Archived Flexible Fulfillment? Anyone launch yet?? Deets!

[commiecorvus]

Batteries and sandwich bags?
What till you get someone who does their entire grocery order.
I don't know if it's happened yet but I suspect it will.
People are getting used to services like PeaPod where you can have your entire order delivered.
Many of the grocery stores will have your entire order bagged up and read to go the minute you hit the door, no matter how many cartloads.
it sounds like Spot is trying to get a cut of that.
Can you imagine doing a 20 or 30 item shopping list?

 

[XploitedFlow]

I have done a few picks lately. Nothing really crazy. Think biggest pull I did was 6 items, all toys.

The system is ok, get kind of weird though when multiple people are doing the pulls. Cant back out of certain menus. Maybe it was because I was using an LPDA.

 

[RedDog]

POC 5 comes out early 2014 (T1375 is currently testing). POC 6 late 2014. POC 7, well beyond.

What exactly are these programs? I've heard rumors of a site to store program for online only items coming. That doesn't bother me really as that can be handled during the push process (if sent with normal DC truck) or by receiving (if sent by separate truck) and it has the benefit of bringing in people who may not have been coming to the store otherwise.

The part that bugs me about Flex Fulfillment is that we make a LOT of money from people who "I just came to the store to buy 1 thing and look at my cart!" The program creates a way for those people to go in the door and get that "one thing" without even looking at any other merchandise AND it uses up extra payroll (budgeted or not, it still uses up time) and equipment as well. It's the complete opposite of driving profitable sales.

I agree everything Target does is to get those higher profit spontaneous buys off endcaps, sidecaps etc. I though the big push as of late was basket count, this program flies right in the opposite direction. It would seem as always one part of Target doed not know what the other part is doing.

 

[Kroneru]

You get extra payroll for FF?

Not exactly, more like it's just getting spent because backroom (day and night) are having to work more hours to get everything done due partially to FF throwing a wrench in the whole process. With the weather down here, so many people were ordering crap online that I damn near could have had someone doing only FF all day.

Yeah that's how it is in my store too... they still expect me to get everything done by MYSELF. as closing backroom, in a AA Store, with like 20+ FF's everyday. I really hate those people who order like Sandwich bags or batteries from FF, like are u kidding?

Spoiler

Likewise, as a closer I can relate. Came in a 1pm today to my delight that the FF system went full retard. An STL said as she was pulling a order an error message popped up. After exiting then returning to the menu the ten remaining Picks were now Put Into Holds. Additionally the system wouldn't let them scan items into holding locations. I'm like defuq. She wanted me to find a way to pull them all, print labels for them, and scan them into locations. In other words, "Go forth and find pixie dust to sprinkle on this situation :-D."

Grabbed my printer and I headed over to GS since STL said the tablet there would have all the FF orders listed. One-by-one I jotted down the DPCIs and sought out the items from backroom or sales floor. Of course in between every two items a customer would inquire about an item. I'd either have to stop and pull something from the backroom or show them the aisle the item was in. Just as frequently that STL would walkie the system was fixed and to see if the two new FFs could be printed labels and scanned into holding. "When I'm done with the old ones first, I'll get to the new ones." "Yes, yes I'll check soon." "Copy, will do."

We easily had 20-25 FFs today, each of which had 2-3 DPCIs on average. Was schedualed til 10pm and last BR TM left at 6pm. Still have a shit ton of cardboard to crush, 9 price change batches to pull (IFUR alone wound up being two vehicles over capacity), sweep receiving, not to mention set the line. Had it not been for LOD who crushed cardboard and O/N Backroom TL who assisted in setting the line, wouldn't have been able to do it all. Then thirty minutes before I have to clock out, four FFs popped up. I heard me heart break just a little before unwillingly picking up the printer I had just plugged in...

Yep.

6PM?! Oh god. And I thought only having someone till 7:30 was bad... Well I guess I get off at 12 usually though so.. it's kinda different, but they get to help with price change at least.

