MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[calimero]

I've honestly run out of ways to explain to the seasonal tms that they need to actually be looking/digging for items and their walk can't be a nice stroll around the store. so many of them don't see it on the first glance and just move on but when I walk with them later, its under the shirt they looked at or on the back of the rack or literally on the next shelf. I've tried being nice and babying through every step. I've told them to partner with salesfloor tms for every single item they can't find before they get to me. I've tried explaining WHY exactly we do things that way. I've tried being strict and only giving directions and times. I don't know how to help them or if they're worth helping anymore. even my TL is at the point of giving up. we've had over 1000 carry over the past few nights, I don't know how we're going to survive the rest of Q4.

I had one seasonal telling me that she didn’t feel like looking thru boxes on a tub for towels, and that style was not done pushing so she could not find clothes that was received that day.
When I told her that yes she had to dig thru the tub and the breakout repacks and the metro racks, she was annoyed that she had to actually work and her excuse was that she didn’t have a rfid gun. She never went on the walkie to ask for one.
I am over it already, TMs who were kept after the COVID hiring think they know it all and put their 2 cents in, I don’t know how many times I have to go over the fact that you grab an opu bag , scan one item at a time and put it in the bag and repeat until full, then create a label and put it in location , and not scan all the items and reprint labels.
And that would be great if actual trainers would train seasonals and not random TMs!
i had to stop a couple of seasonals from scanning the shelf label! I was just walking by...

 

[seasonaldude]

Batch size will drop.

Then so will productivity.

 

[JiJi]

We can't even deal with three hour goal times.. Much less an hour and a half. Not that anyone would bother telling us that goal time is going to be a thing. We are doing so badly they shut off our ship process so we could handle the OPU mess.. Cause they won't fucking schedule people to work.. Skeleton crews don't get it done!

They're having us train almost every GM person in OPU at my store so we can call for backup if we get swamped

 

[Yetive]

Then so will productivity.

Without a doubt.

 

[vngoghlvr]

I'm letting my third seasonal go next week. It's been a rough group this year.

Spoiler alert:. Mr. 97 Paints INF calling 911 was the first to go.

 

[happygoth]

I'm letting my third seasonal go next week. It's been a rough group this year.

Spoiler alert:. Mr. 97 Paints INF calling 911 was the first to go.

Aww I kinda feel bad for him 😕

 

[OrderSickUp]

I am over it already, TMs who were kept after the COVID hiring think they know it all and put their 2 cents in, I don’t know how many times I have to go over the fact that you grab an opu bag , scan one item at a time and put it in the bag and repeat until full, then create a label and put it in location , and not scan all the items and reprint labels.
And that would be great if actual trainers would train seasonals and not random TMs!
i had to stop a couple of seasonals from scanning the shelf label! I was just walking by...

!!!!!!!!!!!!

The covid seasonals ruined my Q3 for the reasons you said, and now they're passing on their "expertise" to Q4 seasonals. Whyyyyyyyy did we keep them all?! And now the veterans' hours are being cut, so that's the only training they get, as veterans are too busy putting out fires when they are allowed to work. I'm at a ULV, there's no excuse that I haven't had a chance to speak with some of these seasonals to see how they're doing/watch them work.

 

[MrT]

I'm letting my third seasonal go next week. It's been a rough group this year.

Spoiler alert:. Mr. 97 Paints INF calling 911 was the first to go.

Glad im not the only one, this year is rough. Its not like its a difficult job. I dont understand how so many people can be so bad.

 

[seasonaldude]

Without a doubt.

I took a quick peek at just how much productivity could drop with smaller batches and shorter goal times. As measured by MPM my UPH this October is almost double what it was last October. Interestingly, my hours spent picking both months was essentially the same. But, the difference in total units attempted is roughly 3,000.

Certainly, some of that is due to other factors. A large part of it, however, is undoubtedly that this October I haven't had to take 1 or 2 small batches for goal time considerations. I don't even have the option to do so.

So, yeah, we're going to need a lot more payroll.

 

[Tessa120]

I'm letting my third seasonal go next week. It's been a rough group this year.

Spoiler alert:. Mr. 97 Paints INF calling 911 was the first to go.

Woah! What's this about 911? I missed that part of the 99 paint story.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

So many pallets
Styles not seen nor sent
Pick rate oh so low.

 

[CassRoslyn]

The covid seasonals ruined my Q3 for the reasons you said, and now they're passing on their "expertise" to Q4 seasonals.

Oof. I'm lucky that all the Q3 seasonals got the boot since we still have a full team from last year's Q4 working. They just celebrated their one year anniversaries...makes me feel old.

On another training-related note...they had a newbie (2nd day) scheduled alone this morning and I had to jump from electronics (I'm Q4 prepping over there for a bit) to do a tag along training session. Second. Day. What the heck schedule writer, the baby seasonals aren't to be left alone! The kiddo couldn't even count aisles correctly yet, I had to keep saying "okay so it says 4. Let's look in the 4th section. Then it says 1, so first shelf...stop looking on the top shelf...look to the left a bit..." *headdesk*

 

[happygoth]

Woah! What's this about 911? I missed that part of the 99 paint story.

Separate story...he got locked in at closing and called 911.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

The new finger tip scanners are a hit on our pack line.

 

[MrT]

The new finger tip scanners are a hit on our pack line.

Thats good i havent got to use it too much yet since this is my weekend off. I showed a couple tms how to use it so they can try it out this weekend.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

Thats good i havent got to use it too much yet since this is my weekend off. I showed a couple tms how to use it so they can try it out this weekend.

