Logistics The Flow/Inbound thread: Until We Yeet Again edition 🤙

gsa4lyfe said:
Yeah I’m interested in both those challenges. I feel like a lot of our flow team does it because they like tha 4am and it’s a side job but now that it’s 6am I can imagine a decent amount will leave. Also I’m curious how long it takes to get all these new uboats
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We ordered our U-boats in June and still haven't gotten them yet and aren't expecting them until next month at the earliest. We've started the process anyway though and its a huge mess. We also went from 4am to 6 and people are pissed that they are losing their shift differential and we've already lost a few and for everyone else morale is really low.

As for the process itself, we have most of the back of the line on pallets because we roll over truck everyday now and never have any free flats. Our repack sorter today had repacks literally thrown all behind the first two bays of the line wherever there was space and she couldn't move at all to be able to sort any of them. It is going to be absolutely awful once 4th q starts as its a good day for us if we can just get priority 1 pushed by the end of the day, i can't imagine trying to get through bigger trucks every day and all of the toys we'll be getting.
 
SNS12345 said:
We ordered our U-boats in June and still haven't gotten them yet and aren't expecting them until next month at the earliest. We've started the process anyway though and its a huge mess. We also went from 4am to 6 and people are pissed that they are losing their shift differential and we've already lost a few and for everyone else morale is really low.

As for the process itself, we have most of the back of the line on pallets because we roll over truck everyday now and never have any free flats. Our repack sorter today had repacks literally thrown all behind the first two bays of the line wherever there was space and she couldn't move at all to be able to sort any of them. It is going to be absolutely awful once 4th q starts as its a good day for us if we can just get priority 1 pushed by the end of the day, i can't imagine trying to get through bigger trucks every day and all of the toys we'll be getting.
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The guide we got said not to order them and they will be arriving to stores this fall and that we can start the process without them. They gave examples like creating two uboats by taping a line down a flat.....
 
For all of you that have not gone through this new process, it is so horribly inefficient.

The first thing you find yourself wondering is where are all these hours/payroll coming from? Then you start looking around for the "additional team members" that will be needed to carry this out. The realization settles in quickly when no one shows up and your expected to stay over to try and finish. That's about the only good thing about this if your looking for hours.

First time in my 8+ years at Target that we failed to come clean after truck to this extent. At the most, we've has some type of seasonal residual (1/2 pallet) but never pallets (6+). The BR needs help to come clean at times due to the late push. They now carry over merchandise to process the next day.

As for transition pallets, don't put them too close to the trailer. You'll hold up the entire unload offloading transition. Get it back further and keep in mind you will need a way to easily pull the pallets away from the process. This goes for any high volume merchandise.

Our line is no where long enough to support this fine of support. No one can walk between the uboats to load them. The adjacent cart has to be moved to load one.

Uboats are not the answer either. It's just management speak to placate concerns. You'll find yourself just changing out more until you run out.

Then you have the push while the store's open. A lot of traffic and your push is just about over until it settles down. BTS/BTC has been awful at times. I dnot' even want to be around for 4th qtr. My plan is to move on to something else well before then.

Push will be virtually impossible due to the foot traffic. I now have a better understanding of why someone posted that their store abandoned this process last Christmas. You couldn't get anything done.

I could go on and on about the problems this process brings.

By the way, for those of you that are currently in the process, have you wondered where the hours/payroll are going to come from once the honeymoon period of this process is over?

As long as Cornell and Crew are running the show, this is not going away.

LV store under 27 mil.
 
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How is 'push all' more efficient? I had 525 pieces of b-s off today's 'scanned' truck. Bringing all they way to the floor and back to the BR seems like a waste.
Our store, as i have said b4, is takong baby steps to prepare for this but i feel like the sense of urgency is gone when it comes to push.
 
