MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[H2Owned]

We only had like 35 orders today.... was so boring x_x

 

[SFSFun]

We only had like 35 orders today.... was so boring x_x

Lucky you. We started off with around 50 but they kept dropping...

Someone told me an ESFS store in the district still had 80 to pick at 2pm.

 

[JohnSith373]

Finally had some hazardous orders today.... had 3 mini refrigerators and some raid bug spray

New FFTM here with a little training and noticed we got HZ orders today. I asked the other flex and backroom team members but they didn't know what's the hazardous label. Is the hazardous label with a "this side up" and a diamond on it? That's the only label I can find other than the lithium label.
When's a good time to order new SFS supplies? Today, I noticed we're on our last 439 (2 sets left on) pallet, 454 (4 sets on) pallet, and last 128/414 (9 sets on each pallet) pallet. We don't have a Team Lead so we don't have any guidance on what to do exactly.

 

[SFSFun]

Is the hazardous label with a "this side up" and a diamond on it?

Yes

When's a good time to order new SFS supplies? Today, I noticed we're on our last 439 (2 sets left on) pallet, 454 (4 sets on) pallet, and last 128/414 (9 sets on each pallet) pallet.

Depends on how many orders your store gets, when your cutoff day is, and if you only store boxes on the pallets or not (we use a couple sections of steel that hold about a quarter of a pallet worth of each box).

Who normally orders boxes? I would never give that responsibility to a new TM.

 

[JohnSith373]

Yes


Depends on how many orders your store gets, when your cutoff day is, and if you only store boxes on the pallets or not (we use a couple sections of steel that hold about a quarter of a pallet worth of each box).

Who normally orders boxes? I would never give that responsibility to a new TM.

The flex team members haven't checked the other supplies in awhile and it's worrisome cause we might run out of boxes when we're shipping items. I'm just checking inventory but I'm suppose to ask HR to order more supplies.

Since reading the Backroom and Flexible Fulliment threads, I've learned things my team doesn't know and tricks/tips to make it easier. I feel like I'm not new from reading the threads and actually knowing what to do when I'm like two weeks into Flex Fulliment.

 

[SFSFun]

What I mean is there was someone who ordered supplies before you were hired and that person is probably still there.

Anyways like I said, deciding when to order depends on factors specific to your store.

 

[H2Owned]

New FFTM here with a little training and noticed we got HZ orders today. I asked the other flex and backroom team members but they didn't know what's the hazardous label. Is the hazardous label with a "this side up" and a diamond on it? That's the only label I can find other than the lithium label.
When's a good time to order new SFS supplies? Today, I noticed we're on our last 439 (2 sets left on) pallet, 454 (4 sets on) pallet, and last 128/414 (9 sets on each pallet) pallet. We don't have a Team Lead so we don't have any guidance on what to do exactly.

Your backroom TL should be in charge of ordering supplies and making sure you guys have enough boxes. Our cut off time to order is 11am on Mondays... if we dont order b4 the cutoff then we wont get our boxes until next week.... we usually order boxes every week but i am at an ESFS ... idk how often a regular sfs order boxes.

 

[SFSFun]

Your backroom TL should be in charge of ordering supplies and making sure you guys have enough boxes. Our cut off time to order is 11am on Mondays... if we dont order b4 the cutoff then we wont get our boxes until next week.... we usually order boxes every week but i am at an ESFS ... idk how often a regular sfs order boxes.

Our cutoff is on a Sunday. If we order on a Monday, it takes about 3 weeks. I usually order on a Friday and it takes 7-10 days.

I don't really have any set schedule for ordering, I just kind of wait until we only have less than two boxes of tape, collates, or four boxes of air pillows and then I'll look to see what else we need at that time.

I went a little bit overboard with collates last time I ordered them...haven't ordered since December and I probably still have 10 boxes left.

 

[Kroneru]

Our TL always asks us to do inventory and put the sheets on her desk.

 

[SurefireWolf]

New FFTM here with a little training and noticed we got HZ orders today. I asked the other flex and backroom team members but they didn't know what's the hazardous label. Is the hazardous label with a "this side up" and a diamond on it? That's the only label I can find other than the lithium label.
When's a good time to order new SFS supplies? Today, I noticed we're on our last 439 (2 sets left on) pallet, 454 (4 sets on) pallet, and last 128/414 (9 sets on each pallet) pallet. We don't have a Team Lead so we don't have any guidance on what to do exactly.

When I order supplies, I generally get them between 2 and 3 weeks after the order is placed. As to the number of pallets to keep on hand, it will likely vary by store but this is what I do:
126: One on the medium steel level that we refill the pack station from, and another on top. I order 1 more when one runs out.
413: Same as 126.
439: Most common box size used. One on the ground level that we refill with and another on top. During Christmas you'll have plenty more that will go into other various locations.
454: One on ground level used to refill pack station. I try and keep one more on hand on the top level. Target doesn't allocate SFS a space for this, but you'll likely have room.
280: Least common box size. Target tells you to keep 4 on hand but that's overkill even during Christmas. I keep 2 on the top shelves.
278: 2 on the top shelves. Order another when 1 is close to being empty.
277: 1 on the top shelves, order another once this is 50% full.

