My store is training all of hardlines to be FF ready.
Does anybody have any tips on training new TMs with picking and packing. My store is hiring 100+ seasonal TMs for SFS and I'd just like some input because I'll be one of the trainers. Anything would be helpful.
• Wear comfy shoes, you’ll be “walking” a lot
• Don’t look at every possible location for an item you can’t find unless there is a high on-hand count. Look at the receive, sold date and on-hand count and go off of that info. Recently received, let’s check receiving or any newish backstock vehicles and not the ones been sitting in the corner for weeks. Recently sold, let’s check guest service, reshop carts, and the fitting room. There’s currently 0 on-hand (make sure to explain orders subtracting from the on-hand count) but we haven’t receive/sold for longer than 60 days, I’ll check in the backstock hanging if it’s softlines but i won’t try any further. ASANTS as each store has different INF policies.
• Keep your cart in eye view so Guest don’t steal items from your cart
• Backstock extras when pulling casepacks (pull 6, need 2 for order, backstock 4 in open stock)
• Do a batch with the new TM(s) following you so they know the proper way. As your doing the first batch, ask if they have a comment/questions/concerns. Do another batch but now the TM(s) doing it and you driving the cart. If it’s more than TM, trade off so every gets a little of everything (every TM should try to do 1 backroom location, salesfloor location and NOP item).
• Emphaize do not scan the shelf label, DO NOT SCAN THE SHELF LABEL. I don’t know how many times I’ve taught new TMs and told them to not do that and they still scanned the shelf label for a few batches.
 
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Anyone else get the update to pack 2.0 app that adds the "Prep" button? Are we really supposed to scan every item, or is it ok to bypass it and hit the prep complete button
 
100+ TM's for SFS? What? Is that a typo? Did you mean 10+? My store only even had 4 people trained to do SFS that I can recall. Myself, another GSA, an electronics TM, and a plano TM.
We had 4 just for OPU last year. At least one person was on OPU from 6 to close. We'd start the day with over 40 items to pick, most of the time we had over 100 to pick first thing in the morning. During Q4 my grids ever day were over 50 people. 24+ people from 8AM till 10PM and usually 6+ people from 12AM-4AM
Sometimes I wonder how lower volume stores even work.
 
Anyone else get the update to pack 2.0 app that adds the "Prep" button? Are we really supposed to scan every item, or is it ok to bypass it and hit the prep complete button
Only what you prep... It's to track if ppl are prepping bad and stuff is getting damaged.
 
I was off for the last week and they enabled ePick on Saturday which nobody in my store figured out until noon. OPU alerts piling but nobody could figure it out when there was an app that said ePick right next to the Move app. ETLs got an email days before the launch but didn’t let anyone know about it until hours afterwards. ETLs are so smart.
 
@Amanda Cantwell
Looks like (STS) labels are now enabled for OPU, at least for my ePick version (I’ll find out next time I come in). It prints all of the info the handwritten label has except how many bags but you can print multiple labels. It still gives the info incase there is a printer issue.
The only issue is the MyDevice doesn’t save which printer you used. You have to scan the printer for every batch when it’s being putting in hold, which at least for my store won’t work. It so far works in the printer role ZPL* and not EZprint which it seems every printer is in that mode.

Flexible Fulfillment Captain is an actual thing for 4th quarter. Something similar happened last year but not to this level. They’re basically a GSA but for Flexible Fulfillment. They would be monitoring INFs, progress in MPM2.0 (there’s new stuff now if you put it in landscape), doing supply audits/order supplies, monitoring pickers, preppers and packers speed to make sure we are on track for pack on-time. An hourly Team Member will be designated opener, mid or closer FF Captain and labeled on the grid next to their name.


I’m don’t know how this will actually work.
 
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Don't know if it's been mentioned before but Monday Oct. 15th is when the 30min pick time for OPU and Drive Up begins. That means that as soon as the order drops the TM picking has 30 minutes to pick it and put it on hold.
Just wanted to let everyone here know in case you're in a store that sucks with communication.
 
Don't know if it's been mentioned before but Monday Oct. 15th is when the 30min pick time for OPU and Drive Up begins. That means that as soon as the order drops the TM picking has 30 minutes to pick it and put it on hold.
Just wanted to let everyone here know in case you're in a store that sucks with communication.
Leadership told the team it was Monday Oct 8. I knew that was a lie based off when goal and miss alerts came. I just let it slide since it was going to start next week anyways and to prepare the team.
 
