Archived The Big & Dandy Plano thread!

[LaTarjetaRoja]

More than likely you will be pushing or getting trained, which means you will be paired with a Plano TM.

no PPTL in their right mind would send a GreenPog to set something, without any training whatsoever.

I certainly hope so! Oh, and I'm guessing this is a ASANTS thing, but do Plano answer calls for backup? I've only ever heard GSAs grouse at Hardlines and Softlines when nobody answers.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I certainly hope so! Oh, and I'm guessing this is a ASANTS thing, but do Plano answer calls for backup? I've only ever heard GSAs grouse at Hardlines and Softlines when nobody answers.

They do sometimes.

 

[LaTarjetaRoja]

Okay, well I'll just ask whoever I'm working with and roll with the punches. (This strategy has gotten me through most issues at work so far.) Thanks!

 

[SrTLall]

I certainly hope so! Oh, and I'm guessing this is a ASANTS thing, but do Plano answer calls for backup? I've only ever heard GSAs grouse at Hardlines and Softlines when nobody answers.

We are an early morning flow store and our old STL expected everyone to respond, even the flow TMs (who didn't have walkies, so no one could quite figure out how they were supposed to respond). Glad that STL was fired. The backroom TL was even called upon to respond.

 

[jenna]

Uh, everyone is supposed to respond..... even FLOW. Someone on flow always has a walkie, they usually work in groups, and often can hear walkies worn by others, during the normal morning hours of work.

:rolls eyes:

 

[Doglover89]

In my store, one or two tms per hour are assigned to backup cashier if needed (hardlines, softlines, instocks, presentation, and pricing). Flow does not back up cashier; they aren't trained.

 

[unknown]

It's in everyone's core roles to assist guests. Some work centers more than others. The receiver is not normally going to answer backups. But if there is a flow tm pushing one spot, unless specifically told not to, they should be jumping on lane. Same goes for POG when they are resetting checklane.

 

[Yetive]

Our receiver jumps on a lane when coming or going to breaks if needed. POG/Price respond same as SF.

 

[LaTarjetaRoja]

In my store, one or two tms per hour are assigned to backup cashier if needed

I wish my store did this. I always answer the first call I hear, because typically I've just gotten in and haven't gotten in a groove yet, and I want to support the front lanes. But it gets awkward when I've gone up for two calls in a row, and nobody else is answering. I hate leaving them hanging, but I have to balance my responsibilities to get things done. Eventually the GSA will call out the department not sending anyone, but still. I'd much prefer to have a window where I know I need to respond to calls, and the rest of my shift just power through my responsibilities in my department.

 

[mrknownothing]

I'm a HL TM with some unexpected Presentation shifts coming up. I'd appreciate any advice, as I've not formally trained in this. I did have one shift where I was pushing items to an empty shelf, then using the printer to make labels for them; but I did not have a planogram to go off of, just the direction of my ETL-HL. I'm not too worried about getting through the day, I just hate feeling like I'm the new person who has know idea what she's doing and has to run for help all the time.

It sounds like you might be setting sales planners. Either that or you might be pushing merchandise in aisles that the plano team is setting. What you were doing before sounds like PTM.

 

[Signduck]

More than likely you will be pushing or getting trained, which means you will be paired with a Plano TM.

no PPTL in their right mind would send a GreenPog to set something, without any training whatsoever.

Uh mine did/does. Smh.

I certainly hope so! Oh, and I'm guessing this is a ASANTS thing, but do Plano answer calls for backup? I've only ever heard GSAs grouse at Hardlines and Softlines when nobody answers.

EVERYONE except recieving, backroom and electronics is SUPPOSED TO do go ups. Everyone does or at lest is supposed to train for cashiering. That being said, in my store only certain people seem to get called out to go up. And flow just flat out "ignores" it. They're on a time schedule Are you fucking kidding me? You cut 100 hours from a 4 man team!!! There are 40 people on flow! Who is on a time schedule??? Oh well. So anyone who isn't flow, which is process team members in my store goes up.

