Archived Logistics Query

[Bullseye Flow TM]

I mean this with the most respect possible (and a whole lot of humor!), but if your guys were all that great they wouldn't work on Flow team. We (meaning me, I have trouble making friends for some reason) play this game. I take pictures of huge messes and then you have to guess who made it. The game is called Vendor or Flow team. These are the jokes, folks. If Target didn't exist, Flow team would be that chain gang on Cool Hand Luke. Hello? Is this thing on? Please remember to tip your waitresses...

I'm truly offended by this even if it was in humor. I've had several positions during my retail experience & I prefer flow. If you had no flow where would your sales be? Where would you get your hours?

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Very funny. obviously you have no idea what's going on. Maybe you should work with flow team before you open your mouth. I guarantee you after a week you'll be beggin to go back to your workcenter.

Flow is not as easy a job as many think it to be. Thanks Leon. I agree. Very few would last on flow after working other positions.

Just a heads up... I worked flow for almost two years and I turned out alright! I find it funny that dayside people always are the first to throw stones at the flow team, but if they actually would take a few weeks to work truck, they would realize quick that it is not as easy as it sounds! Plus dayside does their fair share of mistakes too... whether they like to admit it or not!

Our STL from several years ago would mention at huddles that flow was the broken wheel at our Target. This did not help other's opinion of us. The part in bold is sad but true.

We had a 2900 piece truck the other night. In my store, 99.9% of dayside wouldnt stand a chance,and im not knocking them for the sake of dayside/overnight BS. Its just the truth, a lot of people complain about flow and o/n backroom, but its not as easy as most assume it is.

2 weeks ago we had a double. 4300 pieces. almost 20 pallets of blackline, plus floor backstock, after 13 hour pulls.

Oh, and being understaffed. Always fun.

Add to that call ins we might have. Our Flow isn't as understaffed as our backroom, though.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Any thoughts on why my 12:00 autofills are so huge?
Who knew Slow team was so sensitive? They look all big and burly but on the inside it's all ice cream and kittens.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

It should be team effort to resolve issues. Training in all areas is needed.
Stop blasting flow team, salesfloor can be guilty too. I have sf tm's who backstock ptm's because they dont want to flex into the area. I catch different tm's everyday doing it in bts.
On 12pm cafs, it could be due to sales between 8am & noon.

 

[Formina Sage]

Any thoughts on why my 12:00 autofills are so huge?
Who knew Slow team was so sensitive? They look all big and burly but on the inside it's all ice cream and kittens.

What's huge? We're a B volume store, our 12's are usually in the neighborhood of 45 batches. If you're pulling them yourself, they'll typically take about 50 minutes to pull. They're always the biggest pulls of the day but they're nowhere close to the size of say, a morning autofill or manual CAF.

 

[candyland]

Any thoughts on why my 12:00 autofills are so huge?
Who knew Slow team was so sensitive? They look all big and burly but on the inside it's all ice cream and kittens.

Sounds delicious!

 

[insiteful1]

FS, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 12:00 pull the only autofill that can pull EVERY fill group?

 

[coolcatmom]

I believe I would absolutely blow a major gasket if I caught my BR team burning the autofills. That is a crucial piece to filling the floor. Since your auto fills are based on the previous day's sales, I don't think that it would have a negative impact on the noon CAF but it will most definitely lower your store's sales. And ultimately, makes more work for the BR team member who does do the job correctly. There are some things my team uses good judgement on. Shelf capacities on furniture are seriously over-stated. If it asks for two bookcases they know to only pull one. Sounds like you have bigger issues going on in your store. Our autos run from 2700 eaches to 4100. They should start getting smaller for you soon. If your instocks team is not doing outs I think this could make them heavier.

As for the little crack about Flow, not cool. The old saying about "until you have walked a mile in their shoes" definitely applies. While it's true the flow team does need to have more sense than to just pick up a box and stock the floor, you just do not want anybody doing this. They need to be able to read and make judgement calls about transitions, PTMs and general salesfloor locations. They come in at the ass-crack of dawn or overnight to less than ideal conditions. Low-light, poor air conditioning (the store isn't open for business..) to push reshop from the previous night. They often deal with a sloppy zone, grouchy ETLs and Team Leaders and just general POOR team players. Everything going wrong is NOT flow's fault. One person's piss poor attitude can really bring the team down. Just sayin.

 

[Formina Sage]

FS, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 12:00 pull the only autofill that can pull EVERY fill group?

I wasn't aware that there were limitations as to how deep the autofills could pull. I'm sure most stores are the same where the 11:00 is just the "essential" pulls, market grocery pets paper, maybe another random thing. But after that I think anything goes, I've noticed the trend is usually 12's and 5's being the largest. But I don't think there's any sort of system limitation saying, for example, the 2's couldn't be 40 batches worth. It's all based on sales and what the accumulator needs to keep the floor full and impactful.

 

[Formina Sage]

And my stance on flow: I think the entire team often gets judged by the couple of jackasses that wank around and don't pull their weight. Every store has a couple. The majority of the flow team is either typically- or very- hard working!

 

[MisterLogistics]

I thought the 5pm's were suppose to be big, like the 12's, but today when I stayed over from 2pm-5:30pm because nobody was scheduled for the backroom during that time, (not a good idea cutting so many hours when it leaves you with ZERO coverage in areas that need to have coverage, huh Target?), only 8 batches dropped at 5pm, and I pulled them in six minutes.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Oh yeah, and I love cleaning up after the team that I "Set up for success" the night before.

