GM3

Joined
Oct 22, 2014
Messages
301
I recently took over gm 3. I’m over baby, entertainment, sporting goods, toys, and Disney. I’m looking for ways to be more efficient and improve my department. What is your morning routine? What are some tips and tricks that work for you? How do you handle the zone when kids are out of school?
 
I recently took over gm 3. I’m over baby, entertainment, sporting goods, toys, and Disney. I’m looking for ways to be more efficient and improve my department. What is your morning routine? What are some tips and tricks that work for you? How do you handle the zone when kids are out of school?
End caps are your friend keep them full. If you dont have a secondary area, inbound sfs plano ect, then it shouldn't be that hard to maintain zone, atleast right now. Everything works together. Full sales floor means less to zone. Less zone means its easier to maintain. The more you maintain the better you sf quantities and on hands should be. The better your on hands the more accurate freight you get. Dont let repacks fall behind they should be a priority when pushing. It sounds easier then it is obviously. Once one part falls its a domino effect as well. Routines and follow up is everything in GM and being a TL in general. Do what works for you as i dont know what your schedule is or your tms schedule. Just make a routine that allows for planning and follow up and stick to it. Its much easier to make adjustments to a well thought out plan rather then winging it every day.
 
Those departments are easy this time of year. I have the same areas of ownership except I don't have disney at my store and I also own pets, mini seasonal and plano. Biggest issue I have right now is sporting goods coming in heavy. At my store the aisles we were using for fan central we utilize for bulk sporting goods freight we have a lot of and fan central is located on a style floorpad. Definitely utilize endcaps well and make sure you're training your DBOs to manage their endcaps - they should be pushing endcaps to home every day and shopping the back to see what they can flex out as well as bulk that comes off the truck. It really mostly comes down to having good DBOs who pay attention to counts. Also for toys and sporting goods specifically make sure your DBO is zoning throughout their shift, not just at the beginning. It's much easier to maintain that way. And make sure someone is zoning toys at night as well. For entertainment having a fast setter as the main DBO is important since it resets every week. Fight to get an extra shift on Tuesday specifically to set new release and revisions and another one later in the week as entertainment (at my store at least) comes in super heavy on one truck a week, usually Thursday or Friday.

How you split up your DBOs is up to you I guess, I would play to the strengths of your team members. I have my toy DBO own entertainment as well, then have an extra TM come in on tuesday and sometimes thursday to help out depending on hours. Toy DBO is a very fast setter (in case she has to set new release), fast pusher, and is able to maintain zone throughout her shift. Another DBO owns sporting goods, pets, and mini seasonal. She isn't as quick as the toy TM but is very meticulous when it comes to counts and managing her backroom and also great at merchandising. My infant hardlines DBO is a fast puller since we sell a lot of baby at my store and pulls are usually heavy. Out of any department I own baby actually has the highest sales. I have no idea how big disney is at your store and how many hours it requires to maintain. When figuring out how to split up your DBOs definitely look at average push times for past 30 days, but also keep in mind how heavy pulls and zone is for those particular areas as well as sales $ for the departments. Like zone wise toys, sport and mini takes a while but they usually have less pulls. Baby isn't very hard to maintain visuals or push but pulls are typically heavier. The more sales a department does, the heavier it is shopped meaning harder to zone, and also will lead to heavier pulls.

Also as a TL just in general I try to keep my team members in their departments as much as possible, I try not to have the toy TM for instance help out in sporting goods when she's finished with her push. I try to let them manage their own departments and use any extra time to get ahead on workload or work on merchandising and backroom projects. I will normally help out myself in the department that's struggling. It helps your team feel like you have their back, that they are true DBOs and also helps give you insight on why they are struggling - is it productivity, training, is their workload too high? Try to do your best to work on projects with them and not alone. Also try not to have a vehicle on the salesfloor so you're free to go do something else if needed. I'm a big fan of staging pulls for my team to work, especially when I'm running trucks because I can stay in the back and keep an eye on the inbound team.
 
“The better your on hands the more accurate freight you get”
If this was even remotely true, the whole logistics of Target as a whole would work 99% of the time…. Unfortunately data accuracy does not equal accurate freight.
 
“The better your on hands the more accurate freight you get”
If this was even remotely true, the whole logistics of Target as a whole would work 99% of the time…. Unfortunately data accuracy does not equal accurate freight.
While for sure it isnt end all be all as they still have purge dates that will send whatever to your store. Its even less true with this bonus freight per se that they have sent everyone. But it does for sure help your day to day freight. Having had my store have such an accurate onhand for most of last year before 4th quarter i will say its 100 percent effective. It is less effective atm for sure though.
 
“The better your on hands the more accurate freight you get”
If this was even remotely true, the whole logistics of Target as a whole would work 99% of the time…. Unfortunately data accuracy does not equal accurate freight.
The stuff they're sending pallets and pallet of, sure it doesn't matter. But one of my TMs used to be a TL and still has access to auditing on hands. She's fixed counts on stuff she noticed is really light (count downs) and it's made those aisles fuller and increased sales. We get a lot of product that's supposed to go to other stores based on the pick label. Not sure if this is common but as a result our on hands are super off. It helps to have a DBO who pays attention to on hands, capacities and backroom counts because it takes something off your plate as a TL dealing with daily audits. To be honest I'd rather have a (trustworthy) DBO do the suspect tasks and backroom audits rather than me, they're the ones pushing the product daily and are more familiar with their salesfloor than I am.
 
While for sure it isnt end all be all as they still have purge dates that will send whatever to your store. Its even less true with this bonus freight per se that they have sent everyone. But it does for sure help your day to day freight. Having had my store have such an accurate onhand for most of last year before 4th quarter i will say its 100 percent effective. It is less effective atm for sure though.
This used to work really well for us. Now it doesn't even matter. Every store seems to be a dumpster fire these days.
 
Back
Top