Archived I am a new in role ETL Logistics out of college. What advice do you have for me?

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First off, welcome. Let me begin by telling you that everything you said in your post, it means exactly -nothing-. You were hired out of college as an etl with a few reasons. First, target hired you as a college grad because they want to mold you into their brand image. What that campus recruiter didn't tell you, is that Target isn't really a place where you make decisions and own a business, it's a place where you will do what your STL and DTL tell you to do. If it's isn't best practice, it isn't what you will be doing, or most likely you will quickly find yourself out of a job.

You will be given unreasonable expectations, and then expected to hold your team accountable to these expectations. If you challenge your peers and leader saying that what they expect is unreasonable, you will either be labeled as someone who isn't "in it to win it" or some other bullshit phrase that is in that week. From here, you're pretty much targeted for removal. You will most likely be given a broken store, with an even more broken flow process and expected to fix it. If you last 6 months without quitting from burnout or getting fired for cursing out your (clueless) stl, it will be impressive. You will consistently have your hands tied. You will have minimal staffing to move mountains.

If you land a decent STL who has a clue, kudos. Your life will be great and everything I just said is irrelevant.

Are you still here? Great. Now let me tell you how you avoid this.


I'll just give you the quick and dirty bullet points of what my 10 logistics years has taught me.

From the leadership side;

- MOST IMPORTANTLY - You are a fresh ETL. Your team will not view you in a positive light. Most people in your position bring immediate (and usually negative) change. Give it a few weeks. See your process, ASK your team how they feel. Make sure what you view as wins and opps is in line with what your team views. If it isn't where is the disconnect? Create opportunities for them to teach you things. Don't be afraid to ask them for help, and make sure you tell them that you trust their ability and you are genuinely interested in learning from them to make things better.
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.
- You WILL be forced to choose between your team members/team leader and your stl. Spin is everything. If they actually need to be coached/performanced out, then do it. If they don't, take their side. Stick to your guns.
- Motivation means exactly nil to a flow team. It's a diverse group of individuals who will be nearly impossible to motivate as a team. Flow teams are motivated by 3 things. Money, more hours, and anything they can consume in large quantities. Get yourself a Pcard, you'll be using it.
- Unexpected small gestures are FAR more effective than incentives (bribes). For example, saying "if you finish this task, I will do xyz" This creates an expectation, and lowers your quality of work. Instead, when your team does a good job, even if it's just a few team members, grab some donuts or some dollar menu breakfast sandwiches, Bring them in and pull those team members aside and say "hey, I really appreciate everything you did on Monday. I got you some grub in the breakroom, why don't you take 5 and grab some." It creates a personal tie between you and your team, and lets them know that you see when they put in the effort without creating incentives. It's also genuine.
- Which logistics process (overnight, 4am, 6am, 730am) will factor greatly into how your process is run, and your success. Pray to god you don't land a 730am store. I am currently in one, and it is extremely difficult to be successful with the barriers that an open store places in front of you.
- You are a co-leader. Do not leave your team leaders to rot on the process while you sit in the office doing "paperwork." You have a 50 hour work week. Those extra 10 hours are when you do that. The other 40 are for leading. Your team leaders will almost assuredly have a better rapport with the team than you. If you burn them, they will bury you inside of a year.
- You can't push and backstock a truck by yourself. Your team members will do the bulk of the work. Remember that whenever you speak, it should be with their perceptions in mind.
- Take care of your planogram/pricing team/team leader. If it means sacrificing your logistics process once in a while to help them with major transitions, it's worth it. Plano TM's are usually tenured, versatile, and dependable. They will pay you back tenfold when you're in a bad place taking a double. If you have a poor planogram team, ignore this.
- Communication is VERY important. You, your team leader, your stl, and team members should always be on the same page. Always. Take great pains to ensure this is always the case.
- Be lenient and reasonable with your team, but also move on poor performers quickly. Attendance issues can be grey, but slow/poor performance isn't. Coach x 3, Corrective, Coach x 3, Final, Coach x1, Terminate. Poor performers create a negative rift in your team.

