Archived The Big & Dandy Backroom thread!

[Formina Sage]

Let's use this thread as an ongoing discussion about all things backroom - complain about big-ass backstock numbers, location accuracy, and rules that get ...bent in the backroom, along with anything else


I was until recently a backroom day TM, until switching to plano a few weeks ago.

One of the biggest pet peeves I had was being way over on the end of light duty, and hearing the vendor doorbell ring. Of course, I'd be the only one back there so I had to run allll the way down to receiving. :blowup:

Most rewarding moment I've had was subbing on 4am for the grocery guy on a Friday, and getting pulls + blackline backstocked faster than he's ever done it, according to the BRTL and other people.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

My disappointment of the instocks teams to do ptm's on seasonal stuff. My biggest battle is bts being backstock when it could be push to the floor. Br team doesn't challgene it!
Off my soapbox!

 

[Logistics Monkey]

i like that location accuracy report is back, what i dont like is that sometime i M-Delete stuff when it clearly needs it and get in trouble becuase i should just locu the location they dont see the problem with that

 

[Dr Laytex]

I don't like backstocking transition (BTS, Fall Shoes Set, Etc,).
I love coming in on my day off and finding out that they have two people doing my job.

 

[Formina Sage]

I hate backstocking BTS in general.... who thought it was a good idea to count quantities for all that *#@$.......

 

[flyingsquirrel]

I hate BTS, especially being that our stores backroom is tiny. Most of our wacos/open stock locations are packed full with merchandise, our accuracy has gone to ************. Goodbye top in the district, hello to 5-6 DPCIs per waco!

 

[Logistics Monkey]

I hate BTS, especially being that our stores backroom is tiny. Most of our wacos/open stock locations are packed full with merchandise, our accuracy has gone to ************. Goodbye top in the district, hello to 5-6 DPCIs per waco!

went down our BTS isle today, some wacos had 6+ items crammed in. My BR TL said we needed to reloc all of BTS i just laughed and told her no :disappoint:

 

[flyingsquirrel]

Sounds about like our store. Supposedly some team members were scheduled to clean up BTS and reloc everything, but its pointless. Our shelves/wacos are literally 200% overfull, everyone avoids backstocking in that aisle on truck days. I usually end up getting stuck with it, and usually, you walk up and down the aisle 2-3 times trying to find a spot, and end up sticking something like a few folders, pencil holders, ETC in between a couple casepacks, then the cycle starts again.... I keep getting told that the toy aisles are just as bad around Xmas, but I fail to see how that is possible... Time will tell I guess

 

[MisterLogistics]

My biggest battle is bts being backstock when it could be push to the floor. Br team doesn't challgene it!
Off my soapbox!

I keep telling the backroom guys this, (and my ETL-LOG, too). If BTS "backstock" items aren't backstocked right when they're brought back to the backroom, there's no point backstocking them hours later. They easily could been sold from the floor, and need to be re-pushed. If I find a tub of BTS backstock, that I know has been sitting in the backroom for a while, I'll just switch the pink clip with a green clip, and put the tub on the line.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I keep telling the backroom guys this, (and my ETL-LOG, too). If BTS "backstock" items aren't backstocked right when they're brought back to the backroom, there's no point backstocking them hours later. They easily could been sold from the floor, and need to be re-pushed. If I find a tub of BTS backstock, that I know has been sitting in the backroom for a while, I'll just switch the pink clip with a green clip, and put the tub on the line.

I like that idea...

 

[Formina Sage]

I keep telling the backroom guys this, (and my ETL-LOG, too). If BTS "backstock" items aren't backstocked right when they're brought back to the backroom, there's no point backstocking them hours later. They easily could been sold from the floor, and need to be re-pushed. If I find a tub of BTS backstock, that I know has been sitting in the backroom for a while, I'll just switch the pink clip with a green clip, and put the tub on the line.

This solves a lot of problems besides just in BTS

Also, as far as toys during X-mas, the problem comes with all the big toys that need a shelf to be backstocked. Then you can only get about 10 of them in there when we have 30 open stock from an endcap that got killed. Shelves disappear fast with all the case stock and large open stocks.

