SFS/OPU help?

[StyleMaven1]

Hi all! In these changing times I, as a Style leader, am expanding my knowledge base to assist my team as we have increasingly more and more people on LOA. So the next thing I'm teaching myself is Fulfillment, so I can teach my team and help them fill their hours.

What nuggets of good info do you have for me? What are things that aren't in training materials, but are really essential to know? We are a Super, 42 mil last year, 3 pack stations.

What are the concerning numbers to look at other than INF%? Like, when do you look at number of orders and say, oh shit, scheduled flex team can't handle that, they need some backup?

 

[JAShands]

Just do everything @seasonaldude says and you’ll be ok.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

After fulfillment, learn a little GS too, having multiple leaders that know the ins and outs of POS is really helpful to GSTMs.

 

[ThatAPguy]

For my team I go with 13 hours of payroll per 350 sfs units. That’s at 40 pick and a 90 pack productivity. We’re so slow right now so the truck is pushed and there’s not 9 pallets of SL’s repacks to dig through or it may be more like 15 hours. OPU right now is a little weird with these 3 hour goal times. I like to keep mine around 100 dpci with 2 tm’s picking them, if it gets above 150 I add someone to do a few batches to get it down. Below 50 I move someone to ship. They need to be doing 2 or 3 OPU batches at once unless we’re under 30 minutes on a batch. Flex TM’s should have a productivity of 45 and up for OPU right now. If it’s a random sales floor added person probably 25-30 units per hour

 

[seasonaldude]

Just do everything @seasonaldude says and you’ll be ok.

This is just good general life advice. 😛

@StyleMaven1 My store doesn't have SFS yet, so I can't help you there. Many of the posters in the Flexible Fulfillment thread can though. Some real experts in there.

As for OPU and when to know when to call in for backup. Well, it depends. It's important to know what your team is capable of (i.e. how fast are they generally) and what type of orders are they seeing, which can vary based on the week's sales and store inventory. By way of example, ordinarily I take 21 DPCIs at once for OPU. That's kind of a nice sweet spot for efficiency without overloading my cart. On average, that's going to take me about half an hour to fulfill from start to everything is in hold properly. Sometimes it will take a little bit longer and sometimes it goes much quicker. Just depends what the items are. But, the half hour per 21 DPCIs is my baseline.

Right now, however, many of the common items that can slow me down (freaking bulk paper and massive amounts of diapers) are out of stock and limited to how much people can buy. Even better the bulk of orders are just groceries and essentials. That's easy pickings. And we're getting tons of orders for Easter Candy. So, that's even easier. Thus, rather than taking 21 DPCI batches, I'm taking 35. How long is that going to take me? About half an hour on average (Freaked a TL out today when I did one in 17 minutes though. Heh.) That's a lot more items in approximately the same amount of time because orders are different right now.

So, well, it depends. As a TL listen to your veteran fulfillment TMs. Lean on them to let you know when help is needed.

As for any other tips not in the learning materials. Audit is fulfillment's best and only friend. Now more than ever. Audit. Audit. Audit. Also, don't make things more difficult for fulfillment. Any corners you might want to cut to save time/work for other teams will inevitably end up costing fulfillment time.

 

[Dog]

Do you have a fulfillment team lead or a GM team lead overseeing fulfillment (or a fulfillment captain)?

if so I would definitely let them know that you are interested in teaching your team fulfillment to help out and they could absolutely give you a crash course. I was in charge of fulfillment at a 6 pack station store in my previous role and it’s very straightforward 🙂

 

[happygoth]

Also, don't make things more difficult for fulfillment. Any corners you might want to cut to save time/work for other teams will inevitably end up costing fulfillment time.

😂😂😂

 

[Bosch]

Don't be like my style leads and say "that isn't my area." when fulfillment asked for help. They are now wishing they hadn't being forced now to do fulfillment without much help from the fulfillment team they refused to help. Karma sucks. But my store is a shitshow. Moving on.. 🙂

Know your store layout, know your trucks and where freight sits before it's pushed. Know where backstock is. Get to know everyone who works the floor, they are a huge help in finding things and if that number on hand is real or the systems imagination. Listen to the people who do the job, if they tell you, the system is on crack, it's on crack. If packing use your brain and don't put a tshirt in a 278 box..

 

[seasonaldude]

😂😂😂

It's a fact of life.

