1) LOGOUT: Yes; everybody agrees it's a mess right now. Here's how it's supposed to work...
- After 2 minutes, the iPod "auto-locks" (goes dark) to save battery.
- Because of this forum, I'm researching making this longer or at least configurable (so you can set it how you want it). More to come...
- In one of the beta stores, it was set to "never" auto-lock and the iPods were all dead within a few hours.
- After 15 minutes, a passcode (Store #) is required to unlock the iPod.
- After 2 hours of inactivity, apps log the user out completely. (This is clearly busted right now and lots of people are trying to fix it).
2a) VOLUME: Yes; many agree the iPods should be louder... but we're kinda limited there.
2b) SOUNDS: It's important that the sounds are consistent, or at least that they default to a "standard" sound after the user logs off. Unfortunately, much like the iPod's wallpaper, eventually every iPod would emit different sounds for different things because it can't "reset" to default sounds after a user logs off. The iPod saves the last user's settings.
3) Yes; SUBT & STO will be in the myWork app. STO is actually very, very simple. Just scan the stockroom location and takes the item you last scanned and stows it into that location. SUBT will show up as a "take" button next to the stockroom locations (like the "add" button next to the sales floor locations). Touch that button and it acts like SUBT.
4) INSTOCKS: This one's a bit complicated because we learned that how the system actually works (with the PDAs) is different than what it appears. Sometimes it replaces the count you entered and sometimes it adds to what you entered. What it shows on the PDA screen is different than what the system actually did. So, step 1 was to make the myWork app behave the way the back end system works... next, we'll fix all that. TIP: Other users can "Research" things you've already counted and their counts will override yours. That's one way to get around that issue for now.
5) BATCHES: I think fill batches auto close after like 15 minutes. (Or maybe it's an hour; I forget). New POG Fills are created automatically when POGs are tied. There's lot of opinions on this one... and I'm gonna stay out of it
ALL ELSE: I've been around a while here and feel many of the same things you're saying. I've worked in lots of areas (including stores), and I'm learning that
everything changes. If it doesn't change, then the name probably will
This isn't because "Target" is trying to move backwards or because people at corporate are trying to justify their existence. It's because everybody is just trying to do a good job, but the
people are constantly changing. In that way, Target (as an employer) feels more like an institution or University that people pass through. Some (like me) stay longer than others. Today, Target isn't run by the same people who ran it even 3 years ago, and new people bring new perspectives and priorities. In some cases, new people come up with bad ideas (like "system lead sign audit" - yuck!). But then, even newer people come in do away with sign audit and the scan up/down process entirely. I'm sure in a few years, someone new will come up with a "great idea" where we put barcodes on signs and scan them into salesfloor locations. (J/K... hopefully)
PS: Connecting time-clock or HR info to the login is in the works... but it's a big deal on the system side. So, give it a year or two.
Thank you so much for being on this forum and communicating with us. That means a lot, actually.
1) The battery life is fantastic and so, do what you can do! The fact that you guys are aware is great to hear.
2a) Ok.
2b) Is the notification "coin" sound built into the app itself or is it customizable? I would happily change it every time I picked up a different iPod but it doesn't seem that I can change the notification sound at all, as presently constructed. There are some notification sounds built indo the iPod that are extremely lengthy and noticeable. That is not the case, however, with the "coin" alert sound.
3) Sounds fantastic.
4) Interesting. I long suspected that it was screwed up in that regard but never confirmed. Also, Thanks for the tip.
5) Yeah, opinions... however, realize that it's unproductive to be forced to pull a batch for a carry forward end cap that is already full. The team member that created the batch because of the tie would have to communicate that it needs to get burned and not all team members are seasoned enough to know to do that. Additionally, whether it is communicated to be burned or not, it is still unproductive to have a batch in the first place.
ALL ELSE: The fact that the people are constantly changing should tell the higher ups something. I hear what you're saying, and it makes sense from an explanation standpoint, but it also feels like that corporate as a whole doesn't realize that having people constantly changing in the manner in which they are... is a bad thing. It's a good thing that people are getting promoted internally, but what I'm talking about is the layoffs and role consolidations. Just a few years ago we netted around $3 billion as a company. What they seemingly don't realize, or don't care about because maybe the strategy is to line their pockets and get out, is that cutting staffing to the point that they have is going to cost money in the long run. It's already costing money in the here and now in so many obvious ways that it's unfathomable to really think that they don't know what the long term repercussions of their staffing structure, strategy, and payroll allotment will lead to. Corporations really do like to die from the inside, I suppose. It just makes me sad, because we still have so much potential that continues to slowly erode.
TLDR: If Target paid their employees well from corporate to the stores, gave them reasonable hours with realistic expectations and job duties, we could still profit and the silly direction change every 3-6 months would cease, as people would be more content with their positions and not leave the company at such a hastened pace.
Question... is the ability to subtract more than what the system shows in a backroom location (SUBT9999 as others have called it) remaining with the iPod backroom rollout? We use this right now because the accumulator is beyond broken. You are probably aware, however, that currently what we do, as an example, is as follows:
- A DPCI has 1, 2, 5, 10, 500, or however many eaches in a backroom location and the system keeps prompting us to pull them because it thinks that it will go out onto the sales floor for whatever reason. What we do now, once we recognize this, is SUBT 9999 from a location with at least 1 of those eaches, for instance, and then the system says "Did you pull all of the eaches from this location?" or something to that effect and we hit "No" and then it prompts us to key how many eaches are remaining in the location, which is typically the original number that it asked us to pull that were actually there. This "fixes" the accumulator by tricking the sales floor into thinking that we pulled all of those and the system stops asking us to pull that DPCI over and over.
And it's important to note that as currently constructed, SUBTing 9999 does not create an error. There should just be a "reset accumulator" button so that all of the unnecessary steps are removed, but whatever.
