MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[PackAndCry]

Nobody's ever so much as implied to our team that we should be looking for stuff anywhere other than the floor when it doesn't have a backroom location- they acted shocked when I said I checked reshop for items, let alone digging through freight, pulls, etc. Our INFs are about as shitty as you can imagine.

 

[SFSFun]

I think the main issue with softlines is the store RFID scan. Over the last few months I've noticed items I've picked during the day of the scan end up being most of my INF's. I used to pick at 97-100% find now I'm like 89-94% and the rest of my team have been doing worse we dropped from 9% inf to 18% to 23% in 2 weeks. So on Wednesday the items are taken from the store count as orders drop in and Thursday when they RFID scan it re adds them.

I'm still not convinced that RFID actually changes on-hand counts.

So is there really no way to pick to a new cart halfway through a batch with epick? I've tried everything but can't figure a way out to do so
We end up having to run back to the pack station and dump everything out into boxes and mark them as scanned to "SHP w/e" or grab a new cart and key the first cart's hold location in for every item afterwards. It's not as bad as it could be since we don't have to scan the locations while packing anymore, but it's still kind of troublesome. Seems like a pretty basic and obvious function to have that they've omitted.

There is no other way right now, but I believe HQ knows that it's an issue and will fix it at some point. For now, just get better at filling the carts and using the space efficiently. You should rarely need to grab a second cart. (Hint: you can stack stuff in the top basket as high as the door to your backroom. Putting small stuff up top and large stuff in the middle will cause you to run out of space quickly)

 

[frade1547]

So is there really no way to pick to a new cart halfway through a batch with epick? I've tried everything but can't figure a way out to do so
We end up having to run back to the pack station and dump everything out into boxes and mark them as scanned to "SHP w/e" or grab a new cart and key the first cart's hold location in for every item afterwards. It's not as bad as it could be since we don't have to scan the locations while packing anymore, but it's still kind of troublesome. Seems like a pretty basic and obvious function to have that they've omitted.

We were averaging 10-15% INF for a long while, but we're doing a lot better after inventory and RFID rollout. Our biggest problems now come from flow team's staggered unload process and being constantly behind on trucks; I usually get at least a few items everyday that're nowhere on the floor or in backstock but last received that day which leads to a ton of time lost on digging through freight.

Get a pda, a printer and an unmarked 3 teir(smart cart) then go to the myfa 'create shipping locations' and reprint duplicate stickers for the duplicate cart.

 

[SFSFun]

Get a pda, a printer and an unmarked 3 teir(smart cart) then go to the myfa 'create shipping locations' and reprint duplicate stickers for the duplicate cart.

I guess you could do that...as long as you don't actually put the stickers on the cart. Still more time consuming than the old way.

 

[frade1547]

I guess you could do that...as long as you don't actually put the stickers on the cart. Still more time consuming than the old way.

we still have our pda's and flex printer so it takes like 30 seconds and peeling the stickers off the carts is easy. Also the RFID scan wont negate things that it doesn't find it does add things at the end f the day, and since items start dropping for tomorrow mid day they can get put back on hand. miss the old ways.

 

[carafe]

Get a pda, a printer and an unmarked 3 teir(smart cart) then go to the myfa 'create shipping locations' and reprint duplicate stickers for the duplicate cart.

I considered that, but I don't fancy the idea of having all these temporary locations floating around during the chaos of thanksgiving week. With how epick handles batches now, I can see folks getting confused as to which batch is located to which carts and such.

 

[Bosch]

I considered that, but I don't fancy the idea of having all these temporary locations floating around during the chaos of thanksgiving week. With how epick handles batches now, I can see folks getting confused as to which batch is located to which carts and such.

Snap a close up picture of the parent cart label and at least one of the location labels on the cart, grab an unmarked cart and then scan your phone. Forgot I did that and it worked.

 

[Kroneru]

I noticed two stores for sure. One was at 825 and went down to the 300s, and the other is an ESFS that was at 1625 and went down to 550.

Was off the last two days but yeah we were reduced I see.

To those looking to remedy cart related problems try using a UPC barcode generator website. Screenshot it on your phone and scan with your Zebra/PDA. Save the image or more and print them out. Had an issue this week where I was sent to a location that didn't and couldn't exist; 01A04 A38. The sixth character was missing. We tried the respective wacos in aisle 004 and 040 just to see but as I guessed no dice. Not to my surprise my attempt to make it in store applications failed. Deleting it in location management in the PDA failed. 701... big help... they moved the issue up to level 2. ePick, being the half baked successor it is, when you skip backroom locations doesn't direct you to the salesfloor anymore. We found the item on the shelf but couldn't scan it as a result. My fix was exiting the batch, stowing the item to a random waco, resumed batch then picked from new location.

 

[H2Owned]

We are sitting on 284 eaches right now and been that way since 8am... hopefully more will drop cause 284 is nothing lol

 

[Mysterious]

Was not paying attention to the website, so I wish I found out about the new FA process ahead of time. Earlier on, I took 3 days off prior to the rollout. Came back and thought I had no SPUs to complete on the PDA, so I was thinking it was gonna be a great day. LOL. Nope, I was told about the new changes moved to the Android Zebra and had to find about 75 eaches before the store opened. What made the orders challenging is we were in the process of remodeling, so we had merchandise on pallets, vehicles, and Z-racks. Merchandise not where they were supposed to be, merchandise not tied. etc. I do not like the part where I have have to tie orders to a cart before it can be transferred to guest service. Was able to understand the new process fairly easily. Now we have to carry around a PDA, android and portable printer to manually print SPU orders. Thank goodness I do not have to spend additional time over in shipping. The holidays are going to be very interesting.