Logo said:
How is 'push all' more efficient? I had 525 pieces of b-s off today's 'scanned' truck. Bringing all they way to the floor and back to the BR seems like a waste.
Our store, as i have said b4, is takong baby steps to prepare for this but i feel like the sense of urgency is gone when it comes to push.
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They're doing push all because they know that the on floor numbers aren't accurate, and with no real instocks anymore this is the only way to attempt to fix it without scanning outs, which nobody has time for anymore. I will say that my store has very little backstock with the push all process, much less than we did when we scanned for it. The only problem is the rest of the process. 🙄
 
Logo said:
How is 'push all' more efficient? I had 525 pieces of b-s off today's 'scanned' truck. Bringing all they way to the floor and back to the BR seems like a waste.
Our store, as i have said b4, is takong baby steps to prepare for this but i feel like the sense of urgency is gone when it comes to push.
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Push all has nothing to do with being more "efficient". It is nothing more than a "quick fix" to a problematic inventory management system (IMS). Instead of fixing/upgrading the IMS, Target decided to drop using some of the processes.

Our IMS systems has numerous issues which keep it from responding correctly. Like when scanning the truck for push to floor or backstock, you'll find some DPCI's will scan correctly while others will not. I questioned this and was never given an answer other than "... we don't have time to deal with that..." or "... nothing will be done, so why waste the time...".

The "my devices" are a response to software no longer being supported like the old PDA's that use Windows 7 Professional and cannot be upgraded to Windows 10 or Android. The new devices can support the new software which allows more data reporting options.
 
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Sloth said:
This part bothers me the most. The process might work if you're fully E2E, but I can't see it working before then. Flow and non-dayside BR are scheduled the same hours, and BR can only ever finish the backstock from the truck if it's all brought back to them as soon as possible. With such a slow push, a ton of backstock is getting brought back even just 30 minutes before the end of the shift -- how can it all be done? It can't. There will always be some left over, unless you get help from those who have later shifts or throw an army of TMs in the backroom to help.

If each team were responsible for their own backstock, then yeah. But if you still have your early morning BR team, I can't see this ever working. Especially when it comes to BTS or late Q4.
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We're never going E2E, not even a little bit. Our fellow team members over at the DC's have pretty well stated as much.

Only the small footprint stores are receiving presorted freight and that's been a extreme challenge and a major pain for them. Wait until they bring more of them on line.

The DC's are not capable nor configured for E2E on a large scale. Neither are the stores for that matter. Look no further than what happening after we start pushing the truck.

It would take years and a lot more money than Spot's spending now on the stores to reconfigure the DC's and equip them to carryout E2E. Spot would have to start today for some of us to see the changes in 2020.

The truck/inventory process as a whole can be described as linear. However the task within the process cannot since they have defining points of starting and stopping (hand offs). This is where the mistake was made in Minneapolis when Spot thought they could co mingle the individual linear tasks into one single linear task. Without credible time studies to justify the gains, it's just poorly conceived plan that will severely erode our profit margin.

It's going to require an incredible amount of team members to perform a complete truck material cycle, unload/push/backstock, along with a pull/backstock cycle due to inefficiencies created by trying to do too many non linear task within the process.
 
Sloth said:
If each team were responsible for their own backstock, then yeah.
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I've already dealt with owning my own backstock as my store was E2E for a few months last year, and whether or not it "works" is highly situational. Q1 with an anorexic schedule, an empty backroom and the wave available, then yeah. It absolutely does not work during the busier times of the year when the schedule is full, the backroom is crowded and I'm having to fight plano to get my hands on a Zebra and the wave. Last year I ran out of space in the bottom half of my fillgroup so I would go to get the wave and OH, plano is using it to hang signing or the owner of CHEM is hogging it to stow theirs. I would then abandon my backstock somewhere and help someone else stow theirs while waiting for the wave, but then OOPS, its battery runs out so back on to the charger it goes. Ladders are not an option as ours are unusually wobbly and I'm not taking that risk. But then again, if the store is slammed enough then the backroom becomes too full for either the wave or the ladders so it's a moot point.

Stupidly inefficient all around. I'm dreading it.
 
No I in Team said:
The DC's are not capable nor configured for E2E on a large scale. Neither are the stores for that matter. Look no further than what happening after we start pushing the truck.