From a process side;

- If you can, when an area is done being pushed, break a backroom trained flow TM off to go backstock it quickly and return to the floor. This reduces movement in your backroom and keeps it clean and efficient. More junk sitting around means more steps. Steps = wasted time.
- Your unload is the most important part of your process. A truck is 6 panels. No single truck should ever take more than 60 minutes to unload. Keep a water cooler/cold water in the back for your unloaders and keep them fueled. Set up 3 unloaders, rotate every 15 minutes, No one person is ever unloading for more than 30m. Use the third person to stand at front of the roller and make sure it is constantly clear so your throwers never have to stop or turn around. This person also pulls the pallets out of the truck so your unloaders don't stop. If the line isn't always 100% full, you aren't moving fast enough.
- Don't ever, EVER, underestimate trash. Someone should be doing cardboard/trash within 30 minutes of the time you start pushing. At the end of the day you will be doing the trash if you don't do this. Trash time is hot, dirty, and conducive to bitchy negativity. It will burn you out. Avoid this as much as possible.
- Be realistic. There will be days where you simply can't be successful with your resources. If you know you won't finish, be strategic and finish what you can 100%. Make a plan to get current within 24 hours. This means push AND backstock.

Best of luck, and hopefully you come back with any more questions!
 
@60SecondsRemaining that has to be some of the most cogent, well written and thoughtful advice for a logistics leader I've seen.
Thank you.
At least 2 GTCs for that.
 
60SecondsRemaining said:
First off, welcome. Let me begin by telling you that everything you said in your post, it means exactly -nothing-. You were hired out of college as an etl with a few reasons. First, target hired you as a college grad because they want to mold you into their brand image. What that campus recruiter didn't tell you, is that Target isn't really a place where you make decisions and own a business, it's a place where you will do what your STL and DTL tell you to do. If it's isn't best practice, it isn't what you will be doing, or most likely you will quickly find yourself out of a job.

You will be given unreasonable expectations, and then expected to hold your team accountable to these expectations. If you challenge your peers and leader saying that what they expect is unreasonable, you will either be labeled as someone who isn't "in it to win it" or some other bullshit phrase that is in that week. From here, you're pretty much targeted for removal. You will most likely be given a broken store, with an even more broken flow process and expected to fix it. If you last 6 months without quitting from burnout or getting fired for cursing out your (clueless) stl, it will be impressive. You will consistently have your hands tied. You will have minimal staffing to move mountains.

If you land a decent STL who has a clue, kudos. Your life will be great and everything I just said is irrelevant.

Are you still here? Great. Now let me tell you how you avoid this.


I'll just give you the quick and dirty bullet points of what my 10 logistics years has taught me.

From the leadership side;

- MOST IMPORTANTLY - You are a fresh ETL. Your team will not view you in a positive light. Most people in your position bring immediate (and usually negative) change. Give it a few weeks. See your process, ASK your team how they feel. Make sure what you view as wins and opps is in line with what your team views. If it isn't where is the disconnect? Create opportunities for them to teach you things. Don't be afraid to ask them for help, and make sure you tell them that you trust their ability and you are genuinely interested in learning from them to make things better.
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.
- You WILL be forced to choose between your team members/team leader and your stl. Spin is everything. If they actually need to be coached/performanced out, then do it. If they don't, take their side. Stick to your guns.
- Motivation means exactly nil to a flow team. It's a diverse group of individuals who will be nearly impossible to motivate as a team. Flow teams are motivated by 3 things. Money, more hours, and anything they can consume in large quantities. Get yourself a Pcard, you'll be using it.
- Unexpected small gestures are FAR more effective than incentives (bribes). For example, saying "if you finish this task, I will do xyz" This creates an expectation, and lowers your quality of work. Instead, when your team does a good job, even if it's just a few team members, grab some donuts or some dollar menu breakfast sandwiches, Bring them in and pull those team members aside and say "hey, I really appreciate everything you did on Monday. I got you some grub in the breakroom, why don't you take 5 and grab some." It creates a personal tie between you and your team, and lets them know that you see when they put in the effort without creating incentives. It's also genuine.
- Which logistics process (overnight, 4am, 6am, 730am) will factor greatly into how your process is run, and your success. Pray to god you don't land a 730am store. I am currently in one, and it is extremely difficult to be successful with the barriers that an open store places in front of you.
- You are a co-leader. Do not leave your team leaders to rot on the process while you sit in the office doing "paperwork." You have a 50 hour work week. Those extra 10 hours are when you do that. The other 40 are for leading. Your team leaders will almost assuredly have a better rapport with the team than you. If you burn them, they will bury you inside of a year.
- You can't push and backstock a truck by yourself. Your team members will do the bulk of the work. Remember that whenever you speak, it should be with their perceptions in mind.
- Take care of your planogram/pricing team/team leader. If it means sacrificing your logistics process once in a while to help them with major transitions, it's worth it. Plano TM's are usually tenured, versatile, and dependable. They will pay you back tenfold when you're in a bad place taking a double. If you have a poor planogram team, ignore this.
- Communication is VERY important. You, your team leader, your stl, and team members should always be on the same page. Always. Take great pains to ensure this is always the case.
- Be lenient and reasonable with your team, but also move on poor performers quickly. Attendance issues can be grey, but slow/poor performance isn't. Coach x 3, Corrective, Coach x 3, Final, Coach x1, Terminate. Poor performers create a negative rift in your team.

