Archived Ship from Store: Pathing/Sequencing

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Curious...

For those folks doing SFS, have you found a way to overcome the unproductive process of walking from item to item because of archaic pathing or unchangeable batch sequencing?

(Sequencing) Right now, when a batch is made, it's ordered the same way every time. Alphabetically and then numerically, Starting with Backroom locations, going into Hardlines locations, Softlines Locations and then Non-located Locations (Ready-to-Wear). I know ASANTS, so pathing would change based on your aisle labeling.

(Pathing) We have a lot of Toys, Electronics and Baby orders mostly (that's aisles E, F and O) and based on our store layout, they're all close together, near the center of the store. But, if there are any groceries, shoes or clothing (aisles G, J through P) the default pathing adds a lot of unnecessary walking (Grocery is next to our backroom, shoes/clothing is the other end of the store).

(Our current work-around) We currently manually skip through a batch until it loads items near us. Instead of walking back and forth across the store for one or two items. This saves us a lot of steps, but it's a weak work around.

(wishlist work-arounds) Ideally, we'd be able to re-sequence (backroom/grocery/seasonal/electronics/toys/baby/softlines/non-located/hardlines... based on our store and would create more of a circular path) or a quicker fix would be the option to reverse the batch order (so, the first batch takes you through the default path and you end in ready-to-wear. Then you start a new batch and have the option to flip the sequence and start from ready-to-wear, until you end up back in backroom locations and ultimately back at the SFS packing table).

We're looking to go to 150 orders after Black Friday, so reducing steps is going to be a huge help productivity-wise. I'm open to hearing your thoughts and tips on what you've found works (and doesn't work).
 
Our store typically works 1 batch at a time, so sequencing isn't really an issue. You grab your 2-3 items, takes about 10 minutes, and that's it

I imagine if you're working 4-5 batches at a time though, that it's really important that your pathing is off. Maybe when they switch over to mydevices, the increased screen size will allow you to view the entire batch and then pick your own path.
 
It doesn't follow alphabetically at our store, but there is a point when it will jump past some sections that you are standing right in front of and go to another part of the store. This usually happens when we are about halfway through so it's not too painful to skip items until it lands in the right place.

The bad part is the fact that we have stockrooms in 3 corners of the store. Once I'm finished picking in the main, I'll skip any HBA and Electronics BR locations in case there is anything in bulk (right next to the main). If there's not, I just suspend and go back in to start at the next location.

Our store typically works 1 batch at a time, so sequencing isn't really an issue. You grab your 2-3 items, takes about 10 minutes, and that's it

I imagine if you're working 4-5 batches at a time though, that it's really important that your pathing is off. Maybe when they switch over to mydevices, the increased screen size will allow you to view the entire batch and then pick your own path.
A batch is usually around 25 items. And at 150 orders, that could easily be over 400 items... Not very efficient to get 2-3 at a time.
 
I wonder if any stores have just changed their location lettering, to get rid of this problem. Instead E, G, and P blocks being next to each other, just rename them and tie them to A, B, C blocks. Doesn't seem like it should be too difficult with tying on a PDA (sflm) and some extra aisle signs ordered in?
 
The "smart pathing" idea was not a very well thought out idea by the spot, just ask any member of your instock team, they face a similar issue and can commiserate.
The SFS team has it worse because we have this experience multiple times a day. I try to cut down on the inefficiency of over walking by scrolling through 2 or 3 batches and writing where each batch is taking me on post it, sticking it on my cart so I know when to skip/suspend to make my job easier and it helps with overlap especially if the batches ask for the same thing, which happens quite a few times in the 4th quarter.
 
Our store typically works 1 batch at a time, so sequencing isn't really an issue. You grab your 2-3 items, takes about 10 minutes, and that's it

I imagine if you're working 4-5 batches at a time though, that it's really important that your pathing is off. Maybe when they switch over to mydevices, the increased screen size will allow you to view the entire batch and then pick your own path.

I'm going to assume you're referring to Flexible fulfillment and not Ship From Store.
 
It doesn't follow alphabetically at our store, but there is a point when it will jump past some sections that you are standing right in front of and go to another part of the store. This usually happens when we are about halfway through so it's not too painful to skip items until it lands in the right place.