If you had to gamble and run out of a size, 454s would be the least painful and 439s and 278s would be the worst.

This is how I have the pallets organized:
Ground level to the left of the pack station: 439 and 454
Medium level left of the pack station: 413 and 126
Top level left of the pack station: 2 280s
Top level above the pack station: 2 278s and 1 277 (then a pipe where we can't store a full pallet but can store some bubble wrap)
Top level above the 3 finished package storage spaces: 439, 413, and 126.

And a spare 454 wherever you have room for. Giant rolls of bubble wrap also fit nicely on top of any pallet.

 

[BackroomBear]

If you're desperate for space, SFS pallets double stack quite nicely on the top steel but you'll have to do a little hand stacking

 

[SFSFun]

@SurefireWolf the problem is that every SFS setup is different, and many stores have different order volumes. My setup is nothing like yours and I keep far more pallets on hand because we use them.

If you're desperate for space, SFS pallets double stack quite nicely on the top steel but you'll have to do a little hand stacking

I double stack most of my 439s so I can get 4 pallets into two spots.

What do you mean by hand stacking? I just stack the entire pallet with the crown. Half the time it even comes off the truck like that.

 

[BackroomBear]

Depends on what you have above your packing station I guess. My old store had a duct above that limited height by a few more inches

 

[H2Owned]

So my STL told us today in the huddle that our orders for cyber Monday will increase by 40% this year....idk if it target over predicting again or good sales this year lol

 

[SFSFun]

So my STL told us today in the huddle that our orders for cyber Monday will increase by 40% this year....idk if it target over predicting again or good sales this year lol

I don't understand what they expect us to do with that at regular SFS locations. At least with an ESFS you have (in theory) the physical space and permanent packing stations to help handle it.

But we're just not going to be able to do it in my tiny-ass backroom. I even have a dedicated SFS area that's separate from everything else, unlike other stores that just shoved it in a few sections of steel somewhere that's always in the way.

 

[SurefireWolf]

Is anyone else having trouble with the weekly SFS report? For about the past month every field either says 0% or #DIV/0. The file is also about 12 mg compared to the 60 or so it normally is, so I'm assuming it's not on the store end.

 

[Castagnier]

I try to have at least one pallet of each box in reserve after stocking the designated spaces we have for boxes with 277s and 280s being exceptions, since we use those so rarely. 439s are also an exception since we have 2 pallets of those in reserve in addition to the one we chip away from. With the way we can store boxes, we can finish off a full pallet if everything is empty, so we only order once one pallet runs out. Personally, I'd love to see pictures of your SFS setups so I could tweak my own a little, but that'd probably give away which store we work at.

Is anyone else having trouble with the weekly SFS report? For about the past month every field either says 0% or #DIV/0. The file is also about 12 mg compared to the 60 or so it normally is, so I'm assuming it's not on the store end.

I only pull it up once a week to print it out (I keep a binder of printouts for SFS Weekly and Damage reports to track problem areas) but so far I haven't had any problems with it. The only one I've had issues with lately is the INF Report that keeps only listing one store from one district, for some odd reason.

Also, do your stores have UPS come along on the weekends to pick up the packages? They don't come to my store on those days and that doesn't exactly seem right considering we still get rush orders then.

 

[Lazy]

I try to have at least one pallet of each box in reserve after stocking the designated spaces we have for boxes with 277s and 280s being exceptions, since we use those so rarely. 439s are also an exception since we have 2 pallets of those in reserve in addition to the one we chip away from. With the way we can store boxes, we can finish off a full pallet if everything is empty, so we only order once one pallet runs out. Personally, I'd love to see pictures of your SFS setups so I could tweak my own a little, but that'd probably give away which store we work at.



I only pull it up once a week to print it out (I keep a binder of printouts for SFS Weekly and Damage reports to track problem areas) but so far I haven't had any problems with it. The only one I've had issues with lately is the INF Report that keeps only listing one store from one district, for some odd reason.

Also, do your stores have UPS come along on the weekends to pick up the packages? They don't come to my store on those days and that doesn't exactly seem right considering we still get rush orders then.

They pick up on Saturday's but not Sundays

 

[hufflepuff]

They don't come Saturday or Sunday at my store. Our area is overflowing with packages by Monday afternoon pick up.

 

[SFSFun]

Is anyone else having trouble with the weekly SFS report? For about the past month every field either says 0% or #DIV/0. The file is also about 12 mg compared to the 60 or so it normally is, so I'm assuming it's not on the store end.

They slimmed it down so it doesn't take forever to download and it now only has two weeks worth of reports. You need to change the date when you first open it, because it's set to a random date in May that doesn't have any data for it anymore.

Watch the bottom right corner of excel for "calculating xx%" because when you change the date or store number it takes a while to load.

Also, do your stores have UPS come along on the weekends to pick up the packages? They don't come to my store on those days and that doesn't exactly seem right considering we still get rush orders then.