From a process side;

- If you can, when an area is done being pushed, break a backroom trained flow TM off to go backstock it quickly and return to the floor. This reduces movement in your backroom and keeps it clean and efficient. More junk sitting around means more steps. Steps = wasted time.
- Your unload is the most important part of your process. A truck is 6 panels. No single truck should ever take more than 60 minutes to unload. Keep a water cooler/cold water in the back for your unloaders and keep them fueled. Set up 3 unloaders, rotate every 15 minutes, No one person is ever unloading for more than 30m. Use the third person to stand at front of the roller and make sure it is constantly clear so your throwers never have to stop or turn around. This person also pulls the pallets out of the truck so your unloaders don't stop. If the line isn't always 100% full, you aren't moving fast enough.
- Don't ever, EVER, underestimate trash. Someone should be doing cardboard/trash within 30 minutes of the time you start pushing. At the end of the day you will be doing the trash if you don't do this. Trash time is hot, dirty, and conducive to bitchy negativity. It will burn you out. Avoid this as much as possible.
- Be realistic. There will be days where you simply can't be successful with your resources. If you know you won't finish, be strategic and finish what you can 100%. Make a plan to get current within 24 hours. This means push AND backstock.

Best of luck, and hopefully you come back with any more questions!
Click to expand...

Very nicely worded and very helpful.

I read it to tune of this song:


But trust me, on the sunscreen.
 
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.

Do they expect a new ETL to fix it or do they just wanna see if you don't get overwhelmed?
 
konk said:
"Breaks must be taken as close to the middle of a 4 hour period as possible and cannot be saved or combined."
Click to expand...

When I was overnight, flow would take lunch together about 3 hours after they started, then they'd take a 30-min break (2 combined 15-min breaks) a couple hours later. Also, they generally worked 8-hour shifts.
 
mrknownothing said:
konk said:
"Breaks must be taken as close to the middle of a 4 hour period as possible and cannot be saved or combined."
Click to expand...

When I was overnight, flow would take lunch together about 3 hours after they started, then they'd take a 30-min break (2 combined 15-min breaks) a couple hours later. Also, they generally worked 8-hour shifts.
Click to expand...


That's the way it was done for years at my store.
Flow and Plano both combined their 15 into a half hour.
It wasn't til a new HR ETL came in and freaked out that they split up the breaks.
Productivity dropped like a rock.
 
konk said:
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.

Do they expect a new ETL to fix it or do they just wanna see if you don't get overwhelmed?
Click to expand...
Logistics tends to be a high churn position due to high stress and sometimes unreasonable demands. They don't want to see you fail, but the assumption is that a process is broken because of the etl. Usually this isn't the case, most processes break because of poor communication through levels and lack of routines in a store. To a fresh hire, its easier to find a new job than to try and cross what must seem like insurmountable hurdles. Basically you need an experienced person to run a solid replenishment process. Adding an inexperienced leader just keeps the cycle going, and most new leaders don't have the forethought to reach out to market level leaders (group ops lead) or other stores to ask for real help. Don't be afraid to ask another etl or even a group level leader to spend a week in your store. These people have real experience and can offer you a great deal of assistance. They are also usually willing to put the time in with you if you ask.
 