 

[Anelmi]

I've been doing ship lately and the box sizes for certain items are stupid. Also having to use packing tape instead of the paper tape because no one ordered supplies is a major PITA.

 

[Bosch]

I've been doing ship lately and the box sizes for certain items are stupid. Also having to use packing tape instead of the paper tape because no one ordered supplies is a major PITA.

I finally got my ETL to just order a couple things every week as a standing order. She finally understands why I had pallets and pallets of stuff sitting up there. When black Friday hit and we didn't get supplies until the end of February and she was begging stores around us for stuff it finally clicked for her. Cause we burned every bit of stash I had built and needed way more. So now we are rebuilding that stash pile.

 

[Ceeyaaa]

We had 22 pallets go out to UPS today..crazy amount of Sfs

 

[Bosch]

We had 22 pallets go out to UPS today..crazy amount of Sfs

Yeah ours got nuts for our small shop last week. We need at least one person just picking ship to get it all picked then another to pack it all. Normally one person can pick a batches between OPU's and someone will have to pack it, but no real "you are doing ship today." Now we need a couple people, that it's all they do.

I am cool with it, the more the better. In store sales are sucking right now as they should with the stay at home order. So the more we can pick to ship out the better.

 

[JAShands]

We had 22 pallets go out to UPS today..crazy amount of Sfs

That’s obnoxious. But, I’m more grateful than I can express to anyone who places an order to ship to their house. God bless you for staying home. (I’m Catholic, if seeing “god” is at all offensive please feel free to change it to whatever makes your heart happy!)

And our entire style team is learning fulfillment too @Bosch but they’re happy for the hours and flexibility. FF and SFS have been such a hot mess lately that if you aren’t on a lane or in Consumables or cleaning you’re helping pick or pack!

 

[StyleMaven1]

Don't be like my style leads and say "that isn't my area." when fulfillment asked for help. They are now wishing they hadn't being forced now to do fulfillment without much help from the fulfillment team they refused to help. Karma sucks. But my store is a shitshow. Moving on.. 🙂

Know your store layout, know your trucks and where freight sits before it's pushed. Know where backstock is. Get to know everyone who works the floor, they are a huge help in finding things and if that number on hand is real or the systems imagination. Listen to the people who do the job, if they tell you, the system is on crack, it's on crack. If packing use your brain and don't put a tshirt in a 278 box..

Oh definitely! "Not my job" is not a thing uttered by myself or my team unless we're not trained for the task and then we'll find the person needed to assist with that task immediately. We're all on great terms and are friendly with all of our GM and flex counterparts and are very familiar with their areas. I'm more familiar with grocery than my team and interact with the team over there more because my hours cross over with theirs a bit more. Our trams are definitely not insulated from each other. I do backroom audit once a weeks so I've been in every stockroom a million times 🙂

 

[StyleMaven1]

Do you have a fulfillment team lead or a GM team lead overseeing fulfillment (or a fulfillment captain)?

if so I would definitely let them know that you are interested in teaching your team fulfillment to help out and they could absolutely give you a crash course. I was in charge of fulfillment at a 6 pack station store in my previous role and it’s very straightforward 🙂

we have a GM team lead who is over fulfillment ( also toys, domestics and baby hardlines). My executive and I went through our roster of healthy employees today and designated 4 to start with that wanted hours and would be the quickest learners and I'm partnering with Flex leadership tomorrow while she's off. Several helped out around Black Friday and Christmas for a shift each, so they're willing!

 

[Anelmi]

Yeah we are having 2 do OPUs, 2-3 doing the ship picking and another 1-2 doing just the packing. Most of them are the displaced Starbucks TMs as well as cashiers who would rather not be so guest facing right now.

 

[Bosch]

we have a GM team lead who is over fulfillment ( also toys, domestics and baby hardlines). My executive and I went through our roster of healthy employees today and designated 4 to start with that wanted hours and would be the quickest learners and I'm partnering with Flex leadership tomorrow while she's off. Several helped out around Black Friday and Christmas for a shift each, so they're willing!

Good. Also go through the supplies someone on the crew usually is mom and does the shopping, make sure you have a back up for that so they hopefully keep flowing in. Opu bags too.. And when you have newbies picking OPU's keep the batches we like three at a time so they pick a decent amount of stuff but they are not tied up forever. I know the three hour goal time seems like a lot and it is, but if you get slammed it isn't a lot of time for newbies still learning. The 3 batch limit keeps the orders turning over so if you blow a goal time it's not a lot of goal times.

