Archived Instocks question

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..at one store we were allowed to do RIGS even if truck is not finished being pushed...YET at another store, no rigs can be done unless truck is all pushed and backstocked...whats being done at your stores?

We are an overnight store so most of the time we are pushed by 6:30am. If we are not, we do the rigs that are zero's for creating rainchecks and enter the onhands for the others. If I'm not sure of the count, I skip it. It will be reissued the next day.
 
Best practices unsurprisingly states that all push and backstock should be complete as well as reshop. As we all know, hours don't typically allow for that and each store is going to have different outlooks. Being overnight, researchr's store can afford to be stricter to BP. Those stores that begin the truck unload at 6 and wrap up push(nevermind backstock) after noon... well- beggars can't be choosers.
 
That reminds me, how do skip a rig? Press capacity incorrect, too many to count or something else?
 
I'm at one of the 6 AM process stores. We recently got bumped from 4 AM to 6 AM and from an in-stocks stand point, I hate it. I had to shoot RIGs (in this order) Toys, Electronics, part of Domestics & Home Decor, part of dry grocery, HBA, Stationary/Small Apps, the rest of grocery, part of P-Fresh, Infant Gondolas, and Frozen. I still left a few RIGs in the gun because I either couldn't get by the TMs pushing or there were lots of flats waiting to be pushed and counts would've been in accurate. Would I be correct in saying that there are filters that know that "hey! there's a truck being pushed and these counts might not be right!"?
 
So heres the thing. Tasks list is supposed to be done by 12:00pm everyday. We are an ULV store, so we do rigs on truck days and heavy research on one day, and light research on the other. You can gather a lot of information by going to the instock option on the item search screen. You shoot a rig and discover that the count is off. A quick item search shows none in the backroom and the last time one came in was two weeks ago. If the count is off by 1 and its a low dollar item, I'll change the count. However, if it seems fishy, I'll discuss it with the TL. We never waited on rigs because of freight. Hell, we don't even wait on research cause of autofills.

Its stupid, but if you understand the process you can mitigate a lot of issues. I've heard hitting "bad zone" will often get certain TLs chewed out. I don't normally do it, but I did find myself confirming bad zones in areas of one particular TL. Capacity incorrect seems to be a fairly safe bet. I've used it many times, especially in candy. I just don't understand why the system believes 100 bags of snickers will fit on one shelf. I've never been told anything bad about it.

At one point, they wanted instock blood bad. Reason was because we were correcting counts and they were appearing on the drastic count report. One ETL even told us we weren't allowed to change counts with out their permission. After a "chat" in which I explained that if he feels that way, perhaps the ETLs should do their own research, he told me not to change any counts. The instock team talked it over and instead of changing counts, we wrote them down and handed them to our TL. The TL never checked up on them and we had a surprise visit. The next day, we were back in the office being read our instock best practice. When he asked if we had any questions, I pointed out that BP is to have a freight pushed and backstock. If that wasn't being done by the time they wanted us to research, then we were already unable to do our job anyways. There were people getting "chatted" every where. Eventually, they shut up about it and let us get back to our process.
 
My store is a 6am store..Instocks comes in at 8am..we do PTMs..pull the PTMs and then we push auto fills on the line..we then proceed to RIGs..get everything pulled do what Research we can and stop at noon..this is on non-truck days. Also our Instocks is under Logistics here...on truck days its PTMs and then push with flow..when all is done and backstocked then RIGs...Monday PTMs and red label placing is done by a POG team member...we also have to count our grey dots we use...we are always pressured on the non-truck days/research days to try to scan the entire store and we have only 2 people to do this..lol..and of course after ptms rigs and auto pulls.../sigh
 
That reminds me, how do skip a rig? Press capacity incorrect, too many to count or something else?

There is a "skip" button on screen, I choose capacity incorrect for Rigs on endcaps that no longer exist or if the capacity really is incorrect (shelf bracket issue, etc.) If you choose label missing, it will prompt you to print one. I have also used bad zone a few times.
 
