Archived Do Autofill/CAF timers continue to run when exited out of batch?

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Unreturnable

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I've been trying to figure this out for a while now, and seem to have mixed results. I've been told by some that once you hit "A-Apply" a timer starts that doesn't stop until you get to "C-Batch Complete" - others have told me that you can exit out at any point and the timer stops, and others yet tell me that some batches continue to run and some don't.

Reason I ask is a new policy at my store calls for coaching for every pull you miss the set time on, and sometimes I'll run into a challenging batch where I need to move a handful of vehicles and a ladder just to get to the location I need. I was hoping exiting out while I did the vehicle-shuffling would save me time on the Autofill monitor report, but if not I'd like to know.

Thanks for any help!
 
I was always told that exiting out of a batch does NOT stop the timer. Just what I have been told.

Additionally, I find it pathetic to write up an employee who misses a timed batch due to having vehicles, get a ladder, etc.

For example, say you have a batch with two or more departments in it. One of the pulls is in another stockroom. You are rushing to complete it only to get stopped by a guest. What are you expected to do?
 
In my experience, exiting a batch does not stop the timer. Best thing you can do to get around your store's new policy is to make sure all vehicles are out of the way before you apply locations. Also, they better pay attention to who's answering backroom calls. If you have to stop in the middle of a batch and go to the other end of the stockroom to pull an item for a guest, it's going to screw your pull time.
 
You might want to 'increase communications' and by this I mean report what you are doing every minute you are not able to actually to do the pull the Caf.
The minute you find that you have to move a bunch of cages or vehicles call the TL and report in.
Don't do it in a whiny or complaining fashion,
Just a simple FYI, this is what I am currently working on and why.
When you are done and are able to get to actually doing the pull let them know.
When you have to do the pull for a guest (or any other kind of interruption) do the same thing.
But commie all this walkie time is going to add to the time I should be doing pulls!
Eh, not that much and it will go a long way towards CYA.
Also proving to them that there new policy is a load of piss.
It is important that you keep it professional and absolutely straight.
They have to understand you are doing this strictly for them and in their best interest.
 
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Thanks for all the replies and support, that was just the info I was looking for.
 
Ours runs from the moment you scan the first location in the batch until the batch is done....which sucks when you are trying to figure out how you did on certain batches. I had a newer ETL question why it took me 24 minutes to do paper and 19 minutes to do Bev1.....I had to explain it to her, Paper was the first batch I did, last to be finished....it took a grand total of 30 minutes to pull the entire 7PM CAF drop by myself (heck, it was only 7:45 when she was asking me about it).....
 
Like the others said, it doesn't stop the timer.

There's a way to cheat the timer though.
 
Ours runs from the moment you scan the first location in the batch until the batch is done....which sucks when you are trying to figure out how you did on certain batches. I had a newer ETL question why it took me 24 minutes to do paper and 19 minutes to do Bev1.....I had to explain it to her, Paper was the first batch I did, last to be finished....it took a grand total of 30 minutes to pull the entire 7PM CAF drop by myself (heck, it was only 7:45 when she was asking me about it).....

You have a 7pm drop and it's only 30 minutes? We had a 7pm when I first came back to Target a couple of summers ago but they canned it after the holidays that year and we had them again last year during 4th quarter. They were usually the largest set of batches for us and occasionally topped 4 hours.
 
The timers are fubar. They really tell you nothing. And in many cases trying to make them look good is less productive. For example when you have several batches that have locations in the bulk area. To meet Targets time you would need to pull the light duty areas and then head to the bulk area for each batch. This is the same for things that are located in the other random rooms Target seems to love. It is a silly way to judge people on their pull times because they will ignore things like guest calls etc.
 
You have a 7pm drop and it's only 30 minutes? We had a 7pm when I first came back to Target a couple of summers ago but they canned it after the holidays that year and we had them again last year during 4th quarter. They were usually the largest set of batches for us and occasionally topped 4 hours.[/QUOTE]

For some stupid reason when they went from O/N to 4AM, they added these back into our pulls, so that it would help "relieve" some of the overnight caf's.....the only thing they really do is interrupt our routines, and keep up from getting things finished so they wouldn't have to deal with the unfinished stuff.....
 