My BR has shelves 2 and 5 in toys designated as open stock, so large toys are theoretically supposed to go there, and NO CASE STOCK. That rule is of course, never followed because who wants to get on the ladder to put the case stock away?

So then, that case stock never gets a chance to be swept to the DC because the system doesn't pull items from open stock locations!

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

My biggest battle is bts being backstock when it could be push to the floor. Br team doesn't challgene it!
Off my soapbox!

We haven't been challenging for a few months now. Flow no longer pushed it anyway! They were until we started getting more trucks per week. We do have some excellent flow TMs in stationery & BTS. They use PDAs to check if there are multiple locations. A lot less backstock this way. We have 2 full aisles for our office backstock and one side of another. (Opposite side is stationery, of course.)

One issue I have is backstocking in the wrong aisle. We have a new TM (Been here about 3-4 weeks) that continually does this. HB02 is in one aisle and HB01 is in the next aisle with Pharmacy on the opposite side. He was backstocking pharmacy in HB02 today. There were travel items that belonged in chemicals & paper. I'm sure they were backstocked in H&B also. His trainer brought this to the TLs attention and his comment was don't worry about it, he won't be here much longer. I told this newbie of his error. The next cart he brought back he went in the right aisle, at least!

I REALLY like it now that our ETL-LOG is using trained flow TMs to help backstock. He's been there a year and has finally started sending backroom some help! It seems that the backroom team is always short handed.

Almost forgot, have you heard the phrase "case enough"? That would be large quantities of an item that is not quite a full case. For example 48 and only 3 were pushed. It gets backstocked as a full case.

 

[Formina Sage]

Haven't heard it as a phrase but the practice exists in our backroom. I feel like it's a necessary evil for some things, but should be avoided if at all possible. When it's done, the full casepack amount should be entered as the quantity to minimize the potential for errors (when someone's pulling, the system will ask for the case of 48 so they'd be expecting that there are 48 in there anyway)(as opposed to if someone keyed 45 for those three that are missing, and the person who is pulling thinks the system is being stupid when it asks for 45 and keys 48 and introduces an error)

 

[Dr Laytex]

Haven't heard it as a phrase but the practice exists in our backroom. I feel like it's a necessary evil for some things, but should be avoided if at all possible. When it's done, the full casepack amount should be entered as the quantity to minimize the potential for errors (when someone's pulling, the system will ask for the case of 48 so they'd be expecting that there are 48 in there anyway)(as opposed to if someone keyed 45 for those three that are missing, and the person who is pulling thinks the system is being stupid when it asks for 45 and keys 48 and introduces an error)

I do this ALL the time. 36 bags of cottonballs? Close enough.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

I like that idea. At my store, you have to enter the exact quantity. Which usually means dumping out that whole box of cotton balls to count and find that your missing one or two, or to dump out a case of 124 pens to count and see that your missing 5, etc. It annoys me, I don't really care that it inconveniences me, but when we have 6 tubs and a few carts of backstock, and 2-3 team members at most, and all but one are scheduled to go home between 10-noon, plus a crabby TL coming back there, yelling, backstocking one or two things then wandering off to go hide and visit, its a huge pain. Working at Target isnt the greatest job, but I like to get my work done in a timely manner so that I can have a minute to visit with friends here and there.

 

[therealtd]

You know how many times I've been backstocking and go down an aisle to see a daytime team member that just came in that morning and is "helping" trying to shove a broom or curtain rod down an aisle where I have to stop him/her and like it was some huge mystery, reveal to them that we have a bulk area where we store that stuff.

Fools.

 

[Bullseye Flow TM]

Haven't heard it as a phrase but the practice exists in our backroom. I feel like it's a necessary evil for some things, but should be avoided if at all possible. When it's done, the full casepack amount should be entered as the quantity to minimize the potential for errors (when someone's pulling, the system will ask for the case of 48 so they'd be expecting that there are 48 in there anyway)(as opposed to if someone keyed 45 for those three that are missing, and the person who is pulling thinks the system is being stupid when it asks for 45 and keys 48 and introduces an error)

That's what I do, enter exact quantity for the close enough case packs.