 

[Sbux babe]

Hey fellow poggies anyone else struggling with their workload lately? We have been struggling for about 3 weeks now and just can't catch up. That massive week of housewares nearly killed me!!! Anyone else in this boat or is my team just lagging?

 

[SitSpotSit]

We are always playing catch up. I don't know how any store can be right on track. It's frustrating.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

My Plano team usually tries to work two weeks ahead as much as they can (which is like 75% of the time, which makes my Signing Life a Living Hell). With the recent workload however, We have this Furniture Transition(77 pieces of new Furniture) AND C9 re-invention, in just this week alone, we are ahead, but struggling to keep up pace.

 

[RedMallet]

My Plano team has completely imploded. The PPTL is gone as of last Wednesday, and was never suitable/trained for the position in any real way. Pogs have been tied/not set/not tied going back weeks, if not longer. Our shelf strip/planogram situation on the signing desk looks like a hurricane hit it, the fixture room is a disaster area, slightly less so because of my frantic attempts to keep it from sliding into complete anarchy. I am effectively half acting PTL much of the time because I am apparently the only person who has ever worked Presentation with any problem solving skills at all. I, the signing person, have spent my last two weeks handling all the fixtures for small appliances/home decor because plano simply didn't do any of it besides unbox the new lamps and sometimes put them where they were supposed to go(Which wasn't helped by the complete clusterfuck that the transition to the new display process has been).

So yeah, no matter how bad it is, realize it could be worse!

 

[SitSpotSit]

My Plano team usually tries to work two weeks ahead as much as they can

I am only months into my plano adventure and this amazes me. Is it ok to ask you a few questions?

So the planos have dates and I figured that was the week they are meant to be set to correspond with ads or something as well as having the items in inventory. It's ok to be early like that? Not that we have a chance at that happening.

Also, with downstocking, pushing to home, setting, pulling, pushing and restocking I always feel it's one step forward and two steps back. I always think there has to be a better way to get things done, what's your teams process?

Is there a gauge each store uses to know how many plano tms they need? Maybe we're short?

Thanks for any insights!

 

[Westcoast7]

Ours was struggling with all the Halloween pallets and no help to push. Some days was just me and another Plano TM pushing all day barely making a dent. Plus they didn't send label strips for a lot of things in housewares and or trend runs with wacky schematics. Finally got the candle labels too

 

[Westcoast7]

I am only months into my plano adventure and this amazes me. Is it ok to ask you a few questions?

So the planos have dates and I figured that was the week they are meant to be set to correspond with ads or something as well as having the items in inventory. It's ok to be early like that? Not that we have a chance at that happening.

Also, with downstocking, pushing to home, setting, pulling, pushing and restocking I always feel it's one step forward and two steps back. I always think there has to be a better way to get things done, what's your teams process?

Is there a gauge each store uses to know how many plano tms they need? Maybe we're short?

Thanks for any insights!

We download, merchandise clearance, push to home, clean and set, pull, push. And sometimes work truck an hour or two and sometimes food truck. And we've been asked to respond to back ups more, which we've never been required really. And I have been covering electronics breaks sometimes... we have one soft lines, one electronics, and sales floor senior team lead there but he closes lod some days.. and he's ALWAYS just setting sales planners. I don't know how they are finishing workload, I see so many endcaps tied off. Seems like a matter of time before they will want us to backstock our stuff we bring back. I've heard a lot of stores in our area have terrible Plano teams

 

[SFSFun]

Hey fellow poggies anyone else struggling with their workload lately? We have been struggling for about 3 weeks now and just can't catch up. That massive week of housewares nearly killed me!!! Anyone else in this boat or is my team just lagging?

Our entire Flow team had 2+ weeks at 40 hours to help pull and push plano after truck. We only have 5 full time TMs on pog right now (including the TL).