@Amanda Cantwell
Looks like (STS) labels are now enabled for OPU, at least for my ePick version (I’ll find out next time I come in). It prints all of the info the handwritten label has except how many bags but you can print multiple labels. It still gives the info incase there is a printer issue.
The only issue is the MyDevice doesn’t save which printer you used. You have to scan the printer for every batch when it’s being putting in hold, which at least for my store won’t work. It so far works in the printer role ZPL* and not EZprint which it seems every printer is in that mode.

Flexible Fulfillment Captain is an actual thing for 4th quarter. Something similar happened last year but not to this level. They’re basically a GSA but for Flexible Fulfillment. They would be monitoring INFs, progress in MPM2.0 (there’s new stuff now if you put it in landscape), doing supply audits/order supplies, monitoring pickers, preppers and packers speed to make sure we are on track for pack on-time. An hourly Team Member will be designated opener, mid or closer FF Captain and labeled on the grid next to their name.


I’m don’t know how this will actually work.
YAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAAYAY!!!!!!!!
 
It asks for the printer but fails to print.. At least that was my experience yesterday. So it wants you to hand write the label.. Yeah no..
It might be because the printer isn’t configured right. Go to settings on the printer and changed the mode from whichever (usually EZprint) to ZPL*
I’m not sure what the modes are and which actually work but ZPL* worked.
 
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I do not understand why the picking apps keeps getting unnecessary updates. The first complaint i have is taking away the ability to tap the task progress bar bar at the bottom to see what sales floor locations you would have to go to was a great tool because the "dynamic pathing" thing took me in the most random places. Another thing is the splitting of batches, in both OPU and SFS. There was 10(10) for drive up earlier today and it split it into 2 batches of three tasks and 1 batch with four tasks. How is that more productive and "minimizing steps" if it does that. At first I thought that one batch would be one persons order because that would make a little bit of sense. Nope. It had 2 separate orders in a batch and so on. For ship, we were down to 2(6) for the pick today, and I went to go finish it. Of course, it broke this into 2 separate batches. WHY???????????

Why are there unnecessary updates and changes to the picking apps that roll out without making sure that its beneficial or not for the people actually using the apps. Sorry for rambling on, just needed to rant about this lol.

In theory, the pathing was supposed to work better than previously. This is showing it's not the case and teams are working on solutions. The task progress bar was not determined to be absolutely necessary when moving to the standalone ePick app as if pathing is working as intended, you don't need it. If possible, can you PM me your store number and provide me with information on a batch that pathed really badly? Would need DPCIs and the locations you visited exactly as the app lead you. We can't fix the problem if you don't tell us.

The splitting of OPU batches like you describe should not happen. Please call this in if it happens again and give them DPCIs, time, cart info.

We make changes to the app because there are either architectural changes that must be made to have a stable app or there is a business need to warrant the change. We moved to a stand-alone ePick app because with the new platform, we can make much faster, more stable changes/fixes to the app. Pathing changed logic because we had to leave the old code since it was no longer supported and retiring. I assure we you don't make changes willy nilly. Much thought goes into what we do but our test scenarios can't cover every type of scenario although we do our best. This is why we validate the app personally in the store and rely on pilot stores to tell us what they're seeing when we release something new.

The pathing is all wrong :
Backroom first ( fine ...)
C1
Infant
C1
Infant
C1
Shoes
C1
Shoes
C1
NOP RTW
C1
All the C1 were for the same order ...
it is insane the time wasted on walking and on skipping the tasks ...

Please call this in to the CSC with the DPCIs and exact path it took you on.

Fair enough, here are some issues I've seen at my store with the new app. Remember, this app isn't even a month old.

PATHING :
- Pathing is way off. One example is the other day I was sent to A which for our store is up front near the checklanes. Then it sent me to F to our seasonal section with is on the complete opposite side in the back corner of the store. Then it sent me BACK to A an aisle away from the first location. Then it sends me to Infants and then BACK to A in the same aisle I was in previously. This is consistent and has gotten worst. The sad thing is the point of the pathing is to cut down on wasted movement, but thus far it's just adding to the time and increasing workload and decreasing productivity...

See above comments on this...

SKIPPING DPCI's :
- So you figure out the pathing is way off, so instead you skip items to get to a location closer and more productive, however, once you find said DPCI, it kicks you back to the beginning and forces you to skip all those items again. Once you repeat this and find the next DPCI, you have to continue doing this, skipping through DPCI's constantly. This is unnecessary and should just continue along to the next DPCI instead of trying to force you to take it's path. Also, often times things DPCI's drop out of order, so even though you've skipped enough times to know which DPCI to expect next on the list, it'll show up later in the pathing. It's just off and very strange.

