Archived Calling all 6a.m. Flow Leaders and Team members!!!

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FloorReplenishor

FloorReplenishor

Replenishment/Flow Team Leader
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Jul 7, 2014
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Alright, so I want to know what are some of the strengths of your 6a.m. truck processes and what does your store struggle with. No BS I just want real ideas here. I know not everything Spot tells us to do is easy and or possible, but what can we do to give us the best situation we can have?
 
Lets start with the general: Not getting everything pushed, skeleton crews, doubling as salesfloor, no time to train new guys well, call-outs, people quitting, not bowling boxes, trash not getting done and then becomes nuisance till every last item is pushed.

Anything i missed??
 
Pros: I get an extra two hours of sleep.
Cons:
IhaveaDream said:
Lets start with the general: Not getting everything pushed, skeleton crews, doubling as salesfloor, no time to train new guys well, call-outs, people quitting, not bowling boxes, trash not getting done and then becomes nuisance till every last item is pushed.

Anything i missed??
Click to expand...
 
Pros? lol

Cons:
IhaveaDream said:
Lets start with the general: Not getting everything pushed, skeleton crews, doubling as salesfloor, no time to train new guys well, call-outs, people quitting, not bowling boxes, trash not getting done and then becomes nuisance till every last item is pushed.

Anything i missed??
Click to expand...

Don't forget Dayside blaming us for everything.
 
If there is an obscene amount of a particular product, it's probably not going to go out. Also check to see if it has Ad on the pick label. Or push it and then send it back. Not that much of a time saving I guess. Do try to separate Transition though. Then there's Rev too. These are more tips to help BR I guess.
 
My stores biggest weaknesses is the unload. The team we have now is taking ~ an hour and a half to unload 2400 piece trucks. If we could get that to an hour we'd be in a much better spot. Longer in the truck = later on the floor = less time to push.
 
see spot save said:
My stores biggest weaknesses is the unload. The team we have now is taking ~ an hour and a half to unload 2400 piece trucks. If we could get that to an hour we'd be in a much better spot. Longer in the truck = later on the floor = less time to push.
Click to expand...

Mine too, the store is already behind for the rest of the day when I get there at 6am to open market.

Its not flows fault, Saturday we had a 2600 piece truck and C&S piece truck and 5 flow team members, Including our ETL-Log.
 
jb08045 said:
Pros? lol

Cons:
IhaveaDream said:
Lets start with the general: Not getting everything pushed, skeleton crews, doubling as salesfloor, no time to train new guys well, call-outs, people quitting, not bowling boxes, trash not getting done and then becomes nuisance till every last item is pushed.

Anything i missed??
Click to expand...

Don't forget Dayside blaming us for everything.
Click to expand...

When you remember to locate the pallets in bulk steel, I might stop the blame. Til then - not a chance. ;)
 
We've rolled, I believe, 10 of our last 12 trucks. Needless to say, there is a LOT of work to be done with our process. Most of it stemming from lack of team cohesion, and general lack of trust between team members.
 
And maybe it's my own psychopath stl (in many ancient civilizations, his name was synonomous with "death", "despair", or "evil") but myself and the etl can expect to get a call over the walkie every half hour asking for an update. It would be fine if 1)he didn't immediately switch to another channel for no reason when we start talking and 2)he could just accept, "it was shitty to start, it's shitty now, and it's going to still be shitty when you ask again." as an answer.

The only tip I can give is just make sure you have a strong start by any means necessary. All stores differ, but this one general rule that applies to all. My store does a staggered schedule, so like 9 people at 6:00, 3 people at 6:30, and another 5 or 6 people at 7:00. It typically takes us 1 1/2-2 hours to unload so we get way behind. Doesn't help that we take 500-600 piece food orders on truck days as well.
 
Like someone else said, the only good thing about 6am is you get to sleep like a semi normal human. It's really awesome to be harped on to keep everything neat and clean and oh by the way hurry up your going to slow too.
 
In our store the entire flow team comes in at 6, except for 2 people and one TL/ETL at 5:30 to set up the line. From 6 until the truck is unloaded it's 9 people on the line and in the truck, and the rest of the crew pulling pallets and flats, bowling and pushing the A & B aisles, and sorting softlines and the repacks (3 people in softlines, 2 in baby, and 2 on repacks). Once the truck is unloaded, the line folks come out and bowl/push the A&B until it's done. If the process gets behind, all the specialty teams that come in at 6 (plano, pricing, and the 7 AM instocks folks) help out until the store opens at 8. We start autofills after the truck is unloaded. It's rare when we don't get the truck done - it usually takes 3 or more call-outs to get that far behind for us. By the time the majority of the team leaves between 10 and 11:30 AM, only a few flats of freight are left and the bulk of the backstock is done. The 1:30 and 2:30 crew finishes that. We have a very strong TL that keeps the pace going, and both her and the exec are out pushing with us.
 
