MEGATHREAD Signing Tips, Tricks and Quips (along with howls of despair)

[BKop16]

Where can I find "POG Guided work"? Im trying to prepare for the set as much as possible.

It's something that's coming in a few months and it's a total revamp of how POGs are done. Basically each step of the POG process will be a step by step guide in MyDay. However each step will have time recorded so HQ can determine how long POGs are truly taking across the company.

You can search it in Workbench but we will officially hear about it soon.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

It's something that's coming in a few months and it's a total revamp of how POGs are done. Basically each step of the POG process will be a step by step guide in MyDay. However each step will have time recorded so HQ can determine how long POGs are truly taking across the company.

You can search it in Workbench but we will officially hear about it soon.

It’s still in pilot, next round of stores are in June. Full chain won’t be for a little while.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

Sounds like some micromanaging bullshit to me. I am not a monkey who needs to be spoon-fed each step of setting a POG. Let ME choose my process based on my assessment of the situation and on my knowledge of how *I* function, thank you very much.

What I have always loved about Presentation is the need to use my mind, make decisions and solve problems, and having the freedom to self-direct. It's so much more satisfying than being a robot that needs bathroom breaks.

 

[SigningLady]

It's something that's coming in a few months and it's a total revamp of how POGs are done. Basically each step of the POG process will be a step by step guide in MyDay. However each step will have time recorded so HQ can determine how long POGs are truly taking across the company.

You can search it in Workbench but we will officially hear about it soon.

The problem with having time recorded is it cannot account for the interruptions. And it will be a skewed picture: one store may have a very efficient team that can set fast while another store may have ETLs setting intermittently as their time allows.

HQ must have come up with this time idea after they asked select TMs about POG changes--the two of us I know they talked to at my store would have explained the variables that factor into setting a POG. And timing how long it takes to gather supplies or clean shelves seems unnecessary; like @Dead and Khaki said: very micromanage-y.

I'm guessing it's something that runs in the background, not actually visible to a TM. I could also see this as a tool for coaching slow workers.

 

[BKop16]

The problem with having time recorded is it cannot account for the interruptions. And it will be a skewed picture: one store may have a very efficient team that can set fast while another store may have ETLs setting intermittently as their time allows.

HQ must have come up with this time idea after they asked select TMs about POG changes--the two of us I know they talked to at my store would have explained the variables that factor into setting a POG. And timing how long it takes to gather supplies or clean shelves seems unnecessary; like @Dead and Khaki said: very micromanage-y.

I'm guessing it's something that runs in the background, not actually visible to a TM. I could also see this as a tool for coaching slow workers.

I think it's all in the background and will be used as a company wide aggregate. If you say a revision is 2 hours and 95% of stores took more than 3 (e.g. every 100% chemical revision) then you can learn something from that.

 

[Alexbegt]

I think it's all in the background and will be used as a company wide aggregate. If you say a revision is 2 hours and 95% of stores took more than 3 (e.g. every 100% chemical revision) then you can learn something from that.

Those chem revisions were bad - Especially with my store wanting us to ensure we clean the shelves and replace broken label holders (which we can't do if we don't have cleaning supplies [budget] and the label holders [no one ordering due to budget..]) - I can also just see people quickly slamming through all of the different screens and then still taking 5x time not being tracked.

My store is famous for people going slow. I can do 3 endcaps by the time they just finish one, and some revisions that say 'take 11 hours' takes me like 4/5 sending on the size and amount of cleaning but others will drag it out 11 hours.

For instance, I did the travel wall transition in 10 hours (5 hours per day) instead of the 24 hours it said - And I even did it alone, replacing missing label holders, missing dividers and doing backstcok and pulls of overpass (Which keeps getting mentioned on transition page that the POG times DO NOT account for - which I find is funny.)

 

[rd123]

We got the sticky 7x11s for the ad set today . Not bad . Easier than the plastic holders .

 

[FlowTeamChick]

We got the sticky 7x11s for the ad set today . Not bad . Easier than the plastic holders .

We started using them last week. I like that I can put them up the same time I do the 2x3 signs; no need to guesstimate how many sign holders I'll need and make a trip to get them. Although they do get a little messy looking after being up for a week.
Probably faster to take down for Saturday's closing TMs.

 

[NXT]

It’s still in pilot, next round of stores are in June. Full chain won’t be for a little while.

I read the guide for test stores. My store fake ties planograms/revisions/SPLs at end of week if they do not complete them (got to be 100% for the week), and either go back to set them the week after or just keep moving on and forget about them. Will this new process still allow that? It seems to me it will, just whoever ties it has to just complete all the questions. I would hope this would raise a red flag to HQ on why it took a POG only 5 min to set vs hour or so.