We get a trailer dropped off late Friday night and picked up Monday morning.

It doesn't really matter when they pick up the rush orders as long as it's packed on time. UPS doesn't even deliver on weekends (unless you specifically pay for Saturday delivery, which you can't do on target.com).

You could call STS and ask about Saturday pickup, because they do have that at some stores.

 

[SFSFun]

What the hell is up with orders this week? Every day I've come in to over 100 to pick, and they keep dropping until we hit our cap before noon.

 

[H2Owned]

What the hell is up with orders this week? Every day I've come in to over 100 to pick, and they keep dropping until we hit our cap before noon.

Lucky we haven't been getting alot of orders lately.... i think today we did 50 orders other days we barely do 100 orders

 

[Shiny Zephyr]

I'm working on a grad school paper and don't know anything about the DC logistics to stores; I thought this would be a convenient forum to collect feedback for writing my business paper. The process I'm studying is the amount of time it would take for a Target guest to order a product online or in-store, and have the product delivered to a store location. I have to break down the steps and find ways to conceptually improve the process. Any help is appreciated - you can reply with the Question # for ease of tracking responses. I'll be collecting responses through 7/28.

Q1: Once a customer places an online or mobile order, how are the customer orders queued to your warehouse? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q2: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q3: Once the customer order is queued to your warehouse, how are the customer orders picked in the warehouse? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q4: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q5: Are all customer goods handled in the same manner, or do any specific goods go through a different process? If so, please explain in detail.
Q6: For the sake of calculating processing time, are customer orders processed by individual pieces of a single order, or an entire customer order?
Q7: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q8: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what challenges exist or what can be improved upon?
Q9: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?
Q10: Once the customer orders are picked, how are the customer orders sorted for shipment to a store location? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q11: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q12: Once the customer orders are shipped to a store location, how are the orders received and organized at the store for customer pick-up? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q13: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q14: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q15: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what challenges exist or what can be improved upon?
Q16: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?
Q17: Describe in as much detail as possible how the warehouse is laid out in order to receive new inventories.
Q18: Can you describe all of the steps and people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q19: Can you describe the frequency and volume of these inbound shipments from suppliers or other DCs?
Q20: Describe in as much detail as possible how the warehouse is laid out to ship outgoing orders to stores?
Q21: Can you describe the frequency and volume of these outbound shipments to store locations?
Q22: Can you describe all of the steps and people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q23: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q24: Considering Inbound and Outbound shipments and facility layout, in your opinion, what can be improved upon?
Q25: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?

 

[Castagnier]

Anyone else have issues with collates not printing out for a while? We had over 50 pop up with less than an hour to go which lead to a lot of panic.

 

[H2Owned]

I'm working on a grad school paper and don't know anything about the DC logistics to stores; I thought this would be a convenient forum to collect feedback for writing my business paper. The process I'm studying is the amount of time it would take for a Target guest to order a product online or in-store, and have the product delivered to a store location. I have to break down the steps and find ways to conceptually improve the process. Any help is appreciated - you can reply with the Question # for ease of tracking responses. I'll be collecting responses through 7/28.

Q1: Once a customer places an online or mobile order, how are the customer orders queued to your warehouse? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q2: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q3: Once the customer order is queued to your warehouse, how are the customer orders picked in the warehouse? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q4: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q5: Are all customer goods handled in the same manner, or do any specific goods go through a different process? If so, please explain in detail.
Q6: For the sake of calculating processing time, are customer orders processed by individual pieces of a single order, or an entire customer order?
Q7: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q8: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what challenges exist or what can be improved upon?
Q9: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?
Q10: Once the customer orders are picked, how are the customer orders sorted for shipment to a store location? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q11: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q12: Once the customer orders are shipped to a store location, how are the orders received and organized at the store for customer pick-up? Describe this process in as much detail as possible.
Q13: Can you describe all of the people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q14: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q15: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what challenges exist or what can be improved upon?
Q16: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?
Q17: Describe in as much detail as possible how the warehouse is laid out in order to receive new inventories.
Q18: Can you describe all of the steps and people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q19: Can you describe the frequency and volume of these inbound shipments from suppliers or other DCs?
Q20: Describe in as much detail as possible how the warehouse is laid out to ship outgoing orders to stores?
Q21: Can you describe the frequency and volume of these outbound shipments to store locations?
Q22: Can you describe all of the steps and people (titles/positions, no names) involved in this particular process, and approximately the amount of time each step takes?
Q23: Up to this point of the processes you have described, in your opinion, what standards are in place to ensure all processes and steps up this point are intended to be fail-safe?
Q24: Considering Inbound and Outbound shipments and facility layout, in your opinion, what can be improved upon?
Q25: Can you describe any employee training and those time frames involved to ensure all processes and steps are followed and errors corrected?

Well idk if this forum would be any help flexible fulfillment is when stores ship orders out from there inventory to other stores or to guests.... not really warehouse..... we have nothing to do with the warehouse side...and idk how there process is.