Archived The Big & Dandy Backroom thread!

[StackerMistress]

Me, working alone, switches to Channel 1: "LOD, 2 o'clock pull time is 2 hours and 40 minutes."
LOD: "Okay."

And that was that. You're damn right they rolled.

 

[IHeartCarts]

I don't mean to be rude but do you always check the pull times before you start pulling?

 

[StackerMistress]

On weekends or other particularly busy days, yes, I do. That way, if the pull time is over what I can conceivably get done in an hour, I can let the LOD know right away, so they can either get back to help me themselves, appoint someone to help me, or even just say "Hey sorry, I don't have anyone to give you; just do what you can." This was the first time I just got an "Okay," and that was it. She's a new Sr TL transfer from another store. Maybe she doesn't realize that everyone helps everyone in this store. Even the STL came in at 4 am this morning to help backstock.

 

[missionimpossible]

Knowing what is big also helps.

 

[IHeartCarts]

Is this through workbench on the computer? I feel like it's just a waste of time. But I'm guessing you're in a higher volume store so you probably get a high number of batches almost every hour and they vary on size. Here at my ULV you can generally tell just by the amount of batches unless there's been a lot of backstocking going on of a certain group.

Different stores are different.

 

[StackerMistress]

B Volume store here. Sometimes you can tell by the number of departments, sometimes you can't. For example, yesterday all my batches were in the low 40s. I had batch times ranging from a little under 1 hour to 1:45. And lower department numbers can be deceiving. If you have 24 departments, you might think oh, that's super easy. But then maybe MM2 is enormous because someone the previous hour used STO to backstock a full 3-tier of DVDs that should've been SUBT9999'd.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

B Volume store here. Sometimes you can tell by the number of departments, sometimes you can't. For example, yesterday all my batches were in the low 40s. I had batch times ranging from a little under 1 hour to 1:45. And lower department numbers can be deceiving. If you have 24 departments, you might think oh, that's super easy. But then maybe MM2 is enormous because someone the previous hour used STO to backstock a full 3-tier of DVDs that should've been SUBT9999'd.

I hope the electronics tm worked the pull before it was back stocked. I would leave a note saying areas were checked.

 

[StackerMistress]

Heh, considering that our Electronics TMs like to walk into the electronics stockroom, look at a pull, and if they decide it's too big, take the pull clip off and put a backstock clip on... it's doubtful it was worked out.

 

[anathema]

Hey,

I started backroom a bit ago, only doing the basics. I don't like not knowing things so I'm going to ask some stuff. That said, if anyone has extensive backroom knowledge that I can PM now and then, I would enjoy that.

1) M-delete. I don't know much about it but I use it whenever I scan everything and nothing pops up to be pulled. I've also seen that it shouldn't be used. I'm not sure how one goes about avoiding using it, or if it's even bad to use.
2) I want to check my progress, but I haven't found a good time to ask my TL about where to do that. I know how to check pull times and stuff but not errors I've made and whatnot.
3) STO. Everything we backstock we do using STO. There's always complaints about having to pull what we just backstocked, but isn't there a way to avoid doing that without having to fake pulling it?

 

[missionimpossible]

1 - you can avoid using M-delete by locuing the location. The only reason to do it is to keep your errors low.
2 - unless you are terrible the metric that follows errors is terrible and won't really give you any real feedback.
3 - You can backstock plano/pushed challenge using subt9999 but we don't use it anymore at my store since it was removed from rf apps. I think it takes longer using subt now than to just rebackstock the product.

 

[anathema]

So how is that an error? Seems odd that you're forced to do that but it counts against you and you have to circumvent to avoid an error.

 

[Kompa]

My store is phasing out all the pdas and soon backroom will have to use the itouches

noooooo

 

[sigma7]

You don't get the error for m-deleting unless you don't scan everything in the location and later someone comes to that location and scans something you missed. Basically, using m-delete will log an error to whoever was in that location last (which might be you if you were there last). The only reason some stores don't use it is because their location accuracy is bad and they don't want it to look worse. Using m-delete is best practice. Using LOCU instead is cheating the metrics.

 

[IHeartCarts]

I'm sure a lot of you deal with this so I'd like your thoughts.

