OPU expert to do pth/stowing only

[NewKidGSTL]

My store is doing the Dbo flex test and this is how we’re doing

 

[DBZ]

My store is doing the Dbo flex test and this is how we’re doing

Is that just for ship or for opu too? Sorry y'all had such a bad day

 

[spottymcspot]

Isn't market next to the backroom at all stores? If you can't pick, bag, and stow, a grocery order under 30 minutes, then you are walking really slow or something.

Ours isn't unfortunately. Dunno if we are the only store that set up like that but our market is up at the front of the store and our backroom is well , in the back. It sucks when we have to go look through pallets or grab stuff from the freezer. And on top of that- our hold space is in the opposite corner of the store from market.

 

[NewKidGSTL]

Is that just for ship or for opu too? Sorry y'all had such a bad day

That’s just ship. We’ve been carrying over units since the LTO. Had to have another store come in and help. Finally caught up.

 

[Dream Baby]

Our new OPU TL went home in tears the other day.

The OPUs hours were cut and it will be crazy next week.

I think the OPU team had more hours in March than now.

 

[Busymama]

the new system has some good things but overall not that much of a fan after a week of using it.

Thing I like:
cant put things in the wrong location ie fruit in freezer etc,
having 1 or two designated people for stowing means less fulfillment errors in regards to over filling bags etc


things i dont like:
OPU/SFS carts need to be redesigned to work well with this, currently the only way to make them efficient is manually removing a bunch of the dividers so you can put items on one side, and then put them on the opposite side as you bag them, current cart layout means you end up with items/bags mixed together which leads to you spending time sorting things out of the cart that are now sandwhiched in-between bags or having to move items around because bagged items wont fit in the cart the same way as they were before bagging, it helps if you put items in the cart by order or whatever but some orders are so large this isn't always possible

the extra step of taking items off the cart to bag them then put the bags back on the cart wastes time, just give us cart-bag-hold location

cant scan multiple bags from the same order when putting to hold this does two negative things 1. slows things down having to do every bag individually, and 2, when its busy and youre in a rush you cant waist time looking for "existing hold locations" you just put bags in the closest open hold location wheras the old way you scanned entire orders into 1-2 hold locations meaning orders are even more split up now than they ever were under the old system leading to longer drive up times

(i could be wrong but we havent been able to find a way to do it yet) if you scan too many items to a bag, you cant backout and redo the bag, ie if you scan 2 1 liters of water and a box of cereal their all tied to one bag now (this has only been a problem for newer people but still)

for the love of god make the epick app account for the dimensions of the carts and break things up accordingly, so many people tired of getting orders where its "go get 2 25lb bags of dog food, 3 38lb things of cat liter, two cases of water and then oh btw we're gonna need you to pick an air fryer and toaster oven on there before topping it off with 8 kingsize pillows and comforter set" (i know this will never happen and is unrelated to the post but bullseye please 🥺)

Reprint the label and redo your bag

 

[Rarejem]

Reprint the label and redo your bag

It's the picking, not the putting and stowing that is the problem here. Not a bulky order: 6 large diaper boxes, 9 soda cases, 5 large plastic storage boxes, 4 large balls, 3 pillows, 2 cat litter, plus the rest of the batch... now put it into a 3 tier. (tl wants us to pick doubles before the store opens) (BTW: Bulky order: 2 curtain rods)

 

[Rarejem]

MyDay Q2 Fulfillment survey... encourage EVERYONE who has picked or stowed in your store to do this survey!!!!

 

[Sodoyou]

We tried this for about 4 days but they schedule us so short handed all the time the stower was always pulled away to help out OPU. including people in style, tech and almost every other department. That's what happens when only people are scheduled from 4 until close I guess.

 

[BadWolf4531]

I like the idea of allocating additional payroll to F&B and just having those TMs handle Grocery OPUs. It's something I suggested to one of our leaders last year.

That said, even though ETL roles just got re-structured a few years ago, I could see a few more post-COVID changes given the uptake in Fulfillment and all the remodels taking place:

ETL-Fulfillment I know some stores already have this, but have them own the entire pickup process from start to finish, including Drive-Ups as well (not that I actually want to run drive ups...I feel for that team!). When DU first launched it made since for S&E to own this, since guests were new to using it and we only got a few DUs a day (and we had not gone through a pandemic yet). Fast-forward to now and it's grown exponentially. Especially with the new PTH process, if the same team doing PTH is also running DUs, hopefully this would be enough incentive to bag and stow correctly, and there would be a few extra team members to shift among picking, stowing, and running orders as needed. S&E would still own in-store pickups.

ETL-Service&Engagement If they lose drive-up (which honestly takes up over 50% of our S&Es day), then they could pick up Tech and possibly Beauty. ASANTS, but at my store our ETL-Specialty has no time to give to those areas, as she is always drowning in Style (and she doesn't even own Home or Seasonal like some stores do now). Beauty is near the checklanes in most stores and it would be fewer steps for someone to step back-and-forth between line busting and assisting in beauty as needed.

ETL-Specialty Let them focus on Style (and possibly Home and Seasonal, depending on store volume).

Of course, no amount of restructuring will work if the payroll is not there.

 

[idkwhattodo]

Our Drive Up team is supposed to put to hold any carts over like 10 mins, but we really struggle to do it because drive ups are busy and rushes pop out of nowhere. Our SD and Fulfillment TL and ETL all get mad at us for not being able to help out enough because according to them, we should have the time to put to hold every cart. Basically, we’ve ended up pulling one of our Service Advocate DU people to be strictly put to hold, but this leads to us falling behind on DU a lot and leadership is still mad at us for not doing enough because fulfillment tms still end up doing most of their own put to holds.

Does anyone else do it this way? After talking with fulfillment tms most of them at my store prefer doing their own put to hold because it gives their legs a break for a few minutes. It’s also just creating a lot of tension between leadership and DU tms as we’ve literally been getting yelled at for stopping for a water break in the middle of 100 degree heat, where we bring out over 400 DUs a day.

 

[Anelmi]

Our fulfillment team also prefers doing their own put/stow. I offer every now and then when I see they are in a huge crunch but they usually say no. We don't have a dedicated drive up team anyway...just one or two cashiers shift-tagged to do DUs every day which is really quite overwhelming for them too.

 

[seasonaldude]

I think it would be wise to give extra hours for dedicated stowers to fulfillment. Don't have anyone scheduled for just that, but let them rotate throughout the day every hour or so as a kind of extended break. It would be a nice boost to quality of life for fulfillment TMs. Not that corporate has given a single thought to fulfillment TMs quality of life since it started exploding. They clearly, very clearly, have not.

 

[DBZ]

We have someone scheduled from S&E to stow. Sometimes it is a cashier who doesn’t know DU. The others do know DU. When I am scheduled for stowing, I’ll prep drive ups when I don’t have a cart to work on