Inbound process

[BurgerBob]

I love the fact that I'm not allowed to leave my carpet. Its saved me from many a unwanted task

 

[InboundBoss]

Today I had 1 thrower & 1 on the line due to 2 call offs. For the last 2 weeks I've had 2-3 on the line because I've had TMs go on LOA after the schedule came out & weren't replaced. It's been a rough last 2 months.

 

[spotoff]

Modernizing inbound is a months long game. At my previous store we struggled for months on end in all respects from unload time to uboat sort to secondary sort. However one thing that my DSD clarified (because nowhere was it made clear) is that your secondary sorters are a part of your inbound process and hours and your inbound team is a part of the secondary sort process too, they are all from the same bucket. If the secondary sort is only 6 hours but your sec sorters are scheduled for 10 one of the sorters could jump on the line to help and both can and should help clear flats/freight once the sec sort is complete. The same goes the other way, if sec sort is 15 hours and you have 10 sched, your inbound team, or one or two inbound TMs should be jumping in to help clear that once they finish unload. This isn’t always an option and we never did get to a point where we could do this during my time there, but it was an expectation that was reiterated by my DSD every time he walked and we rolled flats/P1 or sec sort.

 

[TLminiSD]

The Inbound process sets the tone for the day, week etc. The longer it takes to get off the line the further you fall behind each day. I recently was transferred to a failing store to fix it (the backroom was an absolute shitshow like couldn’t even walk down some aisles and they just lost 2 gm tls and an etl gm) and was put into the inbound TL position (was previously a closing TL and Remodel TL so i was used to working with little to no resources and used to fixing issues). They followed that 5 team member process like your store. The 5 team member set up is simply almost impossible lol. Get even 1 callout and it’s game over. It took me 3 months of breaking my back with that set up throwing almost everyday after the team left (we were walking into a full line of freight each day) and my underperforming ETL GM finally getting let go to convince my SD that the day starts in the back and that’s were support and resources need to be. My current set up is 3 sorters each side, myself on the hook keeping pace, and 1 or 2 throwers depending on payroll and i’ll jump in to fill the line faster if we only have 1 thrower or a callout (if i have a full line of sorters they can keep up so i’ll usually have 2 people throwing). My team comes in at 5am and we’re usually beginning to support with truck push by 7:30-8am. I’ll delegate the inbound team to either areas with a DBO callout to push vehicles or any department where i know a DBO won’t come clean with empty vehicles for us the next morning. Fast forward 5 months and our backroom is spotless, only 20,000 units in the back as well. My inbound is a lot less stressed now because they no longer are carrying the workload of the entire store. Don’t know if this would be feasible for you to try but i think if you can convince your ETL or SD the importance of the process you’ll see how much it works. At the end of the day nothing in the store or no metric can ever be green without being on process in the backroom. If the backroom process and truck process doesn’t win, nobody else can. good luck!!!

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Hey @TheQuietStorm, this thread may have some insight for you.