Mine as well - we started using them on Wednesday, had six going for packing and one for sorting yesterday. Only issue we ran into is that it seems the non-updated Zebras (non-TEP or whatever that is) seem to have more difficulties in pairing - but I haven't had time to verify that yet.

 

[seasonaldude]

Oof. I'm lucky that all the Q3 seasonals got the boot since we still have a full team from last year's Q4 working. They just celebrated their one year anniversaries...makes me feel old.

On another training-related note...they had a newbie (2nd day) scheduled alone this morning and I had to jump from electronics (I'm Q4 prepping over there for a bit) to do a tag along training session. Second. Day. What the heck schedule writer, the baby seasonals aren't to be left alone! The kiddo couldn't even count aisles correctly yet, I had to keep saying "okay so it says 4. Let's look in the 4th section. Then it says 1, so first shelf...stop looking on the top shelf...look to the left a bit..." *headdesk*

Our HR is notorious for that kind of crap. She recently managed to schedule a new seasonal for an entire week and somehow missed any overlap at all with our primary fulfillment trainer. Our TL was on vacation for the week as well. I didn't even find out we had the new seasonal until she showed up at 8am on her first day. I had 6 regular pickup batches and 3 grocery batches left that needed to be picked by 11. The only other person on the grid until 10 was in his second week, but fortunately a transfer from Inbound so not completely useless. Sure, I guess I'll train the seasonal now.

 

[CassRoslyn]

Sure, I guess I'll train the seasonal now.

To be fair, I am the regular fulfillment trainer. Or was, pre-pandemic. So I wasn't opposed to training her, and thankfully had the time before I skipped out at 8. I was just flabbergasted she was alone on the grid on her 2nd day. Like, no fulfillment people at all till 8am besides a baby seasonal? Who approved that schedule!? Especially when our SD demanded if I'm on the grid as electronics, I not do any fulfillment work at all.

Thankfully I'm back to Ship officially next week. My TL is so happy lol, they stole me without asking since no electronics TMs wanted to work 4ams.

 

[seasonaldude]

To be fair, I am the regular fulfillment trainer. Or was, pre-pandemic. So I wasn't opposed to training her, and thankfully had the time before I skipped out at 8. I was just flabbergasted she was alone on the grid on her 2nd day. Like, no fulfillment people at all till 8am besides a baby seasonal? Who approved that schedule!? Especially when our SD demanded if I'm on the grid as electronics, I not do any fulfillment work at all.

Thankfully I'm back to Ship officially next week. My TL is so happy lol, they stole me without asking since no electronics TMs wanted to work 4ams.

Ah. That makes sense. I can train people, but I can't train people while maintaining my normal productivity. Since I got my ETL to understand how obvious that is, I don't have to do much of anything with trainees in their first few days outside of coordinating with our trainers.

 

[vngoghlvr]

Aww I kinda feel bad for him 😕

He was the nicest guy and had a good attitude, he just was not cut out for Fulfillment. I wish they had tried to find him another department, but after the 99 paint incident and several performance conversations he meal violated. That was it.

 

[FlexThis]

!!!!!!!!!!!!

The covid seasonals ruined my Q3 for the reasons you said, and now they're passing on their "expertise" to Q4 seasonals. Whyyyyyyyy did we keep them all?! And now the veterans' hours are being cut, so that's the only training they get, as veterans are too busy putting out fires when they are allowed to work. I'm at a ULV, there's no excuse that I haven't had a chance to speak with some of these seasonals to see how they're doing/watch them work.

Ditto at my store! Plus, a lot of our covid seasonals are ETL kids or family friends, so the know EVERYTHING.

 

[StyleMaven1]

Yes, but Style is the reason for 95% of INFs right now bc Style is an absolute hot mess with unworked freight, quarantine, etc.

We'd be a lot better off if we had our damned hours back. This time last year we had 600hrs of payroll for BF week. This year we have 380 and the list if who is in fulfillment is never-ending and with the exception of maybe 5 people they ALL started this week. If we were staffed better our workload would be done, zone would be better and therefore fulfillment could find things quicker, reducing the need to have 60 people doing fulfillment on one day!

 

[MrPerfectNot]

We'd be a lot better off if we had our damned hours back. This time last year we had 600hrs of payroll for BF week. This year we have 380 and the list if who is in fulfillment is never-ending and with the exception of maybe 5 people they ALL started this week. If we were staffed better our workload would be done, zone would be better and therefore fulfillment could find things quicker, reducing the need to have 60 people doing fulfillment on one day!

There is some truth here - as I look ahead at my BF week schedule, there are days with 50+ price in SFS (oh God, the OPU's!), but not nearly enough in Style.

 

[OrderSickUp]

Ditto at my store! Plus, a lot of our covid seasonals are ETL kids or family friends, so the know EVERYTHING.

🤔 *Stalks your profile for location clues to see if we work at the same store* 😄

 

[MrT]

We'd be a lot better off if we had our damned hours back. This time last year we had 600hrs of payroll for BF week. This year we have 380 and the list if who is in fulfillment is never-ending and with the exception of maybe 5 people they ALL started this week. If we were staffed better our workload would be done, zone would be better and therefore fulfillment could find things quicker, reducing the need to have 60 people doing fulfillment on one day!

While i agree that style deserves more hours but you have that many people in SFS because that is how the SDs where told to make the schedule, black friday is going to be far different then any other year.