Archived How is the truck unload process done at your store?

[regularguy]

I am new to Target having only worked here for less than one year.

What I am curious about is hearing from other merchandise flow team members how their truck unload process goes.

How many "throwers" do you have at your store?

Is it two people the entire time or is there a rotation?

 

[Circle9]

Currently, our unload goes like this:

• 2 unloaders/throwers in the truck with another person scanning
  
• 1 pacer to keep the line moving, pull PIPOs and pallets off the line; if we're short-staffed this is usually the TL or the ETL if they're in.
• 4 stackers each in their own bay
• 1person on the backside to grab the backstock and transition. If its a heavy load (like for the holidays), there's 2 people back here.
• 3-4 pallet pullers. They'll break out 2 or 3 areas (depending on how staffed we are, size of truck, amount of freight, etc) and stage the rest.

Unloaders stay the same through the whole truck; we have a couple people who are good at it and do it just about every truck, then a couple others who have done it a few times and can step up for call-ins or whatever. The problem being they're good at other areas (like backside) so those areas can falter if TMs get shuffled around. But then again, everyone on unload has their area they do all the time so if anyone's out, you get a backup who does it once a month or something.

 

[regularguy]

How often, if ever does your TL schedule only one thrower for any period of time, say half an hour.

Does this happen once a month for as little as half an hour?
Once a week?
Never?

 

[pleb]

2 in truck and one scanning
pacer usually comes 30 min into the unload
1 scanner
2 on backstock side
5-8 on the push side
usually unload a 2200-2400 in under 45 minutes

 

[K AA]

interesting , we have almost the same process that "Pleb" & "regular guy" mentioned but you guys mentioned scanners? what do they do ?
we don't have those in my store .

i am also surprised that you guys can unload 2200-2400 truck in 45 minutes. it takes us between 1:10 to 1:35 to .

 

[mrknownothing]

interesting , we have almost the same process that "Pleb" & "regular guy" mentioned but you guys mentioned scanners? what do they do ?
we don't have those in my store .

Does your store have a push-all process? If so, that would be why nobody scans your trucks. The scanner scans each box to see if it should be pushed or backstocked (based on the sales accumulator).

 

[SFSFun]

- 2 throwers/unloaders (1 guy does it every day, another guy and the TL take turns on different days, and any new TM does it their first week). If the unload is going slow, the TL will rotate one or both throwers.
- 1 person to push stuff down the conveyor/extend the conveyor/remove pallets if the pallet puller is busy.
- 1 regular scanner (doubles as the push stuff person if we are short staffed).
- 7 people cover each section, usually 3 pallets each (different TMs cover different sections each week). The TL also changes the contents and positions of the custom blocks regularly, depending on what products are in season.
- 1 person covering the back side (but the 7th section is also on the back so that TM helps with backstock as well).
- 1 pallet puller (regular guy or the TL).
- 3 TMs breaking out softlines, 1 in domestics, 1 in HBA (all regularly do the same thing every day). The TM who does combos is also covering a section on the line so he gets a late start.
- If we are well staffed (we're not), additional TMs will be bowling out Market.

Trucks have been pretty consistent in the 2500 range and it takes 60-75 minutes to unload on a good day.

 

[regularguy]

When you guys say conveyors do you mean rollers? Or some kind of automated roller system?
Also, are there ever instances when you have a single person "throwing" the truck? With a scanner and four people working the line?

 

[commiecorvus]

I've never seen one person throw a truck, seems a bit dangerous.

 

[semantics]

2 in truck and one scanning
pacer usually comes 30 min into the unload
1 scanner
2 on backstock side
5-8 on the push side
usually unload a 2200-2400 in under 45 minutes

How can you scanner keep up? Our scanner is limited by the speed of the scanner especially with backstop beeps and random times the scanner decides to take forever to process the scanned item.

We do it with
2 throwers,
1 scanner,
no pacer(the scanner, the 2 people closest on the backstock and push side also push the line down),
2 on backstop side,
4 on push side,
2-3 pullers our TL or ETL will jump in but it's 2 regular +1 sometimes.
The person on the push side who isn't getting many boxes currently(there is always one) pulls out bulk pallets from the truck.

We usually hit 2400 in 1:15. We can get that down to like an hour if we have a full time pacer to push the scanned stuff but our TL doesn't seem to think it's worth it.
If we scan like nothing and push everything we can throw the truck well under an hour, which we've done when the system is down or DC messes up the truck reports and scanning is pointless.

This really only works because everyone on the truck team are the same people all the time and know the line up and down back and forth. So we adjust to people moving up and down the line as well as switches sides jump to help backstock or push etc. Really it's hard not to get a workout with our truck.