Consistency, respect for TMs, TLs. Listen to the TLs, best practice might sound amazing but some stores don't fit the mold, and TLs know exactly what works. Get involved with the process from time to time. My one mentor, 14 years with Target, was too involved with the process while another ETL, 5 years with Target, had a better process and didn't bust his back at all. It's easy to get burnt out, especially if you are overnight. But since you are straight out of college, assuming you don't have a wife and/or kids, the long hours won't bother you.
 
Last edited:
konk said:
- First assignment log etls are rare. Target views you as high potential. Don't screw it up. They will give you a broken store. This is almost an assurance.

Do they expect a new ETL to fix it or do they just wanna see if you don't get overwhelmed?
Click to expand...

I was going to say that our first assignment ETL-LOG didn't inherit a broken logistics process... but I forgot how terrible flow was when she first got here. She got the best backroom in the district, though, so I guess it evened out?
 
StackerMistress said:
I was going to say that our first assignment ETL-LOG didn't inherit a broken logistics process... but I forgot how terrible flow was when she first got here. She got the best backroom in the district, though, so I guess it evened out?
Click to expand...

I was a first assignment ETL-LOG that inherited a complacent team that thought they were still living the glory days. Some thought working overnight meant getting paid to socialize, work at their own pace, or that they could take breaks whenever they wanted (which they did with the prior ETL). We went from consistently 8th/9th out of 10 in the district to 3rd in all areas. It sucked getting there and took a lot of hours to do so. Tip from my trainer - if the process is broken, fire anyone stopping you from improving it. He fired 90% of his team and after a year he no longer had to work overnight with them because they were self-sufficient. His team was always solid GREEN!
 
ADVICE FROM A 10-YEAR SrTL,

YOU ARE THE LEADER, BE ONE.
NEVER COMPROMISE ON YOUR LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES.
ALWAYS SUPPORT THE LEADERSHIP.
LISTEN TO YOUR TEAM LEADERS.
MAKE A DECISION AND BE SURE TO BACK IT UP.
RECOGNIZE TOP PERFOMING TMS AND WORK CLOSELY WITH NEED OPPORTUNITY TMS.
DELAGATE AND VERIFY.
I COULD GO ON AND ON BUT I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE I CAN GIVE IS LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.
OH AND, COFFEE AND DONUTS ONCE IN A WHILE WOULDN'T HURT.
 
Hopefully you have had some type of experience doing this type of job before. If not good luck. I seen alot of trainee come and go in our store on how to be an TL for the flow.

Always be fair and don't play fav's. People can tell.
Never ask someone to do something you wont do.
Don't treat people like crap. You still got baby powder on and no one likes a smart ass kid.
Never ever and i mean never tell someone they dont work.
Have people work in one area. So they will get to know that area.
Rotate the people in the truck. The person on the right always works harder then the person on the left.

@TOFST: OH AND, COFFEE AND DONUTS ONCE IN A WHILE WOULDN'T HURT
We get that every week. It's doeesn't make up for all the BS we have to put up with all week.
 
I know it increases productivity, but is it fair to put people in the same areas everyday? Some freight has more packaging, so you have a longer time limit, but it is more hassle.
 
konk said:
I know it increases productivity, but is it fair to put people in the same areas everyday? Some freight has more packaging, so you have a longer time limit, but it is more hassle.
Click to expand...

I agree. A hole in this logic is when people call out. For example, your HBA sorter called out, now what? Soft lines is heavy and only 5 people know soft lines. What happens when 2 of those people call out? Your unloaders are missing, who's going to unload the truck? Solution: Train everyone everywhere, otherwise people feel that their only job is to push this or that and don't want to help others later in the night. I had to break up the "Upstairs Team". They thought their only job was to push upstairs. "Thanks guys, but the entire upstairs is less than 10% of the truck, get your ass downstairs". They got pissed when I put them on the truck or on the downstairs unload line, BS. I had one TM who only knew how to push stationary, she was with Target for 13 years.

