Archived The Big & Dandy Backroom thread!

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I had watch an item, not be pulled for 4 days on sale & finally pulled the item today. I can't figure out why. It not my area, I notice stupid stuff(empty shelve). Shelve qty is correct.
It was X on hand, 0 on floor, X in back? And still didn't pull?
 
Burning batches essentially messes up the accumulator, right? How do I correct this?

Also, our store receives a lot of bulk beverage (water, caprisun, la croix etc.), does not locating these pallets affect the amount we receive? It just seems we're getting backed up with multiple pallets. Our backroom team will not locate these and are just worked day by day (similar concept to vendors). I get the logic because it'd be easier to grab the pallet and stock than adding it in pulls (CAF/AF). However, there are days when no one would have time to stock it. And that night we'd receive another pallet of it water (or something).

Are we really selling THAT many or have we messed up the system somehow..
 
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Burning batches essentially messes up the accumulator, right? How do I correct this?

Also, our store receives a lot of bulk beverage (water, caprisun, la croix etc.), does not locating these pallets affect the amount we receive? It just seems we're getting backed up with multiple pallets. Our backroom team will not locate these and are just worked day by day (similar concept to vendors). I get the logic because it'd be easier to grab the pallet and stock than adding it in pulls (CAF/AF). However, there are days when no one would have time to stock it. And that night we'd receive another pallet of it water (or something).

Are we really selling THAT many or have we messed up the system somehow..
When backroom pulls something, it immediately changes the "on floor amount." However, backstocking does not change the on floor amount. For example: An item has 2 on the floor, a capacity of 12, and backroom pulls a case of 10 in a batch, but burns it...the system will think there are 12 on the floor and likely won't replenish it when the last 2 are sold because it thinks there are 10 more on the shelf. This is why RIGs and instocks are so important now.

The issue with not locating some BEV1 and BEV2 is that your instocks team needs to know not to research those items. If they want to research it, they would need to count and backstock it first. Otherwise it will just zero out everything that's not in the back.

Also, there's no reason not to locate capri sun and lacroix. We keep the most popular flavors backstocked on pallets in bulk (3 pallets with 3-4 flavors on each one).
 
Also, there's no reason not to locate capri sun and lacroix. We keep the most popular flavors backstocked on pallets in bulk (3 pallets with 3-4 flavors on each one).

You would think but our ETLs think it's more convenient not to backstock it. We're also a smaller store so we don't really have the space since diapers and plastics take up most of our pallet spaces. It's too bad instocks always gets taken to do something else..

On a side note, is there a reason why certain things don't ask for quantity while being backstocked (ie. Softlines, Dollar Spot)?
 
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I remember hearing once that not locating an item may result in excessive replenishment from the DC, depending on the OTL and whatnot. Anything that's not vendor-supplied or store-ordered should always be backstocked in order to maintain green instocks and (ideally) not be inundated with excess product.

On a side note, is there a reason why certain things don't ask for quantity while being backstocked (ie. Softlines, Dollar Spot)?

I don't know, but dealing with BUCK openstock drives me crazy. You'll have like 5 or 6 different things with the same DPCI, and you don't even know they're the same until you look at each one's DPCI on the packaging. It does make backstocking bulk and softlines a little bit faster, though.
 
So my store is finally getting back on track in regards to our logistics process. For the past 5-7 months or so, our backroom has been an absolute disaster since Overnight was never able to finish. Now that our previous BRTL permanently transitioned to Overnight, and that our new STL is kicking ass and taking names, our overnight process finally seems to be making some progress. On my last close, we were done with the backstock from the 5's by 6pm and the line was set by 7. I had forgotten how good it feels to actually come clean at the end of a shift.
 
When our backroom comes clean (a few times a year), it usually becomes a giant black hole full of backstock a day or two later. I don't know why...

On a non related note the price change pull goal continues to be nuts. 24 min it said yesterday, took me almost 2 hours. 4 vehicles of stuff to pull.
 
New PDA update went out. Some changes I noticed:

Print barcodes/bcode is back.
Processing ship to store orders is a bit more involved with more screens added.

I noticed the PDA was constantly trying to load on the all apps screen and I had to soft reboot the PDA a few times to get it to work. I don't know if the network was being terrible today or it was a side effect of the update.
 
Print barcodes/bcode is back.

It's about fucking time.

Processing ship to store orders is a bit more involved with more screens added.

Wonderful. Because it didn't take long enough already, let's add more steps.

I noticed the PDA was constantly trying to load on the all apps screen and I had to soft reboot the PDA a few times to get it to work. I don't know if the network was being terrible today or it was a side effect of the update.

Must be that state-of-the-art network infrastructure.
 
I noticed the PDA was constantly trying to load on the all apps screen and I had to soft reboot the PDA a few times to get it to work. I don't know if the network was being terrible today or it was a side effect of the update.
We've had the update for at least a week and I've noticed it doing that too. Usually hitting toggle will get out of it when that happens.
 
Thank the lord. None of our coolers were ever bcoded because they were too lazy to get a myDevice.

