60SecondsRemaining
Former SrTL - Replen
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2014
- Messages
- 872
First off, welcome. Let me begin by telling you that everything you said in your post, it means exactly -nothing-. You were hired out of college as an etl with a few reasons. First, target hired you as a college grad because they want to mold you into their brand image. What that campus recruiter didn't tell you, is that Target isn't really a place where you make decisions and own a business, it's a place where you will do what your STL and DTL tell you to do. If it's isn't best practice, it isn't what you will be doing, or most likely you will quickly find yourself out of a job.
You will be given unreasonable expectations, and then expected to hold your team accountable to these expectations. If you challenge your peers and leader saying that what they expect is unreasonable, you will either be labeled as someone who isn't "in it to win it" or some other bullshit phrase that is in that week. From here, you're pretty much targeted for removal. You will most likely be given a broken store, with an even more broken flow process and expected to fix it. If you last 6 months without quitting from burnout or getting fired for cursing out your (clueless) stl, it will be impressive. You will consistently have your hands tied. You will have minimal staffing to move mountains.
If you land a decent STL who has a clue, kudos. Your life will be great and everything I just said is irrelevant.
Are you still here? Great. Now let me tell you how you avoid this.
I'll just give you the quick and dirty bullet points of what my 10 logistics years has taught me.
From the leadership side;
- MOST IMPORTANTLY - You are a fresh ETL. Your team will not view you in a positive light. Most people in your position bring immediate (and usually negative) change. Give it a few weeks. See your process, ASK your team how they feel. Make sure what you view as wins and opps is in line with what your team views. If it isn't where is the disconnect? Create opportunities for them to teach you things. Don't be afraid to ask them for help, and make sure you tell them that you trust their ability and you are genuinely interested in learning from them to make things better.
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.
- You WILL be forced to choose between your team members/team leader and your stl. Spin is everything. If they actually need to be coached/performanced out, then do it. If they don't, take their side. Stick to your guns.
- Motivation means exactly nil to a flow team. It's a diverse group of individuals who will be nearly impossible to motivate as a team. Flow teams are motivated by 3 things. Money, more hours, and anything they can consume in large quantities. Get yourself a Pcard, you'll be using it.
- Unexpected small gestures are FAR more effective than incentives (bribes). For example, saying "if you finish this task, I will do xyz" This creates an expectation, and lowers your quality of work. Instead, when your team does a good job, even if it's just a few team members, grab some donuts or some dollar menu breakfast sandwiches, Bring them in and pull those team members aside and say "hey, I really appreciate everything you did on Monday. I got you some grub in the breakroom, why don't you take 5 and grab some." It creates a personal tie between you and your team, and lets them know that you see when they put in the effort without creating incentives. It's also genuine.
- Which logistics process (overnight, 4am, 6am, 730am) will factor greatly into how your process is run, and your success. Pray to god you don't land a 730am store. I am currently in one, and it is extremely difficult to be successful with the barriers that an open store places in front of you.
- You are a co-leader. Do not leave your team leaders to rot on the process while you sit in the office doing "paperwork." You have a 50 hour work week. Those extra 10 hours are when you do that. The other 40 are for leading. Your team leaders will almost assuredly have a better rapport with the team than you. If you burn them, they will bury you inside of a year.
- You can't push and backstock a truck by yourself. Your team members will do the bulk of the work. Remember that whenever you speak, it should be with their perceptions in mind.
- Take care of your planogram/pricing team/team leader. If it means sacrificing your logistics process once in a while to help them with major transitions, it's worth it. Plano TM's are usually tenured, versatile, and dependable. They will pay you back tenfold when you're in a bad place taking a double. If you have a poor planogram team, ignore this.
- Communication is VERY important. You, your team leader, your stl, and team members should always be on the same page. Always. Take great pains to ensure this is always the case.
- Be lenient and reasonable with your team, but also move on poor performers quickly. Attendance issues can be grey, but slow/poor performance isn't. Coach x 3, Corrective, Coach x 3, Final, Coach x1, Terminate. Poor performers create a negative rift in your team.
From a process side;
- If you can, when an area is done being pushed, break a backroom trained flow TM off to go backstock it quickly and return to the floor. This reduces movement in your backroom and keeps it clean and efficient. More junk sitting around means more steps. Steps = wasted time.
- Your unload is the most important part of your process. A truck is 6 panels. No single truck should ever take more than 60 minutes to unload. Keep a water cooler/cold water in the back for your unloaders and keep them fueled. Set up 3 unloaders, rotate every 15 minutes, No one person is ever unloading for more than 30m. Use the third person to stand at front of the roller and make sure it is constantly clear so your throwers never have to stop or turn around. This person also pulls the pallets out of the truck so your unloaders don't stop. If the line isn't always 100% full, you aren't moving fast enough.
- Don't ever, EVER, underestimate trash. Someone should be doing cardboard/trash within 30 minutes of the time you start pushing. At the end of the day you will be doing the trash if you don't do this. Trash time is hot, dirty, and conducive to bitchy negativity. It will burn you out. Avoid this as much as possible.
