MEGATHREAD Flexible Fulfillment

[CassRoslyn]

But sometimes it’s one DU ™ with 10 drive ups arriving at once with no prep time… and it’s times like those where we have to rely on fulfillment doing their job correctly

Right, of course, and in my store fulfillment helps drive up a lot so we're very conscious of this.

Our situation is a little odd compared to most, though. We don't have a service desk, technically. We were one of the "integrated" pilot stores and haven't had a remodel since that flopped. So all our operations run out of the opu hold space directly and fulfillment joint owns drive up operations with front end since they're technically under the fulfillment TL now...

But, really, all fulfillment TMs would benefit greatly from working with drive up for a bit during so they learn first hand why our best practices exist for a reason.

Why are orders not picked as a whole order? Like, what's this batch nonsense?

If an order exceeds X amount of dcpis it gets split. Or if a guest orders something and then forgets an item and orders again the later items become a whole different order.

Or if you order a candy bar, some trail mix, etc. and a single banana but also a bunch of electronics...all the dry grocery goes in the grocery opus just because of the one banana.

So, it's not as if every order is split willy-nilly but sometimes stuff happens because the system thinks it's more efficient.

 

[RunForACallBox]

Orders used to batch as a whole batch. That was until they went to 30 minute goal time and it started to get challenging when a guest would order a 30 DPCI order.

 

[spottymcspot]

If we had order limit sizes we could do each order separately but some people will order their groceries for a month and have over 100 items. It's too much for one person to pick.
I like the idea of it telling us the other hold locations for that person's order so we could try and put them together. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be better.

 

[Bosch]

I confess, I have no knowledge of how FF works, but just based on what I have heard here, I have a question: Why are orders not picked as a whole order? Like, what's this batch nonsense? As a guest, if I place an order I would figure that someone on the other end is working on my whole order, getting it together and storing it all together so that when I come to pick it up, all the employee would have to do is find the spot where my whole order is stored. Obviously this would not apply to cold food, but other than that, why would my order be stored piecemeal and all willy-nilly?

They can get split due to size number of items larger than our batch size so they split. Multiple orders 1st order then thought of something else 2nd order. And why not a 3rd since they won't pick up til off work in 4hrs. Each picked at random by the pickers.

How they get stow'd is dealers choice. If I have a couple bags and heavier stuff, I will split the cat litter to a lower shelf and the bags to a mid to high shelf depending on space.

 

[Tarjayy]

Also throw in the mix of different team members stowing. You have one team member that stows the first part of the order in it’s proper location which is say drive up. Then you have bozo the team member that stows it wherever they feel like which might be behind guest services or even in grocery hold space coolers. It’s craziness.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

But, really, all fulfillment TMs would benefit greatly from working with drive up for a bit during so they learn first hand why our best practices exist for a reason.

Could not agree more. Having fulfillment TMs do drive ups even for an hour and we would never have reprinted labels on multiple bags again lol

 

[Caliwest]

I take that back… I wish they would hire / retain more for inbound because that’s what screws us over in the end…. Having to sacrifice productivity or INF because truck is consistently rolled over is a daily struggle. I try to show the ETLs how our numbers are phenomenal when we come clean on the truck but all I get is “we need to work harder/faster” like …. ??? Logic doesn’t exist with them

Has your team asked for support and simply been told to " walk faster" ? Target is a robot warehouse in retail clothing.

 

[secretsanta]

Has your team asked for support and simply been told to " walk faster" ? Target is a robot warehouse in retail clothing.

Yeah the last time we got support from other departments was when Covid first hit and when OPU went insane and we were t staffed to keep up with it as well as SFS. We only have 10-15% of the store cross trained in sfs and the only time we can “pull” them to help is to ask them to come in early/ stay late as long as it wouldn’t mean they wouldn’t hit OT

 

[BadWolf4531]

I confess, I have no knowledge of how FF works, but just based on what I have heard here, I have a question: Why are orders not picked as a whole order? Like, what's this batch nonsense? As a guest, if I place an order I would figure that someone on the other end is working on my whole order, getting it together and storing it all together so that when I come to pick it up, all the employee would have to do is find the spot where my whole order is stored. Obviously this would not apply to cold food, but other than that, why would my order be stored piecemeal and all willy-nilly?

It is all based on the timing and size of your order.

Large orders are often split into multiple batches so that multiple TMs can pick the order at the same time. In theory, if you place an order for 60 items, that order will be ready faster if it's split into multiple separate batches. For instance, three TMs could each pick 20 items each at the same time, rather than one TM picking all 60 items, and the order would be ready in 1/3 of the time. That and most carts will not hold 60 items, unless you're ordering all relatively small things.

If a guest places an order that contains both fresh grocery and non-food items, those orders are also split into Grocery batches and regular Pickup batches, which must be picked separately.

 

[slowhands]

They up our SFS capacity to meet the needs of orders. Basically bump up our workload with a day or two notice to get more people in there.