I am by no means a perfect employee. But I do work my ass off every single day I am there and I'm generally viewed as a good worker. There are other good workers there as well, but unfortunately they work mornings. When I do get to work with these people for a few hours we get an amazing amount of work done. But then there are the people I work with during the day. These people are slower and we just fall further and further behind after every hour. I'm afraid of this reflecting poorly on me.

Really the problem is I'm killing myself for crap pay from a crap company that doesn't give a crap about me. I'm the idiot for trying so hard which is messed up.

 

[LogisticsFox]

Has anyone noticed an increase in PDA inaccuracy? I have noticed the same type of error happen at least a dozen times in the last few months. Basically, the device will misinterpret the backroom barcode and stow the item in a totally different aisle. Say I have a TM backstocking CHEM and they stow a bottle of Tide in 01A047R31 but the device reads the BR location as 01A007R31. I usually find these errors when a CAF takes me to a totally different fill group's aisle. They're not mispicks because 11/12 times, I can go to the particular waco in the correct fill group aisle and find the right item for the batch.

I find this disconcerting because if I'm finding and fixing a dozen errors then the 30 other people that pull in the BR could be m-deleting a dozen non-error-errors each, causing baffles throughout the backroom.

 

[Produce Queen]

We've been having trouble with the 9200 PDA's. You put in 6, it backstocks 66. Plus the few that come up with gibberish. You push 15, you get xy52gtz.
Then there's the no sensitivity to the touchscreen issue.

These 9200's were supposed to be an improvement right? They do scan labels easier unless of course you're in the freezer and the scanner cover frosts over. So damn annoying.

 

[missionimpossible]

Has anyone noticed an increase in PDA inaccuracy? I have noticed the same type of error happen at least a dozen times in the last few months. Basically, the device will misinterpret the backroom barcode and stow the item in a totally different aisle. Say I have a TM backstocking CHEM and they stow a bottle of Tide in 01A047R31 but the device reads the BR location as 01A007R31. I usually find these errors when a CAF takes me to a totally different fill group's aisle. They're not mispicks because 11/12 times, I can go to the particular waco in the correct fill group aisle and find the right item for the batch.

I find this disconcerting because if I'm finding and fixing a dozen errors then the 30 other people that pull in the BR could be m-deleting a dozen non-error-errors each, causing baffles throughout the backroom.

yeah we have at least 3 every morning. Usually it is something in soft lines when we are pulling H&B or Diapers.

 

[Guest]

Produce Queen, the 9200 PDAs are just as bad as the older ones. I deal with the same issue. I can press 3 or 4 as the QTY and the PDA thinks I'm pressing 33 or 44. It's a pain in my hairy ass. The PDAs that have the yk2xz problem are the worst. I try to avoid those as much as possible. The PDAs in general are really shitty at my store. They freeze up or log us out of RF apps a lot. I also love on the 9200 PDAs how it says invalid location when there is nothing wrong with the location barcode or how the location is the wrong location even though it's the right location.

 

[Backroom81]

The 9200s have a serious problem with double keying and random characters. I avoid them like the plague.

 

[LogisticsFox]

I forget where I read it but the random characters are due to an electrical glitch between the keyboard and the backlighting. Simply press blue+x to toggle it off and your PDA will play a lot nicer ;3

I prefer to pull using a LPDA so I avoid MC9200s in general but they were definitely a step in the wrong direction.

 

[mrknownothing]

The 9200s have a serious problem with double keying and random characters. I avoid them like the plague.

I would avoid them too if the 9090s and LPDAs weren't slower than a Smart Cart with a dying battery.

 

[Produce Queen]

I forget where I read it but the random characters are due to an electrical glitch between the keyboard and the backlighting. Simply press blue+x to toggle it off and your PDA will play a lot nicer ;3

I prefer to pull using a LPDA so I avoid MC9200s in general but they were definitely a step in the wrong direction.

Thank you! I'll try this tomorrow.

 

[konk]

I was able to backstock for an eighth of my time tonight.

 

[IHeartCarts]

Ok so what exactly is the BR score? And what is the group? We've been #1 ever since I knew how to check it but I can't imagine how.

 

[konk]

The BR score is the average of all the scores for the BR. The group is the collection of districts in a geographical area. Every store that is green is in first place, but their scores are not all the same. The number is always on the graph though.