- Be realistic. There will be days where you simply can't be successful with your resources. If you know you won't finish, be strategic and finish what you can 100%. Make a plan to get current within 24 hours. This means push AND backstock.
Best of luck, and hopefully you come back with any more questions!
You will be given unreasonable expectations, and then expected to hold your team accountable to these expectations. If you challenge your peers and leader saying that what they expect is unreasonable, you will either be labeled as someone who isn't "in it to win it" or some other bullshit phrase that is in that week. From here, you're pretty much targeted for removal. You will most likely be given a broken store, with an even more broken flow process and expected to fix it. If you last 6 months without quitting from burnout or getting fired for cursing out your (clueless) stl, it will be impressive. You will consistently have your hands tied. You will have minimal staffing to move mountains.
If you land a decent STL who has a clue, kudos. Your life will be great and everything I just said is irrelevant.
Are you still here? Great. Now let me tell you how you avoid this.
I'll just give you the quick and dirty bullet points of what my 10 logistics years has taught me.
From the leadership side;
- MOST IMPORTANTLY - You are a fresh ETL. Your team will not view you in a positive light. Most people in your position bring immediate (and usually negative) change. Give it a few weeks. See your process, ASK your team how they feel. Make sure what you view as wins and opps is in line with what your team views. If it isn't where is the disconnect? Create opportunities for them to teach you things. Don't be afraid to ask them for help, and make sure you tell them that you trust their ability and you are genuinely interested in learning from them to make things better.
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.
- You WILL be forced to choose between your team members/team leader and your stl. Spin is everything. If they actually need to be coached/performanced out, then do it. If they don't, take their side. Stick to your guns.
- Motivation means exactly nil to a flow team. It's a diverse group of individuals who will be nearly impossible to motivate as a team. Flow teams are motivated by 3 things. Money, more hours, and anything they can consume in large quantities. Get yourself a Pcard, you'll be using it.
- Unexpected small gestures are FAR more effective than incentives (bribes). For example, saying "if you finish this task, I will do xyz" This creates an expectation, and lowers your quality of work. Instead, when your team does a good job, even if it's just a few team members, grab some donuts or some dollar menu breakfast sandwiches, Bring them in and pull those team members aside and say "hey, I really appreciate everything you did on Monday. I got you some grub in the breakroom, why don't you take 5 and grab some." It creates a personal tie between you and your team, and lets them know that you see when they put in the effort without creating incentives. It's also genuine.
- Which logistics process (overnight, 4am, 6am, 730am) will factor greatly into how your process is run, and your success. Pray to god you don't land a 730am store. I am currently in one, and it is extremely difficult to be successful with the barriers that an open store places in front of you.
- You are a co-leader. Do not leave your team leaders to rot on the process while you sit in the office doing "paperwork." You have a 50 hour work week. Those extra 10 hours are when you do that. The other 40 are for leading. Your team leaders will almost assuredly have a better rapport with the team than you. If you burn them, they will bury you inside of a year.
- You can't push and backstock a truck by yourself. Your team members will do the bulk of the work. Remember that whenever you speak, it should be with their perceptions in mind.
- Take care of your planogram/pricing team/team leader. If it means sacrificing your logistics process once in a while to help them with major transitions, it's worth it. Plano TM's are usually tenured, versatile, and dependable. They will pay you back tenfold when you're in a bad place taking a double. If you have a poor planogram team, ignore this.
- Communication is VERY important. You, your team leader, your stl, and team members should always be on the same page. Always. Take great pains to ensure this is always the case.
- Be lenient and reasonable with your team, but also move on poor performers quickly. Attendance issues can be grey, but slow/poor performance isn't. Coach x 3, Corrective, Coach x 3, Final, Coach x1, Terminate. Poor performers create a negative rift in your team.
From a process side;
- If you can, when an area is done being pushed, break a backroom trained flow TM off to go backstock it quickly and return to the floor. This reduces movement in your backroom and keeps it clean and efficient. More junk sitting around means more steps. Steps = wasted time.
- Your unload is the most important part of your process. A truck is 6 panels. No single truck should ever take more than 60 minutes to unload. Keep a water cooler/cold water in the back for your unloaders and keep them fueled. Set up 3 unloaders, rotate every 15 minutes, No one person is ever unloading for more than 30m. Use the third person to stand at front of the roller and make sure it is constantly clear so your throwers never have to stop or turn around. This person also pulls the pallets out of the truck so your unloaders don't stop. If the line isn't always 100% full, you aren't moving fast enough.
- Don't ever, EVER, underestimate trash. Someone should be doing cardboard/trash within 30 minutes of the time you start pushing. At the end of the day you will be doing the trash if you don't do this. Trash time is hot, dirty, and conducive to bitchy negativity. It will burn you out. Avoid this as much as possible.
- Be realistic. There will be days where you simply can't be successful with your resources. If you know you won't finish, be strategic and finish what you can 100%. Make a plan to get current within 24 hours. This means push AND backstock.
Best of luck, and hopefully you come back with any more questions!