I haven't done this in some time but if the items are still in the case packs but missing a few I'll subt items from open locations to fill the case pack. Other BR TMs have done this also. Don't know if it's BP or not.

I do this ALL the time. 36 bags of cottonballs? Close enough.

Cotton balls are the worst. They fill up the wacos too quickly.

 

[Formina Sage]

I haven't done this in some time but if the items are still in the case packs but missing a few I'll subt items from open locations to fill the case pack. Other BR TMs have done this also. Don't know if it's BP or not.

I've done this as well when the option is available, and see no reason whatsoever why this isn't a stellar solution to the problem. As long as they're being subt'd with option 2. Defective/Damaged so as not to affect the accumulator.

Cotton balls are the worst. They fill up the wacos too quickly.

And fall out all over the place! Same with stupid marshmallows... GAHHHHH

 

[gnarlypop]

It Keeps Getting Worse

I'm sure its mostly related to our remodel, but our backroom is absolutely a mess pretty much every day. We (dayside) try to be understanding, but someone seems to have under-logistic'd this one. We get a nightly truck, and flow seems to be on top of most things, but remodel comes in at 4 AM and starts de-merching and flexing, but rarely completing their tasks. There is a significant shortage of tubs so they just dump repacks in the backroom aisles and bays ... 3, 4, 5 high ... with too much product in them. Flow moves it out of the way, Remodel moves it back and neither does it with much finesse so boxes break usually leaving a mess that may not get cleaned up.

The line is a joke every morning when dayside comes in at 6 and 8. Few things are clipped - the flow/remodel teams race to backstock at least some of their stuff so they mis-locate, miscount, and over-stuff the wacos ... and never subt99 anything (so our cafs are horrendous! and much of that comes right back). There is so much stuff in our workspace that we often can't complete research pulls, and cafs take much longer as we jockey pallets around that get left in the way.

Of course we have almost no extra time to backstock, and even when we do it is overwhelming and I watched one of our newer members just sigh as a cleared pallet filled up within minutes. The closer sets the line every night and hopes there are only a few price change pulls. We get that done, setting up the overnights to succeed...

Only to start all over.

Sorry to vent ... I'm sure we are not alone, and our dayside team is pretty solid - some have been there for years and even they are discouraged wondering if we'll ever get back to "normal"

 

[coolcatmom]

I would probably have a word with your STL. I've been through a remodel and that team did not blow up our backroom, nor were they allowed to trash the place. Since the integrity of your stockroom is at stake maybe they could have one person from the remodel team backstock their leavings. Provided they are certified, of course.

 

[joshr1990]

lol i remember when i was new at the time and it was about 6pm and the vendor was late. Well That dam bell was making me mad so i ran over and opened the door just to have the alarm go off lol. man was i embarrassed!

 

[joshr1990]

I Think I found Out What Causes My Baffles

So i was reading on the computer today and since i always use SUBT when backstocking I found out that i must STO them product into a location PRIOR to SUBT- adding back into location! Which i do not do. and my team lead never even told me about this!!!! I found this out from workbench!! Really frustrating if i must say!!

 

[insiteful1]

Josh, not to beat a dead horse, but why do you SUBT stuff INTO location instead of using the STO function as intended? Did your TL teach you that or did another TM?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Good job! I thought you were stoing it first. Since you found the rf apps book, you may to print out that section to make sure you understand & doing things properly per best practice. Plus you will be up to date on rf knowledge.

 

[Formina Sage]

Not to add further confusion into this, but that's not accurate... you aren't technically required to sto an item before resetting it with subt. Best practice dictates that you do this, but you will not cause an error by not doing so.

And I agree with insiteful1's point. Subt'ing things into locations is a pretty specialized process that has become far too abused and misunderstood. The purpose of subt is to take things OUT of the stockroom, and sto is to put them in!