The best thing to do is to look at INF% over time. You want large sample sizes to account for any randomness. That will tell you who is good and who is bad.

All of this.. And doing all of this looking while trying to go as fast as possible.

 

[allnew2]

I am looking to see if there is a way to tell "Good" vs "Bad" INFs after audits are done the next day.

I would say bad audit would be vendor , for some reason people don’t know that the store is not allowed to audit vendor items because it’s not something we get on our rdc so only the vendor can audit your on hands . While we are on vendor stuff make sure that your team is looking for vendor items in the vendors area in receiving and not just the sales floor .
Good inf I would say that if the on hands is less than 3 and doesn’t have a delivery date , an audit date and last sold , after checking returns , sales floor , Backroom ( maybe off location) and if my work shows something was received long time ago and sold and haven’t been audit after the last time was sold you would be good to go.
But like was said above you need to look in greenfield under store fulfillment or mpm and look at the area where your team is struggling, if it’s Softlines tell them to use rfid , get with a style tm , if the item was received that day get with inbound Tl and a&a breakout team . If it’s Hardlines same thing try and get with a dbo or the Tl for that department. I’m not in change of fulfillment anymore however all team memb and Tl are still instructed to come to me before inf.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

Many valid points here re ways to improve performance and I am glad for everyone's input. We do most of these items consistently, and that has helped us lower our INF across the board. As we look to further improve that, it seems to me that we can glean more from the data, so I'll keep looking that way.

Thanks!