 

[SitSpotSit]

We download, merchandise clearance, push to home, clean and set, pull, push. And sometimes work truck an hour or two and sometimes food truck. And we've been asked to respond to back ups more, which we've never been required really. And I have been covering electronics breaks sometimes... we have one soft lines, one electronics, and sales floor senior team lead there but he closes lod some days.. and he's ALWAYS just setting sales planners. I don't know how they are finishing workload, I see so many endcaps tied off. Seems like a matter of time before they will want us to backstock our stuff we bring back. I've heard a lot of stores in our area have terrible Plano teams

Wow. Thanks!

Does your plano do salesplanners, too, or is it another member? What does it mean when they are tied off?

I don't think any of our team is full time. Maybe the TL. Some get over 30 but not much. There are 4 part time and 3 of us are there less than 6 months and a couple more to SL. From what I can tell everyone busts their ass to get everything done but it takes longer than those assessments say and that's frustrating.

Dang, if we didn't have backstocking it sure would help. But then having a pda when we need one would help, too.

Thanks so much for answering! Sorry I go on but it's so great to be able to talk about this and not feel uncomfortable at work. :/

 

[Westcoast7]

Wow. Thanks!

Does your plano do salesplanners, too, or is it another member? What does it mean when they are tied off?

I don't think any of our team is full time. Maybe the TL. Some get over 30 but not much. There are 4 part time and 3 of us are there less than 6 months and a couple more to SL. From what I can tell everyone busts their ass to get everything done but it takes longer than those assessments say and that's frustrating.

Dang, if we didn't have backstocking it sure would help. But then having a pda when we need one would help, too.

Thanks so much for answering! Sorry I go on but it's so great to be able to talk about this and not feel uncomfortable at work. :/

we don't do sales planners. Hardlines does them which is like two people including team lead. We have five including senior team lead and then signing tm. I'm full time but some weeks not many hours. Tied off means the POG was tied with a mydevice to a sales floor location but the POG isn't set and usually has clearance if it's a back endcap or product that's been flexed or the previous POGs product. In the system when it's tied it's Like it's been 'done' but actually hasn't. Our last two old hardlines tls over the past two years were notorious for doing this when they couldn't finish their workload so it would clean up TWT.(transition workload tool found in application on workbench) ask your TL to show you how to use TWT. I will click TIED to filter and scroll down to see what's left to be set for the week. I've tied off revisions in a pinch on Friday's and note it so the next week we can do it first thing. Our team lead has us do that so it's not like I'm making the decision on my own lol. I bust my ass a lot and do extra than what others on my team do but it's a secure job and structured schedule and can get enough hours for insurance. Everytime we fix up the fixture room it's destroyed in a matter of days to weeks.. shelves proped on the ground against the shelves on the wall, random pegs thrown into buckets, pegs not being deconstructed with the label holder and fast back still on tangled up in the buckets. Shelves stacked on shelves not put into the wall, hanging out which could really hurt someone..

 

[Westcoast7]

Wow. Thanks!

Does your plano do salesplanners, too, or is it another member? What does it mean when they are tied off?

I don't think any of our team is full time. Maybe the TL. Some get over 30 but not much. There are 4 part time and 3 of us are there less than 6 months and a couple more to SL. From what I can tell everyone busts their ass to get everything done but it takes longer than those assessments say and that's frustrating.

Dang, if we didn't have backstocking it sure would help. But then having a pda when we need one would help, too.

Thanks so much for answering! Sorry I go on but it's so great to be able to talk about this and not feel uncomfortable at work. :/

Joining Plano was one of the hardest things I've done because I had to pretty much learn on my own. Took maybe 6 months to actually feel very independent. Spot doesn't like to train people I guess lol.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I am only months into my plano adventure and this amazes me. Is it ok to ask you a few questions?

So the planos have dates and I figured that was the week they are meant to be set to correspond with ads or something as well as having the items in inventory. It's ok to be early like that? Not that we have a chance at that happening.

Also, with downstocking, pushing to home, setting, pulling, pushing and restocking I always feel it's one step forward and two steps back. I always think there has to be a better way to get things done, what's your teams process?

Is there a gauge each store uses to know how many plano tms they need? Maybe we're short?

Thanks for any insights!

We usually have a BRTM help with pulling, while Backstock falls on us. Salesplanners tend to correspond with ADs, rather than Transitions/Revisions, etc.