My store is a 6am store..Instocks comes in at 8am..we do PTMs..pull the PTMs and then we push auto fills on the line..we then proceed to RIGs..get everything pulled do what Research we can and stop at noon..this is on non-truck days. Also our Instocks is under Logistics here...on truck days its PTMs and then push with flow..when all is done and backstocked then RIGs...Monday PTMs and red label placing is done by a POG team member...we also have to count our grey dots we use...we are always pressured on the non-truck days/research days to try to scan the entire store and we have only 2 people to do this..lol..and of course after ptms rigs and auto pulls.../sigh
Wow! That is awful! I can't even...
 
Current day truck and autofills have count filters that prevent updating them, you can test this yourself if you doubt this. Count adjustments over $100 in value or 4 casepacks do not update either, they go to your drastic count report. Items with multiple locations on 2 or more pogs cannot be updated unless you go to both locations and adjust it. So unless your zone is terrible there is no reason not to change counts. Not doing research because trucks are not complete is unproductive, but there are enough safety nets in place if you use your task list that you won't reorder the whole store. These rules apply to general merchandise trucks. Fdc trucks do not have truck filters as far as I know so proceed with caution there.
 
Current day truck and autofills have count filters that prevent updating them, you can test this yourself if you doubt this. Count adjustments over $100 in value or 4 casepacks do not update either, they go to your drastic count report. Items with multiple locations on 2 or more pogs cannot be updated unless you go to both locations and adjust it. So unless your zone is terrible there is no reason not to change counts. Not doing research because trucks are not complete is unproductive, but there are enough safety nets in place if you use your task list that you won't reorder the whole store. These rules apply to general merchandise trucks. Fdc trucks do not have truck filters as far as I know so proceed with caution there.

It is true that all these filters plus the drastic count report are so we don't have to worry about changing counts, but if the change isn't drastic, it will go through and it will be wrong. It is a fine line we walk. We are expected to be both fast and accurate. Not always possible.
 
I'm not sure they're listed on workbench but I have a spreadsheet of them that I can try and post if I remember.

Basically, if an item is on a DCI (truck) in the last 48 hours, if an item is located in the stockroom or has been pulled in the last 24 hours, if an item is part of a new planogram set or an MPG planogram, there are a handful more of them that I'm not remembering.
 
Quality of reasearch is your priority with no outs scans in your task list. So account for all your filters and what is left, bad push or bad zone. If you zero out to much stuff under $100 it will adjust counts and show up on your shortage indicator and then the problems start for your in stocks team. So if your zone or push is really bad in a given aisle(tooth brushes or dog collars for example) pass on research and let someone zone it to pog first. If the zone is ok spend a little time looking in the aisle for it. Even the worst flow team can usaully get the aisle its in right. Other than that if the item is not there, its not there. Lastly in the real world if you zero out a bag of dog food and its physically misplaced in your building, you will eventually find it and sell it so its not actual shortage. What you did was order more of it. Its only a problem if you repeat that error on the same item multiple times which can create an issue when it gets clearanced and you blew the on hands up. The real slippery slope is buying into not researching and doing count adjustments because of red shortage indicators and your stores acceptance of bad zoning and bad push on your truck.
 
While we're on the subject of instocks, has anyone else has their DC do a mispick on something very high dollar? For example we have the 60-inch LED Sharp on our TV wall and we had a guest request one so when we had it pulled from our stockroom the backroom TM came walking up with a box very long but very thin and said, "This doesn't look like a tv, but it's what the pic label said it was so I brought it out." Turns out there were snowboards inside but the DC had entered 1 tv into our DCI so naturally our on-hand said we had 2 eaches of the tv, when we had 1 but 6 unaccounted for snowboards lol. Backroom missed the mispic when it came in on the truck so it got backstocked that way. When one does a mispick does anyone know how long it's supposed to take for the corrected counts to update? I've almost lost all hope of our DC handling electronics merch correctly, this is just one example, another is the camera that they supposedly sent us, but never showed. Is this a common instocks/DC issue? Any input is very appreciated! Love all the bright minds I can come to on the site!! Thanks in advance guys!
 