 

[Going with the Flow]

Oh yeah, and I love cleaning up after the team that I "Set up for success" the night before.

Hmm sounds to me like YOUR team is the one that sucks, sorry.

 

[Formina Sage]

Hmm sounds to me like YOUR team is the one that sucks, sorry.

I think he means the AM backroom team, not the flow team. My store is the same way, they'll often leave early on non-truck days and not touch ANY of the backstock from the autofills. Sucks when you're the dayside backroom coming in at 10 to have no vehicles available because they all have backstock on them. Not to mention if the flow team has additional pallets to work that they didn't get to the previous day, then those will come back to be backstocked as well.

 

[Going with the Flow]

I think he means the AM backroom team, not the flow team. My store is the same way, they'll often leave early on non-truck days and not touch ANY of the backstock from the autofills. Sucks when you're the dayside backroom coming in at 10 to have no vehicles available because they all have backstock on them. Not to mention if the flow team has additional pallets to work that they didn't get to the previous day, then those will come back to be backstocked as well.

I know what he means.

 

[coolcatmom]

Makes me wonder when it because acceptable to leave push and backstock. I know it is happening but feel like that it's wrong of the leadership to think this is an acceptable practice these days.

We are in the business of selling product. We cannot sell it if the guests do not see it.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I agree with you on that one, cool :thumbsup:

 

[insiteful1]

Just a heads up... I worked flow for almost two years and I turned out alright! I find it funny that dayside people always are the first to throw stones at the flow team, but if they actually would take a few weeks to work truck, they would realize quick that it is not as easy as it sounds! Plus dayside does their fair share of mistakes too... whether they like to admit it or not!

The blame game sucks, but most of the problems on the floor of my store start at flow. SOME of the problems that occur dayside, on sales floor, are directly related to flow issues (OVERSTOCK!!!). With that being said, I don't complain openly to other team members. I talk daily with the FTL and let him/her know why he/she had 4 carts of overstock greeting him/her in the backroom the next day. I remind the FTL that if he/she does not reset the accumulator, it will just come back out in the pulls and the entire overstock/backstock procedure will be repeated the next day. I do this daily. Slowly, overstock problems are being corrected. The zone is improving. We are saving hours. It's easier for everyone.

Overstock is the main issue. If a space is filled waaaaaay beyond capacity, then the closing salesfloor shift, zones the overfill into the adjacent space (yes, I realize that is also a BIG problem, but that is another discussion). This creates several issues, 1) now there is a product not represented on the sales floor or hidden by overstock, 2) the instocks team has to spend more time searching for product hidden behind overstock, 3) the backroom now has a large quantity of the product that is not represented on the floor piling up in the backroom, which can be very annoying, 4) the instocks team could mistakenly change the OH numbers which creates problems across the board.

The amount of time and money that overstock creates is insane. Many, many problems can be corrected at the flow level. Are they all the problem? Heck no. Is it a hard job? Hell yes.

I'm about to make enemies, but whatever....this is the concrete truth in the stores I have worked in. The truth hurts. I am NOT a flow hater. Flow sometimes thinks they aren't the problem. In reality, much of it begins there. Salesfloor can help the flow process by pointing out the issues to the ETL or TL on a regular basis (please note that you are not going to tell them anything they did not already know). I take it 1 step further and have visual reminders waiting in the backroom every morning. I don't complain in front of team members about any flow issues because let's face it, I wouldn't have a job without them or I would be doing it myself......

 

[coolcatmom]

I agree that a lot of problems can start with flow. After having worked in many different positions, I know there are many ways apathetic team members can cause problems. From the flow team member who is just trying to get rid of whatever is in their hand to the night time zoner who really doesn't give a flip if it's zoned correctly, they just want to go home. Heck, even the cashier running reshop can be a menace if they have no idea where items go. Collective apathy is becoming detrimental to the well-being of our store.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Salesfloor tm's should correct & report issues. My team does, because I told them more than once.

 

[Rarejem]

I started as a flow team member and worked my way to tl. I CHOSE to go back to flow and instocks because I actually have an impact on filling the floor. Our flow team is respected as hard working, versatile, flexible, and dependable. Yes, there are a few that aren't of the same caliper as the rest just as I'm sure there are better parfait makers in the cafe, faster pull workers, quicker zoners and cashiers that get more redcards than anyone else. They are the largest team in most stores so there are more likely a proportionately larger number of people that don't work as hard.

With regard to overstock I completely agree that it is the beginning of most problems. However, it is not just the flow team that contributes to this. Reshoppers that don't want to backstock and salesfloor tms that work pulls and for some reason think that just because there is a casepack on the red the whole thing has to go out are just as much a part of the problem. It is a total team effort. Be a part of the team or you are a part of the problem.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I agree with rj. Being a trained team player is the key at spot.

 

[coolcatmom]

I agree with all of the above. It really takes a team. It's sad there will always be those on the team who don't care if they do well, they just want the paycheck. Better morale begins at home, if you know what I mean.

Plus, I think it really bothers some people when you walk in with a gung-ho, bee-boppin happy attitude. Doesn't really stop me though!

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I agree with all of the above. It really takes a team. It's sad there will always be those on the team who don't care if they do well, they just want the paycheck. Better morale begins at home, if you know what I mean.

Plus, I think it really bothers some people when you walk in with a gung-ho, bee-boppin happy attitude. Doesn't really stop me though!

I am the same way. The teeny bopper's just don't get it.