This shouldn't be happening; I'm having our engineers validate this. It should resume at the next location not at the beginning of the path. We did have a defect when skipping backroom locations then working a SF item, then bringing you back to the BR. This has been fixed though. Please check this and let me know if it's still happening. Can you send me an example of where the DPCI first showed as one location and then went to a different one or in a different part of the path?

ASSORTMENTS :
- Maybe it's just our system, but now pulling assortments doesn't indicate what assortment box you need to be pulling, instead it just lists the DPCI of the item needed for the order, thus not actually pulling the DPCI nor the assortment since you can't individually unlocate a DPCI from a location that's directly tied to an assortment box. First issue this creates is the fact you have to pull down every box of assortments to find the right one, so if you have a shelf with 10 big boxes of assortments, now you're looking through them to try and match the DPCI needed...and this isn't productive. The second issue is the fact that since it's just telling you what DPCI is needed, it's not actually pulling it...you're literally just reaching into the box and pulling out what you need and leaving the assortment located and then next time when a team member goes back there to pull that specific item for a guest wanting it, it won't be there because it was pulled previously (which is why it's so important to pull the entire assortment box). So...you probably recognize this (hopefully, I am sure a lot of team members don't or just don't care)...so then you toggle over to manually pull the entire assortment box...this just increases the workload and lessens productivity. If this isn't happening, it'll just potentially create errors (because a team member might assume it pulled the assortment and pull it down when it fact it doesn't do it). Move had the opposite issue where it never showed the DPCI until you pulled the assortment it asked for and thus committing to the order suggesting you pulled and have the actual item...problem with that was that if someone previously pulled that item from the box and left the assortment, you were left with nothing and had to go and find the item elsewhere...this created issues. Fact is...they really need to implement a system where it tells you what assortment box you need to pull while also SHOWING you the DPCI you'll be looking for after pulling the box. Regardless, the move app had a more sensible approach...it indicates what assortment box you needed to pull and then you took it from there...the new system forces you to go on a scavenger hunt.

Assortments are the devil. There is work in progress to remove them altogether in 2019 sometime. Can't wait. The ePick app should have you pull the entire assortment carton and then have you find the specific item that is needed for the order. Is this not happening?

CASEPACK QUANTITIES, POTENTIAL ERRORS AND HALF FULL CASEPACKS :
- Something else I've noticed is that it'll send me to an upper case pack location (tied as such) and as an example, ask for 4 eaches, but the casepack is full with 6 eaches. Then after pulling it, it only wants 2. It's simply not asking for case packs or just confused on the quantity of most case packs. So now you have to toggle over and pull the remaining amount that it did not ask for and pull the full casepack. Unfortunately, not all team members will do this and simple pull the asked amount. Now this isn't new because sometimes Move would have had this issue, but not near as much as I've seen with ePick. It's constant and just adding to the workload. It honestly had very little sense of the actual quantity of most casepacks. You'll get some team members that'll know better and pull the items to prevent the error or you'll get some who don't know or are just lazy and leave partial casepacks. The fact you can't type in a higher number to pull to indicate to the system there is actually more there to register an error is silly. Pulling more isn't going to impede on the order in any way...it'll just create more stock to deal with afterwards. I also don't like the fact that if you don't scan all items in location, it deletes those items because the fact is if I go to location with 20 items in that location and it asks me for Q-Tips and the remaining items are all shampoo and hair related product, I can tell the different between Q-Tips and a bottle of shampoo. It shouldn't even really mess with overal location accuracy, only location accuracy specific to that item...that way I'm not needessly wasting time scanning 20 items that are obviously not the product because the product isn't in the location it should be...

If the system thinks that the casepack is 4 but in actuality it has 6. This is a merchandising set up issue on the casepacks. Although if it says 4 but there are 6, then you should type in 4 and the system should pull it out of location. If this isn't happening we have a problem. Move and ePick use the same logic, so you should see the same behavior. I will talk to some folks on typing in higher than the casepack quantity and see if we can create a report as this would identify the merchandising discrepancies so those can be fixed. The scanning all items in the location was implemented as a way to audit the locations as you're already in that spot instead of having a TM come later and audit it. The thought is to save time and audit more frequently.