 

[StyleMaven1]

Thank you!

This is just good general life advice. 😛

@StyleMaven1 My store doesn't have SFS yet, so I can't help you there. Many of the posters in the Flexible Fulfillment thread can though. Some real experts in there.

As for OPU and when to know when to call in for backup. Well, it depends. It's important to know what your team is capable of (i.e. how fast are they generally) and what type of orders are they seeing, which can vary based on the week's sales and store inventory. By way of example, ordinarily I take 21 DPCIs at once for OPU. That's kind of a nice sweet spot for efficiency without overloading my cart. On average, that's going to take me about half an hour to fulfill from start to everything is in hold properly. Sometimes it will take a little bit longer and sometimes it goes much quicker. Just depends what the items are. But, the half hour per 21 DPCIs is my baseline.

Right now, however, many of the common items that can slow me down (freaking bulk paper and massive amounts of diapers) are out of stock and limited to how much people can buy. Even better the bulk of orders are just groceries and essentials. That's easy pickings. And we're getting tons of orders for Easter Candy. So, that's even easier. Thus, rather than taking 21 DPCI batches, I'm taking 35. How long is that going to take me? About half an hour on average (Freaked a TL out today when I did one in 17 minutes though. Heh.) That's a lot more items in approximately the same amount of time because orders are different right now.

So, well, it depends. As a TL listen to your veteran fulfillment TMs. Lean on them to let you know when help is needed.

As for any other tips not in the learning materials. Audit is fulfillment's best and only friend. Now more than ever. Audit. Audit. Audit. Also, don't make things more difficult for fulfillment. Any corners you might want to cut to save time/work for other teams will inevitably end up costing fulfillment time.

I'm lucky that we have a lot of veterans. Our main OPU picker has been with us 13 years. Only one on flex was a seasonal hire holdover. Our grocery leadership has many decades of experience and TL over essentials was srtl and has been in our store for EVER. They've been attacking the audits like crazy. In style we've been setting all of our vmgs early, superzoning and sfq all pogs and reprofiling and locu our backroom. After we finish that thus week I can work some audit magic! We also have certain categories that I want to RFID tag, so I need to get a list from flex of what they know isn't tagged.

 

[Dog]

we have a GM team lead who is over fulfillment ( also toys, domestics and baby hardlines). My executive and I went through our roster of healthy employees today and designated 4 to start with that wanted hours and would be the quickest learners and I'm partnering with Flex leadership tomorrow while she's off. Several helped out around Black Friday and Christmas for a shift each, so they're willing!

Awesome awesome 🙂 great initiative and great looking out for your team

 

[Bosch]

Thank you!
I'm lucky that we have a lot of veterans. Our main OPU picker has been with us 13 years. Only one on flex was a seasonal hire holdover. Our grocery leadership has many decades of experience and TL over essentials was srtl and has been in our store for EVER. They've been attacking the audits like crazy. In style we've been setting all of our vmgs early, superzoning and sfq all pogs and reprofiling and locu our backroom. After we finish that thus week I can work some audit magic! We also have certain categories that I want to RFID tag, so I need to get a list from flex of what they know isn't tagged.

I'm Jelly.. Those are all things I wish I had. We are kind of lord of flies at my store.

 

[Far from newbie]

At first I thought OPU was so unnecessary (except for the few exceptions of parents with an infant or too many youngins to corral )- since the guest had to come to the store for pickup anyway, why not just come in to shop? But now that customers are using it out of necessity I’m thinking they may become too lazy to shop for themselves in the future - increasing the ordering on-line to numbers that we wouldn’t have seen without this.
Are we fast forwarding the demise of brick & mortar ?

Also wondering if we will ever be automated like Walmart - I like that better.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

I don't think we're losing brick and mortar entirely. Maybe cut more of the store out for OPU and whatnot, but not lose it entirely. Lots of stuff like clothes can't (or shouldn't, rather) be bought without trying them on. Some people just like to wander around the store and get a few groceries after work too.

 

[BullseyeBabe]

Is there a way to move a OPU order once it’s been scanned into a location? We could do it with the old PDAs.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Is there a way to move a OPU order once it’s been scanned into a location? We could do it with the old PDAs.

No and it’s the most annoying thing ever. I desperately need to redo our MC location but I can’t