You can stop the timer by exiting all the way out and logging off the pda and exited again to the main Target screen. Wait a moment then log back in you timer should have stopped, obviously you wont be able to check it till later to see. I've done this and it works if you log back in to quickly then it doesn't work. So in your case log off, exit and then move the carts and ladders and such then log back in.
Like everyone else said the timers are a joke anyhow, they really should only be used as a tool for coaching for someone that is really taking to long to pull, or does like 3 pulls while everyone else is doing 8 or more. You can compare the times to see if they are lolly gagging or if its just really large pulls.
 
Like the others said, it doesn't stop the timer.

There's a way to cheat the timer though.

Remember, big brother is always watching you drop Manual CAF's on top of the Scheduled CAF's to wipe it off the Autofill Monitor through metric reporting on HQ side. Everything is easily tracked and logged from all stores, and trends always stand out in the reports. Last issue I recall dealt with a team member '9999'ing everything when pulling batches at a certain store, let's just say he no longer works for the company.
 
there is no timer, it records when the batch was started and when the batch completed, simple subtraction and spits out a time. Its a terrible tool considering batches can be completed in half the time with ease if everything is down the same valley.
 
Like the others said, it doesn't stop the timer.

There's a way to cheat the timer though.

Remember, big brother is always watching you drop Manual CAF's on top of the Scheduled CAF's to wipe it off the Autofill Monitor through metric reporting on HQ side. Everything is easily tracked and logged from all stores, and trends always stand out in the reports. Last issue I recall dealt with a team member '9999'ing everything when pulling batches at a certain store, let's just say he no longer works for the company.

This. LOCU usage is also tracked and watched rather closely.
 
i always thought the 99 was a way to fix the accumulator or was a way to tell the location that you were pulling all of that dpci?
 
there is no timer, it records when the batch was started and when the batch completed, simple subtraction and spits out a time. Its a terrible tool considering batches can be completed in half the time with ease if everything is down the same valley.

There is a timer and there is a goal time for each batch, though it doesn't mean much considering the goal time for a batch are heavily inflated. You can access the report via workbench. But again nobody cares about the timer. Its mostly useful for checking out how many DPCIs and how many eaches are pulled.

Saraklel said:
Last issue I recall dealt with a team member '9999'ing everything when pulling batches at a certain store, let's just say he no longer works for the company.
our STL/ETLs directly tell us to 999 certain items especially after a reset in entertainment. Here is how it typically goes:
1) Backstock hundreds of movies from plano reset
2) MM2 batch pulls every single movie for the rest of the day unless I 999.
3) Lately we just leave the batch and let it roll instead of taking the time to 999. This really hurts our pull timeliness score where we are regularly #1 in our district. Knocks us down to yellow/red.

You end up with either a huge waste of time/payroll or choose not replenish mm2 for the day.
If there is a better solution other than waiting until after 5:00 CAFs to BS or just not going into the batch at all, I would like to hear it.
What is really needed is some way to reset the counts on the floor.
 
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so walk me through the 999 and when you do it. Let's say i am pulling in CAF's. When it tells me to pull the quantity, say 3, would i enter 999 instead? is that what you mean? what does the 999 accomplish?
 
so walk me through the 999 and when you do it. Let's say i am pulling in CAF's. When it tells me to pull the quantity, say 3, would i enter 999 instead? is that what you mean? what does the 999 accomplish?

You don't do this when you're pulling CAFs or else you'd create hundreds of baffles. Use standalone SUBT outside of batches. The 999 resets the accumulator by satisfying any lingering "need" for the product because the accumulator can't be negative.

Do NOT use SUBT999 unless you are sure that all sales floor locations have been filled to capacity.
 
999 during CAF doesn't show up on the baffle report.
I usually toggle between STO and pull.
Pull quanity 999.
Yes I pulled it all.
STO back the correct quanity.

BTW the accumulator can be negative. I see it all the time. Don't know the cause as it usually happens in toys.

Or at least quantity can be negative. Don't really know what that means. However this can be fixed by research and zeroing quantity.
 
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The on-hand count can be negative if it was off to begin with, but the accumulator can not. The system can only tell you to take items out of the backroom; it doesn't want anything back.
 
Ah that makes sense, of course the accumulator couldn't be negative or 999 would really create problems. As you said it just quenches the accumulators thirst.

Still weird that negative quantity is possible..
 
Still weird that negative quantity is possible..

That's what happens when the re-shop, push, and backstock aren't finished by the time instocks does their research. Also when instocks doesn't know about unlocated items on the risers. :facepalm:
 
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