Holiday time we usually have a pacer, 2 people on backstock always and 5 on push and 3 regular pullers. The only issue we have is if call outs happen the line can be understaffed quite quickly and the truck team shows up 30 mins earlier than the rest of the flow team so we've started trucks with just like 4 people for the whole line, 2 throwers, 1 scanner and 1 puller. It's not pretty.

 

[POGguy]

Best practice is to rotate throwers out every 30 minutes. Most stores I've been at have basically ignored that rule though. My current store has about 4-5 people that can throw the truck quick enough. The rest would just slow things down.

Only time I've seen one person throwing a truck is during 4th quarter taking a double. 2 in one truck, 1 in the second truck. And that was only when we unloaded both trailers at the same time. Most of the time we did one then the second.

 

[Flowmotion]

Push-all process: No scanner. No direct backstock.

Two unloaders, who rotate by switching sides every 30 min. Our unloaders are some young bucks filled with energy, they seem to thoroughly enjoy the morning exercise.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

I've never seen one person throw a truck, seems a bit dangerous.

That's precisely how the DC Inbound ART process works. If you think that's nuts, you should see some of the guys in Outbound around this time of year...one guy loading 9 or 10 trucks simultaneously.

 

[POGguy]

How long are those trucks staying open in outbound?

 

[incredulu]

2 in truck and one scanning
pacer usually comes 30 min into the unload
1 scanner
2 on backstock side
5-8 on the push side
usually unload a 2200-2400 in under 45 minutes

uhh are you sure you're unloading a 2400 truck in under 45 minutes...

It took us an 1:15 to unload a 1900 today.

2 Throwers
1 person to push stuff down the line
8 people on line to build pallets.

is my TL doing it wrong?

 

[LogisticsFox]

2 throwers (Almost always the same two)
1 runner/pusher
1 scanner (that won't push)
7-8 Push builders
1 general backstock
1 bulk, transition
2 bowlers/pallet swappers

We utilize a lot of custom blocks so that's why we have so many builders.

Our average unload time is 1:10 (average truck is 2400) but I'd love to go much faster. We're often bottlenecked at the scanner and none of the builders want to move advance the line.

 

[OhYouDidntKnow]

What's your breakout process?
Who does the bowling out?
Do they schedule TMs from other workcenters to bowl out and push?

 

[Wyvern]

We are an UHV that on average gets a truck from 2700-2900 every night except Saturday.

1 thrower
1 scanner
4 pallet builders
1 backstock
2 bowlers
2 breakout, 1 in HBA and 1 in Softlines

The TL is nowhere to be found most of the night, and when she is seen, she is eating lunch at lunch break.

 

[RandomRedShirt]

4 throwers ( since it's BRAND to cycle people out supposedly)
5 builders
2 back line usually
1 scanner
3 pullers

And 2 back room members bring black line left after the unload, pulls are usually done close enough that it's almost a seamless process to get it all back.

 

[Andosphere]

2 throwers
1 line pusher (we are push all)
4 front side of line, one person in each bay
2 backside
1 person pulling pipos
2-3 pallet pullers depending on how big the truck ISO
Usually takes us 1hr and 15 min to unload a 2200 piece truck as long as everything goes smoothly

 

[Noiinteam]

2 throwers
1 scanner
1 backside
4 frontside
1 bulk pusher (sometimes tl)
2 or 3 runner
3 softline
2 HBA
1 repacks
1 or 2 pet chem
1 or 2 market
The runners bowl, but if it's a heavy area, especially market we leave stuff on pallet because we can't get it pushed before store opens. Truck averages 2200 to 2500 6 am start usually done by 7:30 but shit happens, spills, a lot of pallets or callouts.

 

[SFSFun]

Why does it seem like a lot of stores have more than one pallet puller? One usually works out ok at my store. If we have two, there will be a lot of standing around until the TL notices and sends one to help on the backside or to go bowl market.

 

[POGguy]

Really depends on how your store handles the pallets after the unload. Some stores have a flow TM working the bulk pallets as they pull them off the truck. Those stores depending on the number of pallets they get will need two or more people for that. Other stores may simply stage the pallets until after the unload. They probably only need one and they are usually bowling out freight also.

My store has the truck throwers pull off the pallets. The scanner has to push the boxes down the line while scanning.

 

[SFSFun]

Now that I think about it, these days the only pallets that get pulled out are for market/pets/chem/paper/HBA and those are all on the same side of the store as the backroom. Everything else, including bulk gets staged dumped in the aisles right outside receiving.

 

[Ninjatosser]

I've worked at this super Target since mid July and been a tosser for the company in logistic we have never had 2 people toss truck at the same time one was on the line and the other was tossing at first it was good because we would switch off but especially lately it's been me most days and the only time I don't toss the truck is when it's my day off haha good work out but tossing 2300 plus unit trucks everyday is exhausting and it usually takes us 2 hours to unload because the line can't keep up or as the week goes I can't keep up..