 

[IceIceBaby]

I read the guide for test stores. My store fake ties planograms/revisions/SPLs at end of week if they do not complete them (got to be 100% for the week), and either go back to set them the week after or just keep moving on and forget about them. Will this new process still allow that? It seems to me it will, just whoever ties it has to just complete all the questions. I would hope this would raise a red flag to HQ on why it took a POG only 5 min to set vs hour or so.

Our store started doing that this year and I hate it.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

I read the guide for test stores. My store fake ties planograms/revisions/SPLs at end of week if they do not complete them (got to be 100% for the week), and either go back to set them the week after or just keep moving on and forget about them. Will this new process still allow that? It seems to me it will, just whoever ties it has to just complete all the questions. I would hope this would raise a red flag to HQ on why it took a POG only 5 min to set vs hour or so.

I start the pilot next week so I can circle back but from the guide yes I seems like fake tying is still possible.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

My store is part of the June rollout. -_-

If people who didn’t feel confident setting POGs could OPT INTO a “guided mode” like this, that would be great. But it’s going to be nothing but a millstone for experienced Presentation TMs.

If corporate really wants to know how much time they need to allot for setting POGs, maybe they should try, you know, SETTING POGs. In open stores, not in some pristine warehouse. As in showing up (UNANNOUNCED, for God’s sake) at various stores and setting POGs themselves under all different kinds of real-life conditions.

Maybe then they’d learn there are WAY too many variables involved to make one-size-fits-all timeline predictions that do anything except punish the competent and thorough and reward the cheaters and shortcutters.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

punish the competent and thorough and reward the cheaters and shortcutters.

Seems like this has been SOP to some extent, depending on leadership, at my store for forever.
Given how our new SD likes to micro-manage, I'm a little surprised that he hasn't yet figured out which TMs consistently take longish lunches and do stuff like clock in, then put away their coat or whatever, reverse for when they leave. It's just a few minutes here and there but it's consistent and adds up over a month. Seems like that's the kind of thing he'd jump all over.
Instead, he's fussing over things that aren't broken but he thinks they need fixing.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

My store is part of the June rollout. -_-

If people who didn’t feel confident setting POGs could OPT INTO a “guided mode” like this, that would be great. But it’s going to be nothing but a millstone for experienced Presentation TMs.

If corporate really wants to know how much time they need to allot for setting POGs, maybe they should try, you know, SETTING POGs. In open stores, not in some pristine warehouse. As in showing up (UNANNOUNCED, for God’s sale) at various stores and setting POGs themselves under all different kinds of real-life conditions.

Maybe then they’d learn there are WAY too many variables involved to make one-size-fits-all timeline predictions that do anything except punish the competent and thorough and reward the cheaters and shortcutters.

I do think it’ll be a few extra steps for experienced people but the pros seem to outweigh the cons imo. It’ll auto ties pogs to the locations they belong (endcaps are my biggest excitement here) and you can submit chatbots directly from the process without having to back out and do it later. There’s a few other neat things involved but yes definitely some extra steps.

 

[jenna]

I do think it’ll be a few extra steps for experienced people but the pros seem to outweigh the cons imo. It’ll auto ties pogs to the locations they belong (endcaps are my biggest excitement here) and you can submit chatbots directly from the process without having to back out and do it later. There’s a few other neat things involved but yes definitely some extra steps.

Can the ties be changed manually?

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Can the ties be changed manually?

Yes you can change and it’ll just ask why, not sure it’ll ask why forever but they want to learn why. There are exceptions tho for multi location pogs like batteries and checklanes, flex pogs and store option these won’t tie themselves to locations

 

[SigningLady]

Yes you can change and it’ll just ask why, not sure it’ll ask why forever but they want to learn why. There are exceptions tho for multi location pogs like batteries and checklanes, flex pogs and store option these won’t tie themselves to locations

Does it only auto-tie GM POGs? I'm wondering how it would know where to tie Style POGs when fixture blocking can alter what a location is.

 

[Alexbegt]

Did anyone get the new fixture for furniture? It reminds me of the one that used to be in babies - the little white lip.

Also I set Lightbulbs last night without label strips - Recommend bringing do-its for the smaller lightbulbs on pegs since they went from the base deck + section shelf to pegged for us from the last section and of course the boxes did not have any hanging piece.

Spacing on that aisle is wack, some of the stuff barely even fit.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Does it only auto-tie GM POGs? I'm wondering how it would know where to tie Style POGs when fixture blocking can alter what a location is.

Great question, I didn’t see any mention of style in the roll out guide. I wonder if the team at HQ considered that a flex pog since we use the term traditional pogs in style now.