The bad part is the fact that we have stockrooms in 3 corners of the store. Once I'm finished picking in the main, I'll skip any HBA and Electronics BR locations in case there is anything in bulk (right next to the main). If there's not, I just suspend and go back in to start at the next location.


A batch is usually around 25 items. And at 150 orders, that could easily be over 400 items... Not very efficient to get 2-3 at a time.

Yeah, we're at 75 orders now and it's a bit of a task running all over the place. 150 orders is gonna stretch the skill sets of our team to maintain proficiency in filling the order AND keeping up with the productivity of running around like mad men.

Having one backroom area helps, but sequencing after that gets wildly unpredictable at times.
 
I wonder if any stores have just changed their location lettering, to get rid of this problem. Instead E, G, and P blocks being next to each other, just rename them and tie them to A, B, C blocks. Doesn't seem like it should be too difficult with tying on a PDA (sflm) and some extra aisle signs ordered in?

Hrm, I'll get my hardlines and softlines ETLs on that post haste!
 
The "smart pathing" idea was not a very well thought out idea by the spot, just ask any member of your instock team, they face a similar issue and can commiserate.
The SFS team has it worse because we have this experience multiple times a day. I try to cut down on the inefficiency of over walking by scrolling through 2 or 3 batches and writing where each batch is taking me on post it, sticking it on my cart so I know when to skip/suspend to make my job easier and it helps with overlap especially if the batches ask for the same thing, which happens quite a few times in the 4th quarter.

Not a bad idea, but we currently already skip as necessary. Want a better work around, but I guess that's coming in future updates that are still being worked out by Spot. Viewing and writing down a sequence seems like a lot of extra work too.

Hoping the solution will come down the pipeline soon.
 
I just zip around the store like a mad woman :rolleyes: Pull what I can from the backroom first. Unless that is domestics/toys/softlines. That shit is upstairs. Ain't nobody got time to go up and down 2 flights of stairs carrying multiple items.
 
Anyone tried submitting a mySupport to try and adjust the pathing? I know for sure it doesn't just go alphabetically at our store, so there has to have been some human input at one point or another.

I try to cut down on the inefficiency of over walking by scrolling through 2 or 3 batches and writing where each batch is taking me on post it, sticking it on my cart so I know when to skip/suspend to make my job easier and it helps with overlap
Hopefully that doesn't take too much time. I've found when trying to do two small batches at once, all of the suspending and skipping sometimes takes up more time than it saves.
 
The Sales Floor pathing is available on the Sign and Label PC. Each store ets it how they wish. Find which ETL set it up and ask them to change it. It literally takes 2-3 minutes.

Are you aware of where it's located under workbench?
 
I would assume that a lot of the pathing issues will be worked out over time. Flexibles just turned a year old in what October or September?
 
Anyone tried submitting a mySupport to try and adjust the pathing? I know for sure it doesn't just go alphabetically at our store, so there has to have been some human input at one point or another.


Hopefully that doesn't take too much time. I've found when trying to do two small batches at once, all of the suspending and skipping sometimes takes up more time than it saves.

It really doesn't take that much time, I am just try consolidate the steps I am taking, I am at one of the largest stores/busiest stores in the company, scrolling through a batch is quicker then the alternative of walking all over the store multiple times a day.

*Disclaimer* Its was just a suggestion, the way I work around the "glitch/oversight" (I don't really know what to call it :))
It may not work for everyone, but it works for me, I was able execute the pick/pack 150 orders by myself in one day using my system, (fellow SFS tm called in).

By reading everyone's posts, I found some great suggestions/ideas. Thank you guys!:) And good luck on the upswing of orders for the 4th quarter.
 
So, as @GangulonCyst suggested, pathing you can change for Instocks/pricing is the same for SFS. I have gotten the okay to re-route the pathing (considering that we're bringing in more money for the store now than either of those teams, we got priority). I have to look at a layout, but am going to work it to hit backroom either first or last and route through the store to get priority locations first (Toys/Electronics/Baby/Clothing) but have it loop around in a way that doesn't force the picker to backtrack unnecessarily. I was told rerouting the path might take a week to work through before it's actually reset, so it won't happen before Black Friday.