CROPING OF OPU ORDERS AND BULK ITEMS :
- This issue might be under debate as I am sure some will like it. It was indicated as design feature when the new app rolled out that ship alone items pulled for OPU would be in it's own category and not cropped in with smaller items, but this just creates more work because if you used move long enough, you knew how to navigate around this issue to begin with (since you could just type in DPCI's and locations when putting the items in location). So this change in my mind wasn't completely necessary, but now we are also finding that the system is very pick and choose on how it crops regular items. An example is the other day we had 10 DPCI's for OPU, but instead of giving you all 10 items to pull, it gave me 6 for one batch, forcing me to use a second cart location (this is another issue I'll touch upon later) so I could prevent walking back and forth between the backroom and guest services by doubling my footsteps and increasing time. Sometimes the system will give you all the OPU's to pick at once and sometimes it'll only give you some of them...so what happens if you have 20 DPCI's over a string of orders...are you going to pull 4-5 at a time and repeatedly walk up to guest services over and over? This is fine for slow team members, but personally I am pretty fast and often times I kill multiple birds with one stone by pulling several batches at once. The system just needs to be consistent...or better yet just give team members the ability to choose how many DPCI's they feel comfortable with pulling.

Somebody mentioned the same behavior above...can you PM me more details? OPU is set up to have 10 eaches in the batch. It should always fill to that level and even go beyond that in order to keep an order together. So if you have 10 eaches that are 2 different orders, they should drop into the same batch for sure. I'd like to know when this happened, what batch/orders you were working so we can try to replicate this.

BATCHES AND HOW THEY ARE TIED TO CARTS :
- This is a big issue I personally have being that now once you start a batch, regardless of the number of items in said batch, you are now tied to the cart location you scanned to begin the batch...even if you didn't pull anything. Before, you could begin a batch and it wouldn't tie to a cart until you scanned at least one DPCI, so you could simply jump in to see how big the batch was or to see what items are being asked for. I often times could enter a batch coming back from lunch just to see if I could pull an item or two on my way back to increase productivity...but now you can't do this...you're stuck to a cart once you simply enter. Like I was talking about with OPU picks and cropping. Before I get start working on OPU's and if a pick dropped in before I pulled anything, I could just back out and restart and add that dropped over to my task list of previous OPU's I was about to pick...but now I can't do that...once I start...I'm stuck with that cart location until it's completed and so the only way to get around this is to just use another cart location...and if another OPU drops while doing those and I want to cut down on time...I have to type in yet another cart location, unncessary using many carts and just creating more of a possibility for the system to incur an error and getting the batch/cart locations stuck for days. It needs to go back to way the Move worked where it doesn't tie you to a a cart location until you pulled your first item...

Will look at bringing this back...I'll add to the backlog.

ERROR CODES AND ISSUES WITH CARTS BEING IN USE :
- Last week half of our carts were in use due to the system running into errors and not letting people back into paused batches or batches being stuck in our system and repeatedly completing and then popping back up on the paused list, thus not allowing anyone to use that cart location to do other pulls. Maybe we just had bad luck and other stores hasn't really ran into this issue, but last week we had a lot of cart locations unncessary in use and CSC is of little help because they just tell you to wait and they'll escalate. After 4 days, it got resolved...however...to add to headache, all those orders that were 4-5 days old flooded back in instead of getting bounced to another store to fullfill while the issue was being worked...just making the guests wait longer and putting more pressure on the store. Move had it's issues, but not near this amount...even when it rolled out.

This should be fixed with this weeks' deployments/fixes. These stuck carts were mostly due to an assortment issue bug.

TIMING, INACTIVITY AND ALERTS :
- There are also a lot of issues when it comes to "inactivity" while in a cart. If you haven't scanned a DPCI for 5 minutes (maybe a little more), it'll kick you out of your cart once you find that DPCI and scan it, forcing you to have to rescan your cart and then scan the item again. Not a big deal really, but silly and just increases pull time. It's just unnecessary. Also, maybe it's just our store, but there's been a rash of issues with the new app talking with the alert system and often times we'll get goal time approaching alerts for orders that dropped in only 15 minutes prior, or we'll get ghost alerts and no OPU's drop in. Or even worst, sometimes we'll get alerts for new orders, but they won't be dropping in and then 15 minutes later they'll flood in, giving us 15 less minutes to complete these orders. We've also gotten missed goal alerts for orders that were completed 30-45 minutes after the order dropped. Just a lot of issues that add headaches and suggests out unreliable the system is.

Some of these alerting issues dropping at strange times can be due to orders dropping late to your store. These have happened frequently as the Order Management System which is the brain that allocates orders to stores is replatforming to Guest Order Management. That transition caused lots of late dropping orders over the last few weeks.

That's just to name a few. Personally I didn't have a lot of issues with the Move app, namely on how OPU's were scanned in because if you used the app long enough, you figured out easy workarounds by typing in DPCI's locations, however doing things one by one cut down on potential messups where the new system gives little indication besides a small green dot (it should just grey out an already scanned item) and if you have a big order of 20-25 items (I've had several orders like this already), then you have to scroll through this big list of items just to double check your work where previously you couldn't move on until that item got scanned into location...but I understand...the big reason this new app got rolled out was to address this concern that most team members took issue with how the Move app worked.