This is cool. We haven't even got any ship units yet. And they gave extra hours to people who don't even work in ship, while the rest of us only get 5 hour shifts.

 

[SuperTarget]

Team,

According to the July Monthly Planner we were supposed to have the ability for guests to select backup items/substitutions for grocery. It stated it would start sometime in July. Since July has come and gone is there any update on the status of this? I don’t recall there being any communication that there were delays in enabling this. Are we waiting on the Target app team to get the front end implemented or are we waiting on the ePick team?

 

[azure]

Also...how many targets have the space for this type of set up, realistically? We are the busiest store in our district for opu and if I had to arbitrarily number our 26 or so green racks that go in a snaking pattern around our hold space as sections 0-9 and teach the kids where everything should go I'd end up with quite the headache lol.

Not saying my idea is perfect but there has to be a way to organize orders. We have 24 metro racks in our cooler alone for opu. It wouldn’t be that hard just to look at the order number and then put it in that aisle.

 

[Caliwest]

It is all based on the timing and size of your order.

Large orders are often split into multiple batches so that multiple TMs can pick the order at the same time. In theory, if you place an order for 60 items, that order will be ready faster if it's split into multiple separate batches. For instance, three TMs could each pick 20 items each at the same time, rather than one TM picking all 60 items, and the order would be ready in 1/3 of the time. That and most carts will not hold 60 items, unless you're ordering all relatively small things.

If a guest places an order that contains both fresh grocery and non-food items, those orders are also split into Grocery batches and regular Pickup batches, which must be picked separately.

Along this strategy I believe if one TM repeatedly skips a potential INF then that item drops into another tm s cart...unless it was(for me) coincidence that such a split also included splitting eaches....?

 

[RunForACallBox]

Team,

According to the July Monthly Planner we were supposed to have the ability for guests to select backup items/substitutions for grocery. It stated it would start sometime in July. Since July has come and gone is there any update on the status of this? I don’t recall there being any communication that there were delays in enabling this. Are we waiting on the Target app team to get the front end implemented or are we waiting on the ePick team?

I haven’t heard anything else or seen it in action. I haven’t done many grocery batches but I haven’t heard anyone mention that they have seen it.

 

[Bosch]

Along this strategy I believe if one TM repeatedly skips a potential INF then that item drops into another tm s cart...unless it was(for me) coincidence that such a split also included splitting eaches....?

Maybe they found some of them but not all of them? Not sure it's been a couple months since I picked a batch.

 

[LUNCHpod]

Well today was awful. ePick down, Pack and Ship down, Pickups not showing up. Blah

 

[DatBoi9497]

Target needs to stop doing fucking updates when stores are still open. They did it again tonight and epick was down for 3 hours, causing guests to get angry that their order is not ready and screwing stores for tomorrow since you couldn't pick anything for 3 hours and the three of us barely finished the late opu orders before we left at 11.

 

[DatBoi9497]

Team,

According to the July Monthly Planner we were supposed to have the ability for guests to select backup items/substitutions for grocery. It stated it would start sometime in July. Since July has come and gone is there any update on the status of this? I don’t recall there being any communication that there were delays in enabling this. Are we waiting on the Target app team to get the front end implemented or are we waiting on the ePick team?

They added in bulkly opu so maybe the backups and updates to the pickup app were pushed tonight? I didn't do any grocery batches when we were able to pick again

 

[Anelmi]

Well today was awful. ePick down, Pack and Ship down, Pickups not showing up. Blah

Yep nothing like getting phantom DU honks but nothing shows up in the arrived screen but then there are 5 cars sitting outside and when we click their name, it says "not processed" or whatever the language is that we use. REAL FUN TIME to go searching for entire orders bag by bag, hold area by hold area. REAL FUN.

 

[RunForACallBox]

It was at this moment I knew, I fucked up

 

[RunForACallBox]

Hey dumbass corporate people. If it can’t fit on a 3 tier or Ship cart it probably needs to be in the “Bulky” (are we 5?) batch instead of regular OPU 😑😑

 

[SuperTarget]

Team,

According to the July Monthly Planner we were supposed to have the ability for guests to select backup items/substitutions for grocery. It stated it would start sometime in July. Since July has come and gone is there any update on the status of this? I don’t recall there being any communication that there were delays in enabling this. Are we waiting on the Target app team to get the front end implemented or are we waiting on the ePick team?

Update came out for this today.. looks to be launching Aug. 9th

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Real question is when is the pickup app being updated as promised to better show prepped orders

 

[spottymcspot]

Anyone else's store a complete shit show today? Just mine? We are drowning in freight and drive ups and opus and extra ship units. Im so glad to be home.

 

[RunForACallBox]

Anyone else's store a complete shit show today? Just mine? We are drowning in freight and drive ups and opus and extra ship units. Im so glad to be home.

Yes