I am glad for that too. We can't print bar codes at guest service for a reason I haven't bothered to find out since the GSTM's don't know or haven't been told or I just missed it. But I do usually have access to a PDA and the backroom printer so I can barcode stuff for RFID..
 
Thank the lord. None of our coolers were ever bcoded because they were too lazy to get a myDevice there were no MyDevices available.

Fixed it for you.

I am glad for that too. We can't print bar codes at guest service for a reason I haven't bothered to find out since the GSTM's don't know or haven't been told or I just missed it. But I do usually have access to a PDA and the backroom printer so I can barcode stuff for RFID..

Are you talking about printing barcodes from the register using Smart Sort? If so, the GSTL may need to re-associate the printers.
 
I forgot to make a post here, but we went through Inventory about a week ago. It was my first inventory in Logistics, so it was interesting... until I realized that literally all I had to do for my remaining 6 hour shift was stand around in the women's stockroom and do SKU checks. No word yet on how we did, but when I asked one of the inventory guys on my way out he said "so far, you guys are on par with other Targets." I still can't figure out if that's good or bad.

Anyways, so on the night of inventory Overnight obviously couldn't pull the autofills until after inventory was complete, so it sounds like they ended up being able to pull, push, and backstock very little before the end of their shift and store opening. So on my opening shift after inventory, our 3PM CAFs were ELEVEN HOURS LONG. When they dropped, it was only me and one other Backroom TM and there was nobody on the floor who could hop back to help pull. Thankfully, because of inventory SFS orders didn't start dropping until around 11am or so, so we were able to pull all 5 of them to help out with the CAFs. We finished with I think about 2 minutes to spare, and I'm amazed that we made it at all. However, I'm sure that there is no way in hell that the sales floor team was able to push it all out. Seasonal alone generated 5 vehicles, I'm sure we had at least 25-30 vehicles of push.
 
Our inventory was complete hell earlier this year. The company had something like 12 call outs and they didn't finish inventory until 10 or 11 am the following day. Flow had to do push all on the truck as a result and made our backroom a complete mess.
 
Do you guys have batches that you use to train people? I have been trying to start my trainees off in softlines because I can walk them through a batch and then jump into another softlines batch myself so I'm close enough to answer questions.

I try to keep them in the main stockroom on their first day pulling so I don't have to walk them around while we are trying to pull. Since we are a 4am flow process once we finish pulling the autos I try to walk them around the store to point out all the different stockrooms we have. What is your process for training people? I'm interested in how other people do their training.
 
Do you guys have batches that you use to train people? I have been trying to start my trainees off in softlines because I can walk them through a batch and then jump into another softlines batch myself so I'm close enough to answer questions.

I try to keep them in the main stockroom on their first day pulling so I don't have to walk them around while we are trying to pull. Since we are a 4am flow process once we finish pulling the autos I try to walk them around the store to point out all the different stockrooms we have. What is your process for training people? I'm interested in how other people do their training.

We never hire directly for the backroom. When we need to fill positions for the backroom we usually just transfer one of the top performers from flow back there. They generally already know most of the basics, so transitioning them to them back is fairly easy.
 
No word yet on how we did, but when I asked one of the inventory guys on my way out he said "so far, you guys are on par with other Targets."
My store did worse. We had a million in shortage last year. This year was like $1.6 million.
 
A quick question for my follow BRTM's, I pulled the autofill this morning for Electronics; I added it to the 3 o'clock pulls from Saturday (plus five Research, and EXF batches). I put the three-tier cart by the Electronics boat for the 7am pushers, but by 11am the pull wasn't pushed and the pushers went home; I asked them about it. They said that Flow Sr. TL told them that Electronics TM would do the pull that morning. The Electronics TM refused to do the pull and her 2 pm replacement also refused to do the pull, and that the Flow team would finish it on Monday morning; with my luck I'll end up pushing it. I'm going to bring this issue up with the Flow Sr. TL, ETL Log, and the STL; mainly because this is what happened last year where the Electronics TM's refused to push any pull during 4th Quarter, and I ended up pushing days’ worth of pulls to the floor. Are Electronics TM reasonable for pushing their pulls or is someone else?
 
A quick question for my follow BRTM's, I pulled the autofill this morning for Electronics; I added it to the 3 o'clock pulls from Saturday (plus five Research, and EXF batches). I put the three-tier cart by the Electronics boat for the 7am pushers, but by 11am the pull wasn't pushed and the pushers went home; I asked them about it. They said that Flow Sr. TL told them that Electronics TM would do the pull that morning. The Electronics TM refused to do the pull and her 2 pm replacement also refused to do the pull, and that the Flow team would finish it on Monday morning; knowing my luck I'll end up pushing it. I'm going to bring this issue up with the Flow Sr. TL, ETL Log, and the STL; mainly because this is what happened last year where the Electronics TM's refused to push any pull during 4th Quarter, and I ended up pushing days’ worth of pulls to the floor. My question is are Electronics TM reasonable for pushing their pulls or is someone else?

ASANTS, but TMs in electonics push the autos and CAFs on non-truck days at my store. It's more efficient and convenient if they do.
 
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