 

[BKop16]

Did anyone get the new fixture for furniture? It reminds me of the one that used to be in babies - the little white lip.

Also I set Lightbulbs last night without label strips - Recommend bringing do-its for the smaller lightbulbs on pegs since they went from the base deck + section shelf to pegged for us from the last section and of course the boxes did not have any hanging piece.

Spacing on that aisle is wack, some of the stuff barely even fit.

At this rate you'll be setting the market flip before you even get fixtures lol.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

My problem is not about the "extra steps." If this were a glorified PPA and I could set my POG in my own not-broke, don't-fix-it way and sign off on all the tasks at the end, it might be a minor inconvenience, but not something that completely screws with my productivity and sanity. My problem is HQ trying to impose a rigid, standard procedure on a process that is subject to trillions of variables in reality. In practice, setting a POG is rarely a linear sequence of one-and-done tasks, each to be done in its entirety before moving on to the next. And that's before we get into the fact that everyone's brain is different and a method that helps one person can hinder another person. Getting my ADHD brain to function linearly and obediently to an outside will is like getting a swarm of methed-up hornets to fly in single file.

From the demo video we watched the other day, I don't gather there's any way to skip around and do things in an order of our choosing, let alone multitask. The only mention of "flexibility" is when they show the ability to switch between sections in the POG viewer. There is no room for intuition, judgement, trial and error, leaving a problem aside for the moment and brainstorming solutions while working on something else--all of this would certainly make any data on the duration of specific tasks useless.

For one example of how HQ's concept is a huge departure from our current not-broke, don't-fix-it way of doing things: I don't gather pre-determined numbers of fixtures before I start setting. I typically start working with whatever fixtures are already in the aisle, swapping them with my teammates depending on whose POG is losing and gaining what, pulling any fixtures that are in bad condition. If I have extra fixtures to put away or FUBARed fixtures to discard, I'll take care of that as I go so I don't end up with a huge fleet of carts blocking the aisles. I tend to print peg/price accuracy labels while I'm in the fixture room gathering or putting something away (our Sign and Label printer is in the fixture room).

Usually, at the start of a transition, one TM will bring out ALL label strips, and we'll each go over to the stack and grab what we need at our own convenience. And yet, under this new system, each person setting a POG has to start and sign off on the label-strip-gathering task. If we're going to send HQ any useful information on How Long It Takes to Gather Label Strips, are we all going to punch into that task whenever the delegated TM sets off for label strip office, stand around until he or she returns, and then sign off once we have the strips for our individual POGs in hand, or is the one TM going to log a several minutes while the rest of us log seconds each?

Oh, and I love how ISM is supposed be done AFTER setting fixtures. Let me banish that idea to hell in two words: BACKER PAPER.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

If corporate really wants to make setting POGs so easy a caveman can do it, how about giving us an easily accesible database of all fixtures--including part numbers, CLEAR images, DPCIs where applicable, and any notes about use or installation that might be helpful?

And drive it into leadership's heads that Presentation Team needs be staffed by TMs who have at least a little bit going on upstairs, and not by lunkheaded freight jockeys who happen to be "fast" at brainless tasks...

 

[gsa4lyfe]

If corporate really wants to make setting POGs so easy a caveman can do it, how about giving us an easily accesible database of all fixtures--including part numbers, CLEAR images, DPCIs where applicable, and any notes about use or installation that might be helpful?

And drive it into leadership's heads that Presentation Team needs be staffed by TMs who have at least a little bit going on upstairs, and not by lunkheaded freight jockeys who happen to be "fast" at brainless tasks...

What happens when the etl is also a lunkhead freight jockey lol

 

[Alexbegt]

At this rate you'll be setting the market flip before you even get fixtures lol.

Not wrong! We'll get the storage fixtures before we get the ones for furniture.

I am glad for the vacuum wall they did not add new shelves where we have a pole. I already had to remove one before, and now I need to remove another one.

Does anyone know how to easily get the support column piece off? Last time I removed one of the shelves I left it there and of course the PML has not removed it.

 

[commiecorvus]

Not wrong! We'll get the storage fixtures before we get the ones for furniture.

I am glad for the vacuum wall they did not add new shelves where we have a pole. I already had to remove one before, and now I need to remove another one.

Does anyone know how to easily get the support column piece off? Last time I removed one of the shelves I left it there and of course the PML has not removed it.

I remember our PML going at a shelf with a Sawzall to make one that fit around a support beam, then crimping the edges so they wouldn't cut anyone.
Then it took months for us to get them to change the plans to in to account that they had made us set products where the beam was.