Archived M.I.R.'s, start to finish

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I am working with a new team member on how to help complete M.I.R.'s in a timely manner and was wondering if anyone had any advice or tips to help us out!

I am afraid it is taking our store too long to wrap them up, how long on average does your store spend with M.I.R.'s? Say from pull time to the time they are tossed or boxed up for shipping?

Thanks for the vibe!!
 
From my standpoint of a AAA+ SHV store with an average of 20-25 MIR's per week, about 6 hours average. For a typical B/A volume store, maybe 3-4 hours? But keep in mind there are usually way too many variations that prevent a true actual average from week to week.

Just some examples that might cause a dramatic increase in time would be:

1. High counts from Dept 59. (Levy/Readerlink)
2. More MIR's that end up with a CRC deposition, requiring a re-scan of everything as it is boxed up.
3. Dept. 37 MIR's (Sunscreen/suntan) which require more time spent with ESIM processing.
4. MIR's for the salesfloor either wasn't done or done incorrectly, affecting OH counts for the MIR and usually end up having to re-sort and re-count all items and adjust them on the L/PDA.
5. M&M MIR's: ... Someone decided not to take off all the jewel cases from the DVD's, requiring you to waste time taking ALL of them off yourself.
6. NOP/Transition MIR's: Large high counts may be involved and just end up requiring more time to process everything.
7. Recall MIR's: Due to the time/accuracy sensitivity of these MIR's, they end up just needing more attention. For example, when there was the huge Tylenol recall, you had recalled product coming everyday from everywhere: As freight from the DC's that was loaded before the hard-lock kicked into place, from the backroom, from the salesfloor, and the constant returns from guest services that usually end up getting tossed all together in a cart and brought back, requiring you to sort through all the DPCI's and manually add them into your 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc finish of the MIR.

Some basic advice would be:

1. Save all the Levy/Readerlink boxes, either from DSD check-in or from DC pushes. It makes doing all the book returns much easier without having to worry about finding larger boxes for these that are durable enough to handle 50+ lbs of books inside of it. Use a single layer of packing first on the box, and then put the pilfer-proof tape on top of that. It will vastly improve the odds of the seal breaking from the heavy load of books.
2. Save all the address/contacts on the FedEx site from all the MIR's. A lot of MIR's usually end up using the same vendor and address over time, and being able to quickly select the vendor and have it auto-fill the rest of the information in saves a lot of time. Be wary, some vendors like Sony or Paramount use the same name, but different addresses for a lot of the returns. Just make sure to double check between the packing list you print out and the saved addresses. You are able to save the same name of vendors under multiple addresses, and the FedEx site will usually do that for you. There might be multiple saves of 'Paramount' for example, but each one has a different address.
3. Print out all the MIR's with the Header and Item Detail sheets stapled together. Whomever is pulling the backroom batches, have them write the MIR number on the outside of the repack and also toss in the Header/Item detail sheet with it. It makes referencing much quicker, and when the salesfloor completes their batches, you can quickly sort and toss it in the appropriate repack since they are already numbered.

Forgot to note, with the approach of the holidays, the Quality/Recall MIR count increases. Why? All the toy recalls, ranging from lead paint, choking hazards, etc. Remember, all QA MIR's must be completed WITHIN 24 hours of dropping into the system. Also, normal MIR's will stop dropping into the system for the month of December freeing up more time for all departments. Quality/Recall MIR's ignore this rule and WILL STILL DROP INTO THE SYSTEM. MIR's resume their normal schedule beginning the first week of January.
 
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I have also found if you use the American Greeting card boxes that contain the holiday cards, (ie, fathers day, Easter, Christmas, mother's day) They are very sturdy and will hold the weight, and they also have holes in the ends of the boxes to pick them up. Just ask you greeting card person to save them for you.
 
The Xcell boxes (the ones with the yellow and red tape) that contain all the baseball cards, Magic the Gathering, etc up at the front-end work extremely well too.
 
Thank you for the words of wisdom.

My concern now is the girl in R/RL wants to pull both SF and B/R to ensure she is getting all the product, she claims it is easier to piece together the MIRs, but I fear it is so time consuming for one person to do this.

