Archived Autofills?

[hjames21]

I'm sure it will get explained at work, but today is my first day of doing autofills and I have no idea what it is or what I'm doing.

 

[PullMonkey]

Basically, every hour (?) the system that manages inventory "drops" a new set of items that need to be pushed to the floor to replace stuff people have bought. The backroom team assembles the CAF (computer autofill?) and puts it on the line (usually), and you'll push it out to the floor.

I'm pretty sure that's how it all works anyway

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

Autofills for us has always referred to the first batches that drop in the morning . The ones later, that occur either every hour or every few hours were the CAFs. I just don't remember what the C stands for, could certainly be computer generated but so are the autofills.

 

[sigma7]

Autofills, scheduled CAFs, and Manual CAFs are all types of autofills. For the life of me I can't recall what CAF stands for, but I want to say it's something like computer/created automated/assisted fill...but they are both computer created, so...

The main difference is the triggers for their pull logic. Scheduled CAFs pull the least, something like waiting for 30% of capacity left on floor. Manual CAFs pull the most, something like 70% of capacity left on the floor. Autofills are somewhere in between, maybe something like 50% of capacity is left on the floor. That said, some items have such a low capacity that selling one or two will put it completely out of stock on the floor or well below the 30% of capacity left on the floor, so those items should pull regardless of the type of autofill.

Be wary when dropping manual CAFs if you have not been dropping them consistently. They will be big. But they will free up space in your stockroom.

 

[Bosch]

Autofills, scheduled CAFs, and Manual CAFs are all types of autofills. For the life of me I can't recall what CAF stands for, but I want to say it's something like computer/created automated/assisted fill...but they are both computer created, so...

The main difference is the triggers for their pull logic. Scheduled CAFs pull the least, something like waiting for 30% of capacity left on floor. Manual CAFs pull the most, something like 70% of capacity left on the floor. Autofills are somewhere in between, maybe something like 50% of capacity is left on the floor. That said, some items have such a low capacity that selling one or two will put it completely out of stock on the floor or well below the 30% of capacity left on the floor, so those items should pull regardless of the type of autofill.

Be wary when dropping manual CAFs if you have not been dropping them consistently. They will be big. But they will free up space in your stockroom.

Well you get space for an hour or so until most of it comes back..

 

[sigma7]

Well you get space for an hour or so until most of it comes back..

Not if your accumulator is decent. If you stay on top of manuals, then you don't usually end up with much backstock...at least not what you pulled from open stock locations anyway. Casepacks have a bigger chance of being backstock. We're spaced constrained, so my store drops manuals in key areas just to have space to backstock the next truck. Our manuals can get really big, but they're usually not much bigger than an autofill on average.

 

[AdItemOnly]

at least at my store, pull everything that was backstocked in the previous hour and then bring it back to them...

 

[Bosch]

Not if your accumulator is decent. If you stay on top of manuals, then you don't usually end up with much backstock...at least not what you pulled from open stock locations anyway. Casepacks have a bigger chance of being backstock. We're spaced constrained, so my store drops manuals in key areas just to have space to backstock the next truck. Our manuals can get really big, but they're usually not much bigger than an autofill on average.

Accumulator is good capacity is crap.. So while you will push a few of everything a lot is still coming back.

 

[asidius]

I believe CAF stands for Create Autofill.

I've never done a manual CAF but the TL posts the flow autofill time in the backroom each morning, and it typically hovers around the 6 hour mark. Are you saying the manual CAFs are longer than that?

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

I believe CAF stands for Create Autofill.

I've never done a manual CAF but the TL posts the flow autofill time in the backroom each morning, and it typically hovers around the 6 hour mark. Are you saying the manual CAFs are longer than that?

Manual cafs are ones that you put into the system by a person. Some stores do those more than others. The only time I've done them in the past is for things like black friday and those are huge.

 

[sigma7]

Accumulator is good capacity is crap.. So while you will push a few of everything a lot is still coming back.

True. Some capacities are just way off. But you still shouldn't have too much backstock if you drop them fairly often. The first time you do one (especially if it has been a while) you will have lots of backstock. The other night I dropped a manual for PHAR and ended up pulling two full two tiers of product. All I brought back for backstock was maybe half of the top of a cart. And some of that was stuff that had been stocked wrong to begin with.

 

[mrknownothing]

Manual cafs are ones that you put into the system by a person. Some stores do those more than others. The only time I've done them in the past is for things like black friday and those are huge.

Before we started the pull segmentation test, we only ever did manual CAFs on Black Thursday/Friday.

 

[LogisticsFox]

We're on segmentation as well and we have been dropping pog fills in lieu of manuals. They're way more effective at filling the floor. When the system first started, I made the mistake of dropping a manual for SCTY and it pulled about 100 DPCIs of NOP games and we don't currently have any flexfill locations in entertainment.