 

[spotlife]

Was not paying attention to the website, so I wish I found out about the new FA process ahead of time. Earlier on, I took 3 days off prior to the rollout. Came back and thought I had no SPUs to complete on the PDA, so I was thinking it was gonna be a great day. LOL. Nope, I was told about the new changes moved to the Android Zebra and had to find about 75 eaches before the store opened. What made the orders challenging is we were in the process of remodeling, so we had merchandise on pallets, vehicles, and Z-racks. Merchandise not where they were supposed to be, merchandise not tied. etc. I do not like the part where I have have to tie orders to a cart before it can be transferred to guest service. Was able to understand the new process fairly easily. Now we have to carry around a PDA, android and portable printer to manually print SPU orders. Thank goodness I do not have to spend additional time over in shipping. The holidays are going to be very interesting.

How do you manually print orders? We are having to hand write everything

 

[SFSFun]

and portable printer to manually print SPU orders.

That's actually a really good idea. I would much rather do that instead of hand writing everything onto labels that will never come off once it's placed on an item.

How do you manually print orders? We are having to hand write everything

PDA > myFA > scroll down > order inquiry > scan an item from the order and you can print a label.

 

[PackAndCry]

labels that will never come off once it's placed on an item.

We were given gift wrap tape to use to tape the labels (still on the wax paper backing) onto the items that don't fit in bags so we don't ruin the items. Seems to work fairly well.

 

[JohnSith373]

That's actually a really good idea. I would much rather do that instead of hand writing everything onto labels that will never come off once it's placed on an item.

It’s way better than writing it down. Just keep a printer at guest service and print the labels after putting it in hold. You can’t print labels until after 10-15 seconds after it’s been out on hold and your press “Done” on the batch complete screen. We’re waiting on our ETL’s approval right now.
Use a bunch of easily removable labels and put it under the the new SPU labels so it can be removed off of the item i.e. Xbox One X

 

[spotlife]

That's actually a really good idea. I would much rather do that instead of hand writing everything onto labels that will never come off once it's placed on an item.


PDA > myFA > scroll down > order inquiry > scan an item from the order and you can print a label.

I guessed that right then! I saw print label under order inquiry before and was curious while investigating a ghost order with CSC. I asked her and she said that was an old function that probably doesn't work anymore. Good to know it still does! Will use this as my penmanship is horrible.

 

[Mysterious]

SFSFun is correct in how to print FA labels for STS and SPU orders. Just be mindful that you can't print the labels until after the order is stored into SD location. I've also noticed that it may take 30 secs to 2 min before order inquiry acknowledges the order.

 

[Kroneru]

First time using ePick for SPU. We're not allowed to use order inquiry to get labels. Seeing as I'm already wasting time I'm writing each guest name and the full month in cursive.

 

[Bosch]

Was not paying attention to the website, so I wish I found out about the new FA process ahead of time. Earlier on, I took 3 days off prior to the rollout. Came back and thought I had no SPUs to complete on the PDA, so I was thinking it was gonna be a great day. LOL. Nope, I was told about the new changes moved to the Android Zebra and had to find about 75 eaches before the store opened. What made the orders challenging is we were in the process of remodeling, so we had merchandise on pallets, vehicles, and Z-racks. Merchandise not where they were supposed to be, merchandise not tied. etc. I do not like the part where I have have to tie orders to a cart before it can be transferred to guest service. Was able to understand the new process fairly easily. Now we have to carry around a PDA, android and portable printer to manually print SPU orders. Thank goodness I do not have to spend additional time over in shipping. The holidays are going to be very interesting.

I feel ya we started our SFS process while in the middle of a major remodel, so finding things a challenge would have been an improvement.

xzero we write that huge label but I don't pull it off the backer paper I tear it off the roll, and then run a piece of scotch tape over it. Or in a hurry I will tear it off the roll and then when ready to put the label on the product I will only tear half the backer off and stick the half sticky side.

 

[oath2order]

SFS stress test was a flop. They had about 7 of us.

It's now 1pm and 4 of us are pushing, and I'm doing the few bits of signing I need to do

 

[RainDog]

SFS stress test was a flop. They had about 7 of us.

It's now 1pm and 4 of us are pushing, and I'm doing the few bits of signing I need to do

We’re in the same boat. Way more people are here than we need for the SFS workload.
If peak week is going to be anything like this, we’re way overscheduled.

 

[Moosechives]

Lucky you guys lol...we got 1400 units which is about 750 orders. We're still going atm.

 

[RTCry]

Had three LODs in the back packing, so you tell me how well it went here. lol.

 

[hufflepuff]

Was a disaster here. I don't even want to come back to work after how today went.

 

[PogDog]

We hit about 700 items / 400 orders during our stress test. Were done about noon/1ish. Only had a couple packing issues to tend to afterwards and at one point collates didn't print. But that hiccup resolved itself in about 15 minutes without calling 701. Did notice a slight lag while picking. Assumed it was from how many people were using the system at once.

During peak last year, we did over 1000 orders a day. That was rough, considering we had 2 pack stations. We have 3.5 this year and 3x pick carts and devices. Today was a breeze by comparison. And we certainly were overstaffed. Two callout and they weren't missed.

Today was also my first day with the new device setup. Not a fan of how Backroom picking is forced (sometimes it's just easier to skip and take from the floor, but this new system won't give you a floor option if there is a Backroom location). Also took me about 4 batches until I realized I didn't have to keep entering pick quantity and then press done. Could just press done and move on. I'm a bonehead. Overall though, I think the pet peeves are mild and the setup is much faster to pick with. Definitely a fan of the nice, large, detailed images!

 

[KhakiOnTheSide]

We were over staffed and got caught up on picking so there were 8 of us including the TL fighting for packing space.