We actually have a very small Plano team compared to what we should have based on our volume, but they are very experienced, all around we have about 2.5 Plano team members. This i think, is the main reason they try to stay ahead as much as possible, as about a week or two ago we had a ~300 hour workload lmao.

The main problem we have with working so far ahead is signing, and Clearance (good Lord) They will often set transitions without any of the Signing as I haven't received it yet, you can then guess who that falls on afterwards ;p. Which makes my life just a peach.

In order to stay ahead you really have to use every single advantage that you find to our best ability.

Is an Aisle light on product and have an incoming transition? Set it. etc... My PPTL comes in about an hour earlier than us just to really walk the floor, etc. It really comes down to experience, as the more experience you have the easier you can find these small advantages and opportunities (real definition, not Target's).

Every so often we do get screwed however, like this week we have Furniture AND C9 re-invention, so there are literally about 11 Pallets of Fixtures and about 7 Flats of Built Furniture and 2 pallets of un-built furniture in our BR, atm.

 

[SitSpotSit]

Joining Plano was one of the hardest things I've done because I had to pretty much learn on my own. Took maybe 6 months to actually feel very independent. Spot doesn't like to train people I guess lol.

Thank you so much for all of the insight! Plano _is_ hard and I can't imagine having to learn it on my own! That's impressive!

I still feel like there is so much to learn, not only about the plano process but how it fits into the whole process of the store. I wouldn't know how to know about walking the aisles and knowing what's coming up, but I wish I did. I wish we could be a bigger part of the process.

Lack of well thought out training slows everything down. The tm who trained me is great and I am grateful but it was just shadowing and doing the work assigned. I won't ever complain about my tm's training, they are great and did the job they were told to do. I know the training gave me a lot of info that I absolutely needed, I just wish there had been more thought put into it from management.

Not doing salesplanners would definitely help us get ahead. But as asants that's not gonna change but it's interesting to know it can be different. I am realizing how much leeway stores have to make things work for their situation.

Thank you for the transition workload tool suggestion. I want to check it out and try to learn more about how it all works. I can't thank you enough for all of the information you are sharing! I feel like I'll be better at my job knowing more about these kinds of details. I like Target and want to do a good job and knowing how it all works, even outside my area, motivates me for some reason.

 

[SitSpotSit]

We usually have a BRTM help with pulling, while Backstock falls on us. Salesplanners tend to correspond with ADs, rather than Transitions/Revisions, etc.

We actually have a very small Plano team compared to what we should have based on our volume, but they are very experienced, all around we have about 2.5 Plano team members. This i think, is the main reason they try to stay ahead as much as possible, as about a week or two ago we had a ~300 hour workload lmao.

The main problem we have with working so far ahead is signing, and Clearance (good Lord) They will often set transitions without any of the Signing as I haven't received it yet, you can then guess who that falls on afterwards ;p. Which makes my life just a peach.

In order to stay ahead you really have to use every single advantage that you find to our best ability.

Is an Aisle light on product and have an incoming transition? Set it. etc... My PPTL comes in about an hour earlier than us just to really walk the floor, etc. It really comes down to experience, as the more experience you have the easier you can find these small advantages and opportunities (real definition, not Target's).

Every so often we do get screwed however, like this week we have Furniture AND C9 re-invention, so there are literally about 11 Pallets of Fixtures and about 7 Flats of Built Furniture and 2 pallets of un-built furniture in our BR, atm.

Thank you! This is so great! Hearing all of this is so helpful and encouraging!

Wow, 2.5 plano tm? I'm amazed!! That is so impressive. We have 4 part time and I don't know where we stand but the pressure to complete each days workload is intense and some of the planos go back a few weeks sometimes. Everyone is competent and hard working and cares about getting the work done but we seem to get more planos a day than we can finish usually.

All that furniture and C9 stuff you mentioned makes me nervous about going in tomorrow! Lol!!

Thank you so much for sharing your info! I like knowing more about the job but it's hard to learn it at my actual job!! Weird, huh?