Archived Return Scan (May 2018)

[PogDog]

I'm scheduled for the return scan this Thursday. It'll be my first time doing it (surprising since I'm the TNT guy). Anyway, I'm curious about the process. I had another TL walk me through the actions and it seems pretty straight-forward, albeit tedious.

What I gather from my quick walk through; the process seems to act as a LOCU/STOW action. You scan the waco location (this starts the LOCU action), then scan the items and tell the system how many items are visible in that waco location. The system responds with a requested amount (this starts the STOW action) and the remaining quantity is added back to the waco location. I've been told about opening/closing cartons and that if I scan items outside of the waco, the system will assume they were in that waco unlocated. I was also told that if I leave the application, it will automatically close a carton.

What I'm curious about is if this process also corrects any ghost items NOT scanned. Would it be better to just LOCU before scanning to eliminate any possible ghosts? Will the system tell me if I miss anything?

If you have any pro-tips or have developed a process that streamlines the work, feel free to share those too.

Thanks!

 

[tholmes]

I'm scheduled for the return scan this Thursday. It'll be my first time doing it (surprising since I'm the TNT guy). Anyway, I'm curious about the process. I had another TL walk me through the actions and it seems pretty straight-forward, albeit tedious.

What I gather from my quick walk through; the process seems to act as a LOCU/STOW action. You scan the waco location (this starts the LOCU action), then scan the items and tell the system how many items are visible in that waco location. The system responds with a requested amount (this starts the STOW action) and the remaining quantity is added back to the waco location. I've been told about opening/closing cartons and that if I scan items outside of the waco, the system will assume they were in that waco unlocated. I was also told that if I leave the application, it will automatically close a carton.

What I'm curious about is if this process also corrects any ghost items NOT scanned. Would it be better to just LOCU before scanning to eliminate any possible ghosts? Will the system tell me if I miss anything?

If you have any pro-tips or have developed a process that streamlines the work, feel free to share those too.

Thanks!

So, first to your question about needing to LOCU first: it might be more beneficial to LOCU a week or so after the scan to help start fresh without errors or ghosts from stuff that wasn't in the scan. Also, to my knowledge, the scan process deletes any ghosts from stuff you didn't find in a scanned waco but not from a waco you missed entirely.

For my tips while scanning, bring a 2-tier/3-tier cart (whatever your store calls it) as well as a set of electronics keys for the keepers. Leave the pallet you're building wherever is convenient, and take seven total repacks into lockup with you; one for the top tier unfolded and with the RTM label, six in the second tier with the roll of labels. As you finish a carton, check the counts to make sure you were accurate until you have a good feel for it, then close the carton and set it on the bottom of your cart (six total fit).

Also, I generally will just stick keepers I remove just in wacos opposite where I'm scanning, then go pick them all up once I'm 100% done.

Last note since you asked, the system doesn't tell you if you missed something. So, don't worry about scanning completely empty wacos whatsoever, but anything that has an item you even suspect might be on the scan... Scan the Waco. Also, make a final walk through all of the electronics stockroom to ensure you got all of the wacos with CDs or movies since I've found that even the best stores end up with random stuff in stupid places.

Hope that helps!

 

[pinkp2ie]

I used to be the return scan guy, did probably the last year and a half of it since i've first accepted it. Me and my old electronics TL always killed it, scheduled for 4 hours but got it done usually before our break at 2 hours. First shift was hard, b/c i didn't want to screw up. When i finished up and closed the cartons, i always counted if i got it right. Since then, it's always smooth.

I know it's not what you asked for question-wise, but just letting you know that's one of my simple tricks that got me going.

 

[Llamanatee]

I keep a My device on me to correct any errors. Sometimes I might accidentally put something in the box it didn’t ask for and need to find out what Waco I took it from. I really do miss the old system. You could correct everything and even open a box after it’s closed, which sometimes happens on accident when the pda messes up.

I’ve been doing scans for 10 years.

 

[PogDog]

Oooh. Lots of good advice here. I'm sure I'll make some classic, rookie mistakes. But I'll do my best, not too. Should be an interesting day.

 

[isak922]

You WILL close boxes early. They may have as few as a single item. My old co-worker and I were the designated Scan Party... If there was a scan that we each didn't close a box with less than five items; It was a miracle.

 

[pinkp2ie]

Grab the repack boxes to the lockup door, usually have a flat ready. I still get 1 or 2 item boxes on my last rs.

 

[Llamanatee]

Grab the repack boxes to the lockup door, usually have a flat ready. I still get 1 or 2 item boxes on my last rs.

You WILL close boxes early. They may have as few as a single item. My old co-worker and I were the designated Scan Party... If there was a scan that we each didn't close a box with less than five items; It was a miracle.

I found a way to reopen boxes. I only do it when there's a few items in it and I've accidentally closed it. When you are verifying the counts of the items in the box, change all the quantities to zero. It will reopen the box. I then scan all the items back into the box and then continue on adding more items. I tried this during my last scan and it worked for me. No more boxes of shame.

 

[PogDog]

Have another question.

Should I back stock Street Dated movies and those long shelf assortments for the scan?

We have our shelf assortments and street dates media unlocated near the entrance to lockup. It's a system that works well for TNT setting on Mondays and ensures everything gets pushed out first without creating a ton of pulls.

 

[mammoth]

Have another question.

Should I back stock Street Dated movies and those long shelf assortments for the scan?

We have our shelf assortments and street dates media unlocated near the entrance to lockup. It's a system that works well for TNT setting on Mondays and ensures everything gets pushed out first without creating a ton of pulls.

You don't have to backstock them. the scan wouldn't send back new release product anyway

 

[Llamanatee]

Have another question.

Should I back stock Street Dated movies and those long shelf assortments for the scan?

We have our shelf assortments and street dates media unlocated near the entrance to lockup. It's a system that works well for TNT setting on Mondays and ensures everything gets pushed out first without creating a ton of pulls.

We do that with out street dates too. Makes my life easier. Like the previous person said don't worry scanning that stuff. It's not going back

 

[PogDog]

When I went back and changed the quantity to zero... it did not reopen the carton at the end. So, I had 2 EMPTY boxes and I think 4 boxes that prematurely closed with less than 20 items. All in all though, I think I got everything. It was laborious. I ended up LOCU'ing a section, STOW'ing everything in that section and then scanning it. Then when I finished BLU-RAY movies, I LOCU'ed, condensed and then rescanned. Did it with DVDs and then MUSIC. We don't have anyone prep the area earlier in the week (or even a WEEK AHEAD, according to the instructions, which were equally confusing).

Having gone through it, if I get scheduled to do it again, I'm sure I could do it in half the time, considering how much double work I probably did. It was certainly a trial-by-fire lesson for me. But I am thankful for all the responses everyone gave here.

 

[mammoth]

what's interesting to me, is that the scan schedule for this year ends at the end of May with all stores scanning. anyone know anything about this?