It would take years and a lot more money than Spot's spending now on the stores to reconfigure the DC's and equip them to carryout E2E. Spot would have to start today for some of us to see the changes in 2020.
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This is pretty much exactly what my ETL-LOG said, with his trademark sneer. He has toured our DC which serves 110 stores and just waved the whole idea away and said, (exact quote) "It's never fuckin' happening, folks. They would have to gut and remodel the entire DC, all of them, it would take years and cost bookoo bucks. I wouldn't worry about it."

I suspected as much just based on how fucking big and complex DCs are. I'm hoping Cornell is ousted soon and his successor has the sense to call it off.
 
We just started this push all process right before B2S 😔 including flow team members have to back stock the section that they work. The truck line set up is now set to priority 1and2. The problem is, we don't have enough equipment or vehicles (ubolts) to get the job done. We are not allowed to have pallets,trash cages or flats on the floor after the store is open. As FlowTL, I made the call to just use what we have. Its frowned on but what is a girl to do. I refuse to have to keep running back and forth just to get truck pushed. I have a good solid 4 people on my team. Im convince the other half just show up to stand around. Can someone give me some tips on how to get truck pushed with this new process?
 
SpilledTea said:
Good Lord, we have a bunch of DTLs coming to our store tomorrow to learn how to unload & push the truck with the new process. :rolleyes:
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I sure hope it’s a double truck day.
We got 4 doubles this week and 6 doubles next week. Wtf too many doubles when is it going to end.
 
Sloth said:
We had our DTL and a few STLs visit the store to see the new process a few weeks back. Of course, we had more hours than normal, no one called off, and it was a fairly small truck. No dairy/frozen that day either, nor did any manuals get dropped.

Literally rolled out the red carpet for them to ensure nothing went wrong, despite things going wrong being the standard at our store every other day.
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I guess there'll be 22 of them. And I'm doing an overnight shift tonight (after opening this morning) to make sure the store is pristine by 5am.

Pretty sure we don't get dairy or frozen tomorrow, either.

Also pretty sure everyone got approved for OT except for me. :(
 
A TM and I were talking today about how yet more changes are coming for those few of us still on Flow .... and we were wondering who is it that thinks up all these "great" ideas? Seriously, have ANY of them ever worked a truck?
And when their ideas are piloted, how many stores try out the new procedures? Do they provide real feedback, or is it all "yeah, this is cool, these are terrific improvements"? I'm pretty sure none of us who work the repacks think any of it is better, in any way.
I get that some guests like to have staff assistance available, but having u-boats all over the store all day long? Ug. Not my idea of a pleasant shopping experience.
 
TL614 said:
We just started this push all process right before B2S 😔 including flow team members have to back stock the section that they work. The truck line set up is now set to priority 1and2. The problem is, we don't have enough equipment or vehicles (ubolts) to get the job done. We are not allowed to have pallets,trash cages or flats on the floor after the store is open. As FlowTL, I made the call to just use what we have. Its frowned on but what is a girl to do. I refuse to have to keep running back and forth just to get truck pushed. I have a good solid 4 people on my team. Im convince the other half just show up to stand around. Can someone give me some tips on how to get truck pushed with this new process?
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No flats? Diagram shows plastic on a flat. Do you find that the sense of urgency is gone? Its so hard for me to gauge where we are at. "Hey how's the truck going?" Damned if i know got players all over the place. Been rolling since this weekend and its something our store is use to doing..
 
SpilledTea said:
Good Lord, we have a bunch of DTLs coming to our store tomorrow to learn how to unload & push the truck with the new process. :rolleyes:
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I can top you. One store in our group will have the entire group leadership in its store next wednesday as well as almost all stls to watch the chaos unfold. Richmond is such a blessed store.
 
Logo said:
No flats? Diagram shows plastic on a flat. Do you find that the sense of urgency is gone? Its so hard for me to gauge where we are at. "Hey how's the truck going?" Damned if i know got players all over the place. Been rolling since this weekend and its something our store is use to doing..
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This will be epic. So flats with tape on them, shelved U boats & break out of A &A happening at the same time. Nope.
 
My store struggled but got a handle on it. There are still problems there months out. Corporate appears to be firmly wed to the idea. I don’t know if any number of object lessons or flat (ha ha) out fails will convince them modernization/e2e is doing more harm than good.
 

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