We are officially at 150 orders as of this past Sunday... that's 4+ skids of packages... we're currently rehauling the backroom steel to accommodate the extra skids and the extra packaging material we'll need to have on hand. It's been a cold-water in the face wake up from the 70 orders a day we've been cruising through. Three TMs everyday to pick/pack seemed like overkill, but in practice is definitely keeping us afloat. I hate packing, so I've doing 9+ miles a day picking.
 
@PogDog how tall are your pallets of boxes? When we were at 150, it usually took up two pallets stacked to the doorway (unless there was a diaper or paper sale).
 
Steel Is set as low as the packing bench will allow. So pallets can be over 6 feet. Which is about as high as someone can stack them.
 
So, how has SFS been going for everyone over this BLACK FRIDAY weekend? Thursday was cake (picked for 3 hours before store opened, packed for rest of evening). Friday was less enjoyable (picking while store was open, mostly toys/electronics... a lot of quantity issues prevented us from having accurate on hands. We couldn't fulfill a lot of orders. Fighting to get to product was a real struggle. Strangling guests is frowned upon here). Saturday was a little more manageable, but again, contending with guests in store for items that online shoppers wanted too.

We lucked out and UPS set up a truck in one of our docking bays for a couple days. We just packed and loaded and then they came and swapped it for another truck. That was a huge life saver. However, we're hurting for actual packing materials. We did place an order 2 weeks out and still haven't received boxes. We're down to 277, 278, 413, 126 and a handful of the other sizes (no 454 or 280 left). We've resorted to SIO on a lot of products too. This could be good/bad.

The thing corporate should consider when there are mass-driving large deals like this, is the struggle to get products for online guests, when in store guests are vying for them too (or vice versa). Offer up different deals for online shopping, lock out high-demand in-store items or limit quantities available to sell from a store. I bet a lot of people were pissed when we sold out of the WII U and Apple Watches before the doors opened on Black Thursday.

I understand, at the end of the day, it's a sale. But, there's a better way to do it and still make good profits.
 
Interestingly enough, Apple products were originally locked out, but they sold out so quickly online that they allowed them to drop in as SFS orders at the last minute. Stores were instructed to use best judgement in choosing when to stop picking and leave some for guests.

Btw, there is already a discussion about how this weekend went over in the Flexible Fulfilment thread.
 
Interestingly enough, Apple products were originally locked out, but they sold out so quickly online that they allowed them to drop in as SFS orders at the last minute. Stores were instructed to use best judgement in choosing when to stop picking and leave some for guests.

Btw, there is already a discussion about how this weekend went over in the Flexible Fulfilment thread.

Just read this, but saw the FF thread. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Figured a follow-up is in order.

So... I was able to access the In-store Pathing tool on Workbench this past weekend. Thanks to my LOG-ETL. Fiddled with the aisle sequence to make more sense for use SFS slogs. Went to hit the SAVE button and nothing happened. It was completely inactive. So, there's a HELP button right next to it, click that... again, nothing happened. I'm about 20-30 minutes into messing around with this before the LOG-ETL shows up. Tell her it's a no go on the sequencing. We look around the site for answers, still no luck. She MySupports to find out what's going on. In the meantime, I'm able to see the current sequence, all the aisles and their groupings (which are a real mess btw). So, I print everything out... take it home, cause I'm a real go-getter, and manually come up with new groupings and a sequence in a spreadsheet app. Figuring we might have to send something to MySupport or CSC and have them fix it for us.

Fast forward to this morning... MySupport responds... says the sites down and there's no given reason or expected time for when it's going to be functioning again. I didn't read their response, but apparently there's a way to access pathing, but my ETL didn't sound very confident in the response.

So, sequencing is still up-in-the-air for now. God, I seriously can't wait to get this shit fixed.

We did receive one of our SFS supply orders... many pallets of boxes arrived today! It was glorious.
 
Keep us updated!

Is it actually on Workbench? Or is it on Store Applications? @GangulonCyst mentioned specifically using the signing PC.
 
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