Definitely glad I'm off today and tomorrow. Need the rest.

 

[Backroom81]

Likewise, as a closer I can relate. Came in a 1pm today to my delight that the FF system went full retard. An STL said as she was pulling a order an error message popped up. After exiting then returning to the menu the ten remaining Picks were now Put Into Holds. Additionally the system wouldn't let them scan items into holding locations. I'm like defuq. She wanted me to find a way to pull them all, print labels for them, and scan them into locations. In other words, "Go forth and find pixie dust to sprinkle on this situation :-D."

We couldn't do anything at all with the printer in MY FA yesterday. We were getting the "Oops something went wrong message" anytime we got to that point. We kept having to exit the application after picking 1 item and then go back into it. A few orders magically went from "Pick" to "Put away" in the process too.

 

[BackroomDayside]

Batteries and sandwich bags?
What till you get someone who does their entire grocery order.
I don't know if it's happened yet but I suspect it will.
People are getting used to services like PeaPod where you can have your entire order delivered.
Many of the grocery stores will have your entire order bagged up and read to go the minute you hit the door, no matter how many cartloads.
it sounds like Spot is trying to get a cut of that.
Can you imagine doing a 20 or 30 item shopping list?

Well as I know of right now, you can't order grocery items from FF (Thank you spot, for once)
But I bet they will end up doing it in the future -_-

 

[Kroneru]

Batteries and sandwich bags?
What till you get someone who does their entire grocery order.
I don't know if it's happened yet but I suspect it will.
People are getting used to services like PeaPod where you can have your entire order delivered.
Many of the grocery stores will have your entire order bagged up and read to go the minute you hit the door, no matter how many cartloads.
it sounds like Spot is trying to get a cut of that.
Can you imagine doing a 20 or 30 item shopping list?

 

[gun runner]

There were 10 FF in the gun when I rolled in at 6AM this morning. Took me an hour because I was wandering soft lines looking for things that weren't located. I'm certainly learning the store a lot better.

 

[Jasette]

Our store has had FF since early October and we've worked out most of the kinks. Our store is really small, though, and we don't have much storage space at all on the floor. Because of that we keep a bunch of larger holds downstairs in receiving, which makes the guests wait longer, and it can get confusing when you're looking to get a FF order for a guest since we have a couple of locations and the system doesn't really tell you exactly where the item is being held.

Plus, a lot of the time our guests will receive the notification that their items are ready to be picked up, when they haven't even been picked or put into hold yet.

This means that sometime we have to cancel the FF order and just sell the item to the guest, though we always try to work around that because we want our FF numbers to be good.

That said, most of the time we can go through the system correctly and without taking too much time.

Our store often has tons of FF orders though so it can take a while to find the guest's name in a PDA or LPDA to get it processed right.

 

[StackerMistress]

This past weekend, FF has been sending me to find things when we have on-hands of zero. Not just softlines either, but toys. There's a particular toy that's $25 off that we've been out of forever. FF has wanted me to get it five times. We don't have it. I reset the on-hand count to zero on it every day. The next day, it says we have one. I don't get it.

 

[Sarakiel]

Next POC4 is ship from store. Target.com orders that contain product within stores would ship directly from the closest store and not rely on the nearest fulfillment center to process it. The fact of the matter is, our fulfillment centers are well beyond capacity. Have you ever noticed how long it takes for the order to even leave the fulfillment center, let alone shipping? For this POC, only store - carried items will ship out.

 

[Retail Girl]

Uhh...are they going to send us packing materials and the like? And who the hell is supposed to have this added to their plate?

 

[Sarakiel]

Uhh...are they going to send us packing materials and the like? And who the hell is supposed to have this added to their plate?

Yes. More than likely the logistics team, although when POC6 stacks ON TOP of POC4, I foresee a brand new workcenter for a large team. Very large team. Done with spoilers for the day.

 

[sigma7]

Honestly, I think I would really like to be on the flexible fulfillment team. I call TL lol.