Unloaders - Rotate them! Not only every 30 mins or so, but every night. It is everyone's job to unload the truck, so think about that when hiring. Don't hire someone who can't unload the truck. Some of the female/older TMs unloaded faster/better than young men.

Don't get too involved with the process. Do some here or there but don't always get down in the weeds. You are paid to run the process, not do the process. How can you tell how things are going if you're deep into unloading the truck or pushing an aisle by yourself?

Recognize hard workers! Respect your TMs, hold everyone accountable.
 
Id like to say good luck.. its going to be a huge challenge because Ill bet most of your team has been there awhile and has a set routine that they wont like being changed. I agree with almost everything people are saying .. especially about the expectations of getting something for doing something. we had a huge problem in our store.. "if you unload by this time ill get you a drink" etc. I dont know all of our LOG process but I know most of it we actually have two new LOG tl's so they are learning and tweaking and making good/weird changes . Its been interesting..

Our repack process is normally two people set up a huge horseshoe right at the checklanes. The repacks are pulled off the line at the front of the truck and put onto a flat which one of the two people will bring up to the cheklanes and they sort everything there (except electronics). once they are done they distribute the carts and start in one area and push. these tm's are very experienced and do it everyday so they are very fast. Sometimes if the truck is smaller the wave will push carts also.

We have two sets of flow one team comes in at 4 one at 4:30 pretty much everyone that comes in at 4 works on the unload and the rest are bowlers. they generally put 2 people in A/B to bowl, 2 people in G one person in F, 1-2 people in C&D and one person starts of in infants right away. 3-4 people doing the SL breakout Also they make them use shopping carts instead of picking up one box at a time.. etc

some of the biggest mistakes I see being made are making the same people do the same job everyday and not training other people for it. So if they are off or quit your screwed. People get sick of it and like to move around. it will make them happier.
Dont show favoritism.
recognition and thank you are the others. Its so hard to keep people positive and expect them to push 1 minute per box. (i personally feel that 1min. per box is excessive in most cases but whatever)
Finally, show the team your willing to work along side them. I dont ask my tm's to do anything that I wont do.. yes i hate resetting shoes but I do it. I especially hate resetting in domestics but I am right there with them . My team loves working with me and they all say its because I actually work and I don't ask them to do something I wouldn't do. I dont play favorites and i dont go around begging people to do their job. they know my expectations and they know I will "coach" them if i have to. If you coach Mary for call offs you better coach Dan, even though he works way harder than mary. they know.. dont ever think that they dont share information between each other.
 
So I went into a huge mess yesterday and the TL said it was because they got a 2400 piece truck and only had 15 flow TMs. Is it one minute per case once the truck has been bowled? We can't bowl the whole truck because we're 6 am. How many minutes per case when working off flats?
 
konk said:
So I went into a huge mess yesterday and the TL said it was because they got a 2400 piece truck and only had 15 flow TMs. Is it one minute per case once the truck has been bowled? We can't bowl the whole truck because we're 6 am. How many minutes per case when working off flats?
Click to expand...
I still hold my team to 60s per case when not bowled. As long as they are set up correctly it goes. Set up means trash cages and backstock vehicles nearby and accessible. When bowling in 4th quarter I hold my team to much stricter deadlines. 30s per case and 60s per case in market because of fifo.
 
well from what I "heard" 6 am process works like a 4am except everyone in the store pushes from 6-8 like plano and pricing. we havent gone that route so I couldnt tell you for sure. maybe more people could tell ya.. i hope!
 
Good luck getting anyone other than flow to push even one box at my store. When we started 6am we were told everyone would help push for an hour...never happened.
 
for the past year everyone that is in the store at 7am pushes a section.. we always ended up pushing C & D or "blue world" that changed recently and we do smart huddle from 7-8 and then 44 from 8-9:30 we dont push truck. the flow team pretty much gets it done except for repack carts most times by 8. our team comes in at 4
 
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