MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[brizzy93]

Right now we've been getting less than 10 orders per day. 2 packages sent out a few days ago.

We've been at/around 10 orders. I found out, from my ETL HR, a few stores in my district are being "punished" for going red on pick/pack time, and for my store, too many INFs. It just sucks we are getting punished because we only INF'd so many because of lack of coverage so to save us from going red on picking, we would just pull backroom locations and INF the rest. Couldn't win either way...

 

[Flo Schmo]

Sometimes I get some extra hours in SFS (just picking batches so far). The training was the usual 30 seconds of click this click that, scan here scan there, off you go. I feel utterly defeated when I can't find something, eventually reach the end, try one more time and then have to click Item Not Here No Really. These are almost always unlocated items. I search until I'm practically dizzy because it just KILLS me to not find something especially if Item Search tells me there should be one … somewhere.

Now I feel doubly bad because my search time is undoubtedly killing our metric AND missing items on top is abusing the corpse.

What happens in the system to those items? The PDA says they are removed from the order. Do they later get added to a different batch at another store? (That's my faint hope.) How long do you look for stuff before you give up on it?

 

[SFSFun]

I looked at our order forcast and it still says 300 at my store all the way thru October.

Yeah so then you will be at either 1000 or 1500 for the peak 12 days. I forget what exactly the distinction was between those top two levels. But like @Moosechives said, it doesn't say anything about the three original ESFS stores who have much higher caps. So who knows what else is missing.

Go to the Q4 page on workbench, click all store, and download the October planning guide. There's a section for logistics about halfway through it.

What happens in the system to those items? The PDA says they are removed from the order. Do they later get added to a different batch at another store? (That's my faint hope.) How long do you look for stuff before you give up on it?

Yes, those items will go to another fulfillment location. However, it will hurt your store's fulfillment metric and makes the experience less pleasant for the guest if it pushes their delivery back by a day or splits the order into multiple packages.

I look until I'm sure that I've reasonably looked everywhere it might be. Nine times out of ten it ends up being in the second place I check, but that's because I've done this for a while and know my store well.

If you do have to cancel the item, the system won't send you any more orders for it for 24 hours (excluding orders that are already in the gun).

 

[Doglover89]

I look until I'm sure that I've reasonably looked everywhere it might be. Nine times out of ten it ends up being in the second place I check, but that's because I've done this for a while and know my store well.

This drives. me. nuts. Barely anything in my store is where it should be mostly cause of tms' laziness. Our store tends to just flex, flex, flex. It makes SFS life so difficult.

 

[Moosechives]

I dont feel bad inf'ing anymore. If they expect us to get anywhere close to done with this skeleton crew we can only spend 20-30 seconds per item before moving on.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

On flex, Apple iPads drives me up the wall. I correct the counts almost every day. Then, get the flex for a iPad mini2 with corrected counts every week. We don't have it go away. But, your site says you have it..

 

[Doglover89]

SFS was awful today. Again having me by myself from 2:30-5pm. Luckily another tm was able to stay around and help for most of that time. I asked two LODs for help (opening and closing) and they both were like "what do you want me to do?" and were like "just do what you can." It's so frustrating to never have the chance to catch up. I enjoy SFS but I never asked for this.

 

[brizzy93]

Well today our orders were returned to normal by the powers that be. There were already 104 in the gun for tomorrow and only my sfs captain 8-4:45... Like my dumbass ETLs only took 2 weeks to figure out why we were getting like max 15 orders a day. Now we won't have the correct coverage for 2 weeks. I'm gonna have to talk to someone tomorrow.
Also we have to treat it like flexes now. We have to get help from the LOD to find the items we couldn't and get permission to cancel... Because we haven't been doing this over a year and totally don't know what we looked for and couldn't find. Smdh.

 

[SFSFun]

I think it's just heavier this week due to the Ad. Allocated hours are roughly the same from week to week and are based on the order cap...not what some dumbass ETL thinks you might get.

And having to find the LOD for every INF...yeah that'll last a day or two at most.

We use the backroom's myDevice to update the on-hands to zero for every item we INF. Since there's no repeat items every day, fulfillment has been in the mid 90s every week.

 

[brizzy93]

I think it's just heavier this week due to the Ad. Allocated hours are roughly the same from week to week and are based on the order cap...not what some dumbass ETL thinks you might get.

And having to find the LOD for every INF...yeah that'll last a day or two at most.

We use the backroom's myDevice to update the on-hands to zero for every item we INF. Since there's no repeat items every day, fulfillment has been in the mid 90s every week.

ETL HR told us we literally were being punished. The guy in charge of FF in my district put a super low cap on some stores orders for going red in something for sfs. No one bothered to figure out why until 2 weeks later lmao. But orders were turned back on today. Guess 2 weeks was a long enough punishment. Fucked over the people we were supposed to train tho. Now they will be thrown in having barely learned anything. Lol@backroom mydevice. As if we can pull a mydevice for us to fix on hands. Equipment control is so bad. I found a mydevice hidden in a box in the steel when I was pulling something for a guest

 

[SFSFun]

ETL HR told us we literally were being punished. The guy in charge of FF in my district put a super low cap on some stores orders for going red in something for sfs. No one bothered to figure out why until 2 weeks later lmao. But orders were turned back on today. Guess 2 weeks was a long enough punishment

Your ETL-HR is full of shit. There is zero local/regional control over SFS orders like that.