But I am going to allocate 4 hours one day for just MIR and 4 hours the next day to ensure they are 100%, we seem to average 15 mirs a week, with 5-10 QAs. I hope we are able to be complete with weekly MIRs by Friday!!!

Wish us luck! Or her, lol.
 
Thank you for the words of wisdom.

My concern now is the girl in R/RL wants to pull both SF and B/R to ensure she is getting all the product, she claims it is easier to piece together the MIRs, but I fear it is so time consuming for one person to do this.

But I am going to allocate 4 hours one day for just MIR and 4 hours the next day to ensure they are 100%, we seem to average 15 mirs a week, with 5-10 QAs. I hope we are able to be complete with weekly MIRs by Friday!!!

Wish us luck! Or her, lol.

To be brutally honest, it is easier to do it all by herself. Because the reality is, most of the TL's will either pass off the work to another TM who has no idea what they are doing and mess up the counts that way, simply don't do them resulting in her wasting her time chasing everyone down while trying to complete them, or people pulling them and placing them aside somewhere and forgetting where they left them at.

A key thing to remember: The fewer hands required to pull everything, the more manageable and accountable everything is in the end.
 
I'm the receiver at my store and I pull the MIR's myself. I usually split each different task in different days.

I average out to about 25-35 MIR's a week. Tuesday morning I start and pull the BR MIR's from 6:45a-8. In the afternoon that day after I lock up receiving (1-2:30), I start and pull the SF MIR's. Wednesday I close off and ship out the completed MIR's while receiving is open (8-12) and after I lock up, I finish pulling whatever MIR's are left from the floor. Thursday I close them off and ship them out. While pulling BR MIR (mostly books), I use a 3-tier cart and sort the different MIR's by putting the header/item detail in between each one to tell the difference (repacks take too long and are too bulky IMO.
 
I wish I had help with MIR's. I've been cut to 30 hours for a long time now and with the holidays coming up my hours are still down. By the time I check in vendors, do MIR's get skids of pop down for vendors, check in a skid of UPS and FEDEX,do my sweeps, damages etc,etc etc.i'm out of time. I really do like reverse logistics but I'm about done now. If I had the hours to get things done like I used to I would be one happy person. I've been thinking about asking to be taken out of receiving but I'm sure it's pretty much the same everywhere in the store. I just need to *****! Thanks:wacko:
 
I wish I had help with MIR's. I've been cut to 30 hours for a long time now and with the holidays coming up my hours are still down. By the time I check in vendors, do MIR's get skids of pop down for vendors, check in a skid of UPS and FEDEX,do my sweeps, damages etc,etc etc.i'm out of time. I really do like reverse logistics but I'm about done now. If I had the hours to get things done like I used to I would be one happy person. I've been thinking about asking to be taken out of receiving but I'm sure it's pretty much the same everywhere in the store. I just need to *****! Thanks

I would try and talking to your ETL and tell them you need more hours to pull MIR's since you do them yourself. Tell them that you want to try and keep your MIR scores at green and I'm sure they'll allow it. That's what I always do whenever I need it. If not then tell them that you need someone else to pull them for you since they're not allowing you the time to do it yourself. Be assertive :)
 
I am new to receiving and this is my biggest challenge! I work both the BR and SF locations and a lot of the books/movies/CRC items that I'm looking for aren't located. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack and I am pressed for time before I start to check in my vendors (I start at 5am and vendors don't show up until 7am) and I'm unable to find these items. I do partner with electronics and TL for electronics...flow team, plano, and even BR members to see if they have come across what I am looking for...but all I get is a BIG I DON'T KNOW.

So my question is, if there is a MIR batch to be worked, and there are no BR locations, and no SF locations-and no one knows anything, how do I finish what I started with no product to send back to Readerlink/or CRC?
 
So my question is, if there is a MIR batch to be worked, and there are no BR locations, and no SF locations-and no one knows anything, how do I finish what I started with no product to send back to Readerlink/or CRC?

At my store you start by searching through the seven or eight three-tiers of backstock that seem to be permanent residents of the cage.
 
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