Our process is struggling. If there is an " I " in TEAM, you found us! Disorganized. Unload = 3 hours for 2100. No Pallets allowed on floor ever. No Carts. No Bowling. Must load your own flats from pallet on the line. I'd suggest we have become LAZY and no sense of URGENCY to be finished. Proper training and retraining with a NEW PROCESS needs to be implemented soon. This is our slow season. I can't imagine what it will be like in a few months. One example: FLOW TL asks why i still have 70 boxes of beverages to push before lunch. Push Time Sheet says 4 hours. I replied,"I just finished pushing 100 boxes of Candy/Popcorn/Nuts/Granola/Trash & Storage Bags including 2nd and 3rd seasonal locations and 30 boxes of purified & distilled gallons and Guest Service." OH! The TL says, I forget your aisles are more than just beverage & juice, well, I'll see if a TM can help push. (TL says that every truck day, nobody shows, I'm used to it). I average 25-30 boxes an hour right now with the loading of flats and having to scramble everywhere with no PDA to stock 2nd and 3rd locations. It's push times I'm NOT proud of but we end up getting out some days at 5.5 hours, but not many. Any suggestions are welcome, tanks!
 
We are about a year into a green ETL Log, she basically lets the team do as they please. I was in receiving this morning to collect the zone 9 cage and electronics pallet and everyone was just standing around talking. The unload was finished in a timely manner (2500 by 7), line was filled with flats, tubs and pallets...no sense of urgency at all. That never would've flown with our old ETL or our current TL (wasn't scheduled toady).

I was scheduled 4.75 hours to push electronics, didn't finish. I know the truck didn't get pushed 100% either.
 
We are on the 730am push process. I honestly, cant tell you the last time we finished pushing a truck the same day. Most of the time its finished the following day and sometimes ( sadly) the day after that. The 730 process is riddled with its own issues coupled that with mytime throw in 4x4 and being understaffed and its a mess. For example, The flow team is expected to come in at 7 on Sundays....help with ad till its done ( usually around 9) grant it being there are a small amount of team members who unload the truck ( 4) while the rest are doing the ad. So, they start pushing....then go to break. They are only scheduled till 11:30...thus the truck isn't getting done . The flow team leader and flow team is being blamed for this and I don't think its right....but that's just my view.
 
ineedhours said:
Our process is struggling. If there is an " I " in TEAM, you found us! Disorganized. Unload = 3 hours for 2100. No Pallets allowed on floor ever. No Carts. No Bowling. Must load your own flats from pallet on the line. I'd suggest we have become LAZY and no sense of URGENCY to be finished. Proper training and retraining with a NEW PROCESS needs to be implemented soon. This is our slow season. I can't imagine what it will be like in a few months. One example: FLOW TL asks why i still have 70 boxes of beverages to push before lunch. Push Time Sheet says 4 hours. I replied,"I just finished pushing 100 boxes of Candy/Popcorn/Nuts/Granola/Trash & Storage Bags including 2nd and 3rd seasonal locations and 30 boxes of purified & distilled gallons and Guest Service." OH! The TL says, I forget your aisles are more than just beverage & juice, well, I'll see if a TM can help push. (TL says that every truck day, nobody shows, I'm used to it). I average 25-30 boxes an hour right now with the loading of flats and having to scramble everywhere with no PDA to stock 2nd and 3rd locations. It's push times I'm NOT proud of but we end up getting out some days at 5.5 hours, but not many. Any suggestions are welcome, tanks!
Click to expand...

No pallets ever, no carts and no bowling?! I see lots of failure there. I do all three and my team is out by 11:45 five out of six times. (Including FDC).....never left back stock for the next day either.
 
see spot save said:
My stores biggest weaknesses is the unload. The team we have now is taking ~ an hour and a half to unload 2400 piece trucks. If we could get that to an hour we'd be in a much better spot. Longer in the truck = later on the floor = less time to push.
Click to expand...

Do you have people pushing while the truck is unloading?
 
How about the fact that the truck is pushed til 4pm with flow team members running out of hours after day 4. And still leaving pallets on the line to push the next day which is a non truck day. How about the fact that tomorrow's truck we will be pushing 3 pallets of Mondays bts freight that never got pushed, along with all of tomorrow's freight. How about that all of the softlines flow team will get pulled to work bts at 9am and the two people scheduled in softlines will be pushing all the softlines freight and zracks themselves. How about that the etls are so stupid they don't put anyone in bts to work the freight til 9am and the aisles are too crowded to stock it by then!!!

Oh and there's a zrack of bra backstock that's been pushed back and forth for over a week. The stockroom won't backstock it so they hid it in the third row of receiving where the empty zracks are stored.

I. Hate. 6am. Unload!!!!
 
Last edited:
FloorReplenishor said:
see spot save said:
My stores biggest weaknesses is the unload. The team we have now is taking ~ an hour and a half to unload 2400 piece trucks. If we could get that to an hour we'd be in a much better spot. Longer in the truck = later on the floor = less time to push.
Click to expand...

Do you have people pushing while the truck is unloading?
Click to expand...
Yes. We have two working HBA, two breaking out repacks, one in babies, one in stationary. Market and chemicals is bowled during the unload. When they get out to the floor there's a few aisles in HBA to finish, then they wave market/chem - finished about 9am. Most of the team clocks out at 9:30 (3.5 hr shift, wtf :confused:) and some stay all day.
 
my experience with 7:30am has been the decline of our store and lose of respect for my ETL in the way he handles the team. Who thought and hour would change everything
 
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