 

[sigma7]

I may have to test dropping POG fills today and see how that goes. Although my store comes at it as emptying the backroom with manuals vs. filling the floor with POG fills.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

We're on segmentation as well and we have been dropping pog fills in lieu of manuals. They're way more effective at filling the floor. When the system first started, I made the mistake of dropping a manual for SCTY and it pulled about 100 DPCIs of NOP games and we don't currently have any flexfill locations in entertainment.

Do you guys have a dump bin for dcode games? For our store we have an unused back end cap in video games. they're all cased and on each case we have a shelf label with the price.

 

[NitroKing2110]

Do you guys have a dump bin for dcode games? For our store we have an unused back end cap in video games. they're all cased and on each case we have a shelf label with the price.

We used to. It was a back endcap and we pulled the dcode, and put it on the shelf. I know because someone decided no prices was OK so I had to de-case about 150 games to BCODE/Price them. Then the STL made us remove it because he said it didn't look brand, so it's now all sitting on the bottom shelf at the back of our stockroom.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

We used to. It was a back endcap and we pulled the dcode, and put it on the shelf. I know because someone decided no prices was OK so I had to de-case about 150 games to BCODE/Price them. Then the STL made us remove it because he said it didn't look brand, so it's now all sitting on the bottom shelf at the back of our stockroom.

Corporate sent out boxes for us to use as dump bins for those damnable things, I'm guessing someone tossed them.

 

[see spot save]

Can someone explain a POG fill to me? I've been dropping manuals (all items) in Elec and Batt and (ad items) MM2 and Scty recently. I really want to drop full scty and mm2 but I don't want to pull the 100's of d-code. Does dropping a POG fill pull d-code?

 

[incredulu]

We're on segmentation as well and we have been dropping pog fills in lieu of manuals. They're way more effective at filling the floor. When the system first started, I made the mistake of dropping a manual for SCTY and it pulled about 100 DPCIs of NOP games and we don't currently have any flexfill locations in entertainment.

What is the pull segmentation test?

 

[LogisticsFox]

Do you guys have a dump bin for dcode games?

Nope, nada for D-code games.

Can someone explain a POG fill to me?

I don't know the behind the scenes bits but you're just redropping an existing pog to get a deep fill. If you look at the instocks best practice, it's one of the more recommended ways to fill. A POG fill will only pull things literally on the POG, so if there's located D-Code, it will be pulled.

What is the pull segmentation test?

Basically, they raised all the triggers that things pull at (A type of cereal has to sell down to 2 on the salesfloor instead of selling down to 8 remaining) and we only have CAFs at 1 and 3 o'clock. For an example, our morning autofills were normally 13 hours and they're closer to 4 during segmentation. CAFs stayed relatively the same but if we're super busy, they can be upwards of 3 hours. For the most part, we rely on alternative means for filling the floor:

• Trucks are supposedly loaded smarter so more things we need make it to the floor
• LODs are supposed to be more alert and scan low shelves and drop manuals (in areas that the accumulator is probably working correctly)
• POG fills are dropped to provide a deep fill on the floor

 

[see spot save]

I don't know the behind the scenes bits but you're just redropping an existing pog to get a deep fill. If you look at the instocks best practice, it's one of the more recommended ways to fill. A POG fill will only pull things literally on the POG, so if there's located D-Code, it will be pulled.

Thank you. I know my Elec TL knows how to do this, I'll ask him the next time I see him.

 

[NitroKing2110]

Corporate sent out boxes for us to use as dump bins for those damnable things, I'm guessing someone tossed them.

Corp gave us one of those, whoever stocked it overfilled it and it ripped apart spilling the games onto the floor.

 

[mrknownothing]

I really want to drop full scty and mm2 but I don't want to pull the 100's of d-code. Does dropping a POG fill pull d-code?

Only if the discontinued items are on the planogram for which you're dropping a fill batch. NOP items can't come out on a POG fill because they're, well, not on planogram.

So no, those PS2 games and TurboTax 2011 won't come out if you drop a POG fill.

 

[mrknownothing]

We're on segmentation as well and we have been dropping pog fills in lieu of manuals. They're way more effective at filling the floor. When the system first started, I made the mistake of dropping a manual for SCTY and it pulled about 100 DPCIs of NOP games and we don't currently have any flexfill locations in entertainment.

I'm not sure about all the nitty-gritty details of how we're replenishing since I'm not backroom, but my BRTL posted a sign explaining whether to drop a POG fill or a manual CAF in certain situations.

 

[see spot save]

Only if the discontinued items are on the planogram for which you're dropping a fill batch. NOP items can't come out on a POG fill because they're, well, not on planogram.

So no, those PS2 games and TurboTax 2011 won't come out if you drop a POG fill.

We found and quickly sold a PS2 last year, I don't think we have any games left for it. Just a crap load of everything else.

And that makes sense, I guess I should have thought about it for a second before asking. I'll ask how to do it and save it for a day when I've got some extra time...I'd love to get some of the stuff out of there.