All in all...maybe my store had just been unlucky and ran into a lot of issues where other stores has had it easy and not encountered them...but I've had more headaches with this new system than I did with the year of using Move and a new issue seems to pop up every day. The app needs to allow team members to dictate the workload a little more, give more details when it comes to what you're pulling (specifically assortments) and less interacting with accuracy counts.
 
I inserted my answers to @thereald's feedback in the quote above.

Appreciate the responses, but I think everyone here would really like to see the task progress bar (with the expanded menu) brought back. Pathing isn't always reliable, and it's nice to have a fallback in case of a bug.

Would it also be possible for the team to put up a changelog on Workbench for ePick? That way TM's can be aware of new features and bug fixes when they're rolled out rather than checking vmWare or just discovering them on their own.
 
EZPrint is only for PDAs, SmartSort, and myWork 1
ZPL* is required for ePick, myWork 2 and a handful of other things.
PDF is required for myGO receipt printing.
@mobilelady could the various apps be updated to have the error message say “switch to X mode” if you’re having trouble.

Also why can’t the modes just be combined into one or auto switch?
 
I inserted my answers to @thereald's feedback in the quote above.

Thank you very much for the reply. I'll try and document these things better when they arise and shoot you some PM's about it. I usually just work through them because I assume Target wouldn't follow up on feedback.

I'd really like to see Target make an effort to periodically hand out surveys regarding feedback on any new apps or even updates they roll out. Connect with the team members actually having to use these systems and see what's working and what isn't instead of them having to go through a third party source in order to report their experiences.
 
It might be because the printer isn’t configured right. Go to settings on the printer and changed the mode from whichever (usually EZprint) to ZPL*
I’m not sure what the modes are and which actually work but ZPL* worked.


Yeah our STL sent us the instructions today, looking into the data of who got the e-mail when, he sat on it for almost a week.. Nice.. Got it configured correctly and smooth sailing..
 
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Yeah our STL sent us the instructions today, looking into the data of who got the e-mail when, he sat on it for almost a week.. Nice.. Got it configured correctly and smooth sailing..
I feel like Leadership does this with every rollout. Let the TMs figure it out then tell them the instructions HQ sent.

If you have issues receiving STS on the PDA with the same printer, you might have to change the mode back to EZPrint. A new TM had an unknown issue so I just switched it back to until we work out the kinks.
 
Is there special receipt tape for myGO receipts? Should I be asking my STL about that if I haven’t seen anything for that?
 
If possible, can you PM me your store number and provide me with information on a batch that pathed really badly? Would need DPCIs and the locations you visited exactly as the app lead you. We can't fix the problem if you don't tell us.

This is why we validate the app personally in the store and rely on pilot stores to tell us what they're seeing when we release something new.

Please call this in to the CSC with the DPCIs and exact path it took you on.
I don't know a single team member that would write down the DCPIs and the pathing unless specifically asked.

Like today I had a TM that showed me the batch they had started on the floor. We skipped through and it had backroom locations but for whatever reason it wasn't batching it that way.

Several times I think I have everything that CSC would need and basically more often than not they want the order number. Today on multiple calls I was told CSC no longer has the information they used to have and with order inquiry down in the PDA I'm limited in the information I can collect. Order inquiry on the myDevice under the myhelp app requires a order number so you can't look up by the DCPI. And if you look up by the order number the only information it has is the name of the person that ordered it. There's another number but it's not the container number or a team member number.

Connect with the team members actually having to use these systems and see what's working and what isn't instead of them having to go through a third party source in order to report their experiences.
MyWork2.0 doesn't let you toggle between applications. You have to do the full 9 digit number or use a work around. The work around we use is toggle between MyWork1.0 and ePick then copy the DCPI and paste it into MyWork2.0.
 
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Is there special receipt tape for myGO receipts? Should I be asking my STL about that if I haven’t seen anything for that?

you should've gotten two boxes of smaller receipt tape for mobile checkout. if you don't have it, just take a partially used roll from any checklane and it'll also work.
 
MyWork2.0 doesn't let you toggle between applications. You have to do the full 9 digit number or use a work around. The work around we use is toggle between MyWork1.0 and ePick then copy the DCPI and paste it into MyWork2.0.

Oh, great. This has me concerned. It would be nice if there was a button to link MyWork w/ePick. It was a wonderful day when the RFID app was linked to Move, but we could use one for MyWork as well. It would be a great addition for convienence.

Guess I'll stick to my pen and pad method.
 
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