When our orders started dropping low a few months ago, I called the CSC nearly every shift for a few weeks. Every time, they would say there are no issues impacting our order flow and other stores had been reporting similar issues. The only reason they could give was more stores coming online and more stores getting higher caps, combined with slow online sales.

 

[anathema]

I would think your ETL-HR would catch 20 kinds of shit for purposely lowering sales at your store...

 

[brizzy93]

I would think your ETL-HR would catch 20 kinds of shit for purposely lowering sales at your store...

She didn't. She said someone higher up did it

 

[brizzy93]

Your ETL-HR is full of shit. There is zero local/regional control over SFS orders like that.

When our orders started dropping low a few months ago, I called the CSC nearly every shift for a few weeks. Every time, they would say there are no issues impacting our order flow and other stores had been reporting similar issues. The only reason they could give was more stores coming online and more stores getting higher caps, combined with slow online sales.

Seriously? She said she talked to that guy and he said that... idk man

 

[SnorlaxTM]

Anyone got tips for streamlining the SFS process? My leaders are getting irritated that people are having to come back and help pack.

 

[Leonhart621]

We've been getting lower than 15 orders for a couple of months now. Rarely you'll see we get more than 30+ orders.

 

[SFSFun]

Anyone got tips for streamlining the SFS process? My leaders are getting irritated that people are having to come back and help pack.

Make sure that you are getting the correct amount of hours. You can see exactly how many hours should be allocated by checking the daily order forecast report under store reports on workbench. It's usually around 108 hours/week for 150/day order cap.

A lot of it depends on how the team is scheduled. Do you have an opener and a closer? Or an opener and a mid? What time does the opener start? (Hint: it needs to be 7am or earlier).

 

[Doglover89]

Most days lately, we have an opener who comes in at 6. He wraps up any left over packing from the previous day(s), and then begins picking the day's orders. I come in at 8:30. I take over the picking (my preference) and he begins packing (his preference). If it's super busy, he (and possibly someone else in the building who is trained, if they're available) helps me finish the picks. I take my meal break once everything is picked and scanned in. Then we just pack, pack, pack. I prep everything for UPS' arrival and leave at 5. I'm also curious to see how other stores do this SFS thing.

 

[SFSFun]

He wraps up any left over packing from the previous day(s), and then begins picking the day's orders.

I don't get why some people want to do that. The TM who opens on my days off does that too.

It's way more beneficial to pick when the store is closed. There's almost no reason to come in and immediately start packing when you have until 4:30pm to get it done.

 

[H2Owned]

Today was the great hurricane Air Wick at our store lol... so many spus with Air Wick and then at 12 corporate decides to cancel all of them so had 45 RTS

 

[Doglover89]

I don't get why some people want to do that. The TM who opens on my days off does that too.

It's way more beneficial to pick when the store is closed. There's almost no reason to come in and immediately start packing when you have until 4:30pm to get it done.

Yes, I agree. But if we have items left over from the previous day, we want to ensure they get out a.s.a.p. Also, this tm doesn't like picking. Especially if I'm working with him he leaves me to do it because 1) I enjoy it and 2) I work softlines so I can find clothing items quickly. We're still working on stream-lining our process. Soon we will have three tms working full shifts most days which should make things go smoother.

 

[SnorlaxTM]

Make sure that you are getting the correct amount of hours. You can see exactly how many hours should be allocated by checking the daily order forecast report under store reports on workbench. It's usually around 108 hours/week for 150/day order cap.

A lot of it depends on how the team is scheduled. Do you have an opener and a closer? Or an opener and a mid? What time does the opener start? (Hint: it needs to be 7am or earlier).

I will have to double check on the hours, especially after the fustercluck that was today. We typically have an opener who should come in at 4 am, they should be picking until about 12 PM. After that we ideally have someone come in around 7/8 am to help pick and then start packing. They leave around 3 or 4. That had been working out for us, but the last couple of weeks it wasn't at all and I'm not sure if it's because we had a new people or because they were messing with the scheduling. The other TMs they were making come in later and later.

 

[H2Owned]

So i looked up when my store orders go up ... its funny that the TL and ETL over the department dont. But we go to 350 the first week of November then 750 the 4th week for 3 days then 1500... i dont see us surviving that week. Also found out there are 3 stores in the area that added SFS which explains why the orders are going up later than last year. They already hired 5 seasonal teams members for fulfillment and they all either quit or got fired for NCNS... smh...
the STL says she wants the Veteran fulfillment team members to do all the picking while the seasonal pack.... need to find some comfy shoes to pick in x_x

 

[brizzy93]

So this was a batch I had to pull today. It was all granola bars, cake mix, frosting, and pop tarts. Heading to some lumber mill across the country.

 

[SFSFun]

So this was a batch I had to pull today. It was all granola bars, cake mix, frosting, and pop tarts. Heading to some lumber mill across the country.

Holy fucking shit that's a huge order. My record is 72.