 

[Kroneru]

Just imagine a worse case scenario.

LOD: "Backroom, Backroom! The are 5 FF alerts in the gun. Can I get a copy?
BR TM: "But... but the 12s just dropped and I'm pulling alone."
LOD: *channel 1* "Team! Team! Can I get two TMs who don't know to Pull and will ask questions every five minutes on how to do so to help pull the 12 Caf?"
BR TM: :/

 

[gun runner]

Glad I saw this pop up again, meant to post. Showed up at 6AM again to find 10 FF orders in the gun. Found items for 9 out of 10 the tenth being a high demand toy that I think the same person keeps trying to order over and over.

The "pat your self on the back" part of all that (because even though I told my TL and ETL I don't think they really gave a flip) was the order for a specific iPad Air that we supposedly had two of. They weren't in the case nor were they located in the backroom. Thankfully I'm not a lazy bum and realized such an expensive item was worth looking for. Add in that it should be in the Electronics lockup in the SCTY section if it does in fact exist meaning I don't have to search a huge area.

Long story short whomever put it back there put in the right spot but neither it nor its buddy were located. About $479 worth of product I could have said "I can't find it." Better still was a couple orders later someone else wanted the second one. $950+ guaranteed sales today because I had the time to actually search like they expect you to.

That being said, this an hour before store opening. Can't say I would have had the same initiative had it been prime time. Which leads me to sigma7's comment. I agree. I kind of enjoy getting out and exploring the store, at least before the guests get there.

 

[Backroom81]

I am really hoping they change the My FA to be an hourly batch thing rather than having to constantly drop what you're doing and hop on it. The "oh you just got back to pulling CAFs? BETTER F---ING STOP AND GET THE PRINTER BACK OUT!!" is getting old.

Yes. More than likely the logistics team, although when POC6 stacks ON TOP of POC4, I foresee a brand new workcenter for a large team. Very large team. Done with spoilers for the day.

So POC4 would be a ship from store. That may not be too bad since you would only be shipping out once per day via common carrier so there's no reason for those batches to drop all day. They would hopefully drop at a specified time daily, get boxed up, and sent out all in one shot.

I am curious on what the POC6 & 7 you mentioned are.

 

[Kroneru]

What are these POCs you speak of?

 

[m5579]

Since it recently snowed near us we've averaged about 40 a day for the past few days since no one wanted to go out and drive to pick anything up luckily the pulls were only around 20 cafs each hour.

 

[oath2order]

Batteries and sandwich bags?
What till you get someone who does their entire grocery order.
I don't know if it's happened yet but I suspect it will.
People are getting used to services like PeaPod where you can have your entire order delivered.
Many of the grocery stores will have your entire order bagged up and read to go the minute you hit the door, no matter how many cartloads.
it sounds like Spot is trying to get a cut of that.
Can you imagine doing a 20 or 30 item shopping list?

Peapod is AMAZING.

Yeah, what are POC 4 and POC 6? *confused*

 

[daninnj]

Is it like OT 4 and OT 6?

 

[Kroneru]

*sigh* What are OTs now...

 

[commiecorvus]

Peapod is AMAZING.

Agreed.
Since my wife works ridiculous hours (don't tell me about teachers getting off at 2:20) and I don't drive, Peapod has come in handy for big grocery runs.
There is only so much you can carry on a bike.

 

[NoRedCards]

Flexible wouldn't be so be if they would either put a minimum dollar on the purchase (we had a guest buy a jump rope one day) or if they would as suggested drop once an hour like the cafs.....but I know last weekend they just kept coming, and right at 12, 12:10 and 12:45 during the cafs......when you only have so many people trained to pull, its tough to juggle both without pissing someone off.....

 

[oath2order]

*sigh* What are OTs now...

Yeah, what's this too?

For some reason in my store, we keep getting people coming in literally as the doors are being locked to pick up the flexible fulfillment orders.