Yes, and I find it more in bulk item pallets in grocery that add up in dollar value too. Seems like the DC knows stores are scarred to process drastic count findings or do zone 9 audits or process mispicks because they flag the shortage indicator. Once you go red on the indicator all your leadership goes into stop adjusting counts mode, which is the opposite of what stores should be doing. And if your district or region AP person only cares about shoplifters and internal apps you become powerless to fight this. Thats why I encourage in stocks people to do adjustments especially when the dollar amount is over $100 dollars, you force the issue to be addressed with the only tool you have.
 
Thanks rugrat! That's exactly what I'm doing. Not only does it make sure people take notice and address it but it also makes sure that the DC is forced to actually send us the product we were supposed to receive in the first place(in theory anyways). Seems like recently within the past 6 months or so more and more mispicks and item not received issues have been cropping up from our DC. We submit trailer feedback forms, but I wonder if anyone actually takes them into account at the DC or if they have time to address them due to increased pressure to get trailers loaded and out quicker. Glad to hear it's not an isolated issue though, I'd love to tour a DC sometime to see how boxes are labeled and how trailers are loaded, I've heard repack sortation is something that needs to be seen in action according to our ETL-Logistics.
 
@Hero4sale. Yes they didn't want me to change the OHs at first neither.

@rugrat Why would problems start for the instocks team? If the item is not there it's not there.
 
Why would problems start for the instocks team? If the item is not there it's not there.

It would result in red scores. The purpose of the Instocks process is to maintain accurate inventory and expose problems (poor zone, outstanding push/backstock/re-shop, burned CAFs) that would affect the replenishment process. Many ETLs and STLs see red and freak out instead of actually trying to figure out what's causing the red score.

Example: Scans with Locations. In many stores, TMs are instructed to shoot EXFs for items that are located in the backroom rather than researching it the normal way because leadership doesn't want to have a red scans w/ loc score. In this situation, EXF is like treating the symptoms rather than the cause of the illness. The EXF only pulls the items one time to fill in a hole on the sales floor, and in many cases, it screws up the accumulator.
 
QUESTION regarding RIGs: Why don't they match capacity to the location so that I can accurately assess whether the capacity is correct without chasing down every location and adding them up to see if the capacity is correct???? It makes me crazy!! How do you handle this?
 
QUESTION regarding RIGs: Why don't they match capacity to the location so that I can accurately assess whether the capacity is correct without chasing down every location and adding them up to see if the capacity is correct???? It makes me crazy!! How do you handle this?

I do a store tie does that help you?
 
QUESTION regarding RIGs: Why don't they match capacity to the location so that I can accurately assess whether the capacity is correct without chasing down every location and adding them up to see if the capacity is correct???? It makes me crazy!! How do you handle this?

I do a store tie does that help you?

No. Batteries are probably the easiest example of what I mean. If you get a rig at, say B25, the capacity shown will be for all of the batteries in the store - not just for that location. So one of the options for skipping the RIG is "capacity incorrect". In order to know if the capacity is correct you theoretically have to go to all locs on the floor to figure out how many will fit out all together. (Think of checklane RIGs, RIGs for salesplans - especially if they are at the end of an aisle which is also the home location, etc.) The capacity shown should be for just the location you are asked to scan in order to easily scan RIGs and correctly determine why you cannot scan a RIG, IMO. Sometimes a location COULD have the correct capacity, but the shelf above it is too low to completely fill the location or there is a post or some other obstruction. A package could have a bonus size or "free" item attached which changes the capacity.
 
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That is a good point actually... The fact that the RIG shows the total floor capacity isn't very value added... It would be much more helpful to display that single locations capacity!
 
ahh that's how that works. I would look at the rig and say "100+ IN THIS LOCATION REALLY?" This needs to be changed.
 
very helpful reading as i'm just starting as a flow tm. i know i need to more training as im going in a blind person as were setting up new store and i'm on asset protection for our planarama so this site has helped a lot to learn more on my responsibilities for the future.
 
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