Archived 6am Backroom Frustations

[tkurowski21]

Before the change to 6am flow, backroom would be able to get backstock done between 1030am and 1230 on a consistent basis. We are barely a B volume store and have anywhere from 1900 to 2700 piece trucks four days a week minus the obvious 4th quarter. Now that we switched to 6am, we are lucky to even finish the truck backstock by that night. Many times close to a dozen vehicles of backstock are left over and even on our small truck days it isn't done until 3pm. I get that we shouldn't expect it to be done at the same time because its two hours later and because of the logistic hours cut, but this has been really bad. We have the exact same crew (pretty good group, chatty a little sometimes but they get stuff done), so I'm just trying to wrap my head around why it is taking so much more longer to finish. Any suggestions to help get it done faster would be great 🙂

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

It depends on the size of the team. If you are understaffed, you are screwed.

 

[tkurowski21]

Well, we obviously have days where the hours aren't scheduled, but even days where we have 3 or 4 people staying till 230 or 330 we still have issues.

 

[Logistics princess]

We have this problem sometimes, but it is usually performance issues. We have a couple people in the backroom that are definitely not self motivators and can't stay focused. When I go back to help, I divide up the vehicles amongst those of us that are back stocking. Usually its,Person A-flats, Person B-tubs, with me on three tiers and anyone else jumping on whatever kind of vehicle we have the most of. Giving a specific goal and a focused task seems to help and we can get it cleaned up pretty quickly once everyone is concentrating.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

When you move to a 6a process, the flow of backstock to the backroom is different. I assume you are still on an autobackstock setup, so your schedule and day should look something like this.

6a-330
6a-330

9a-530
10a-630

BR DAY
12-730
2-930

Have your 2 6a tms pull your autos then have one do the sda while the other pulls over your auto back stock and starts picking/bowling it. Once the SDA and audit are done, the 2 tms should finish the autobs. Your 9am tm should back stock market and hba from flow, as these will be your biggest areas. From there, your 2 6am people will wave the rest of the backstock. If you do get that extra 10am person, they should back stock any bulk from the trailer and clean up your receiving area and any misc backstock. You should have no issue coming clean unless your flow team is running behind.

 

[Mhugh220]

Every store in our district went from green to red in logistics when they switched from overnight to 6am, from 4am to 6am, or even from 6am to 8am. My belief is that Target changed this so they didn't have to pay the overnight differential for each TM and the quarterly overnight ETL bonus ($1000). I think this was a mistake. I've never seen Walmart unload during the day so why does Target think it's a good plan? More can be accomplished when guests aren't in the store. I couldn't image not being able to bowl out or having to unload on flats/tubs, what a pain.

The best thing to do is to reach out to other stores who are 6am and green to find out what they do, from scheduling to their process.

 

[konk]

Same thing at my store. If flow is behind and the stockroom is clean, we can keep up. However, we get paid by the hour so I don't want them to hire more or flow to backstock. We have 4-5 come at 6 and push one block.

 

[tkurowski21]

Wow, I would love 48 hours in one day. Its more like 34 only after people stay later. Why we always add on after seeing its a disaster instead of just scheduling it that way is stupid. And there is just no way this change is paying off. It has definitely increased our turnover on flow even after the people who could no longer work here left.