Logistics The Flow/Inbound thread: Until We Yeet Again edition 🤙

Not going to do anything to slow up the unload. They dont even scan at my store. We must triple and quadruple handle almost everything we touch.
 
Working my first ever flow shift tomorrow. I'm officially front end, but one of the guys couldn't work tomorrow morning and ETL is okay with me stepping in. This should be interesting. I really do want to cross train so I have some more flexibility in picking up shifts, and I'm hoping this is my foot in that door.
 
GoodyNN said:
Working my first ever flow shift tomorrow. I'm officially front end, but one of the guys couldn't work tomorrow morning and ETL is okay with me stepping in. This should be interesting. I really do want to cross train so I have some more flexibility in picking up shifts, and I'm hoping this is my foot in that door.
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Better hope your foot is through the door and not under the dock plate when it drops
 
Two hours down. So far, so good. It definitely helps that I'm familiar with reshop so I know how to read tags. Aside from the first hour (sorting the cases from the truck), it's been reshop on steroids.

My GSA seemed a bit surprised to see me in the store and in red so early, though LOL
 
I have no idea how many pieces we got, I just know the truck was packed. I assume that data is available somewhere?


Turned out I was only scheduled for 4 hours, not the 6 that I thought I was. Glad I looked at the grid while I was waiting to clock back in from meal. Anyway, I definitely enjoyed the assignment and would love to do it again if I can work out my scheduling.
 
^ Glad you liked it. It can be challenging with doubles or when the weather is hot- the trailers hold considerable heat. Mho but modernization will eventually be retrofitted with the old flow processes especially q4. Learning about those now could be very useful for you and other tms.
 
nooooo said:
Nice. Our store would just let it sit on the line and we’ll get to it when we get to it. Why give someone extra time to push and come clean?
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lol that's usually what we do too but every once and a while they decide to roll a few extra dimes my way
 
can't touch this said:
The problem we're having is that repack team doofus assumes all the repacks marked housewares are actually housewares and doesn't open them to check, even though we have time and it's expected that we sort accurately. At the very most it would add another 10 minutes to breakout
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Weird, you guys dont actually sort through them? At my store I open every single box and sort every single one into carts when the truck is done on the back of the line. The domestic boxes I open and sort. Towels all in one (been three the past couple of days) cart, bed sheets into another, and so on. Those repacks take literally seconds to sort of you have any good handle on your stores domestic layout. I could not imagine leaving them as-is and expecting whoever is working the area to go box-by-box. Way too much travel time.
 
Luck said:
Weird, you guys dont actually sort through them? At my store I open every single box and sort every single one into carts when the truck is done on the back of the line. The domestic boxes I open and sort. Towels all in one (been three the past couple of days) cart, bed sheets into another, and so on. Those repacks take literally seconds to sort of you have any good handle on your stores domestic layout. I could not imagine leaving them as-is and expecting whoever is working the area to go box-by-box. Way too much travel time.
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Ours are all sorted too. I do H&B, and they put mine on tubs that I take to the floor and sort into carts there. Domestics and the other hardlines repacks get put on pallets and a couple other TMs sort those into carts a little later on. I couldn't imagine them not being sorted. I'm a little too OCD to deal with working box by box or having stuff just dumped into carts without any kind of sorting.
 
citrusapple said:
Ours are all sorted too. I do H&B, and they put mine on tubs that I take to the floor and sort into carts there. Domestics and the other hardlines repacks get put on pallets and a couple other TMs sort those into carts a little later on. I couldn't imagine them not being sorted. I'm a little too OCD to deal with working box by box or having stuff just dumped into carts without any kind of sorting.
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Okay good I was very concerned. Ig there is one thing that always gets me it's the lack of uniformity between stores. Certain things will work better for certain stores but I cringe thinking at the time loss from so much travel unless the store is absolutely tiny and the domestics section is only a few isles. Everyone keeps saying "team" and "a few people" and all that though. Is it really not just one poor sucker (just kidding I love doing them) doing combos at your stores? My store has one person each doing electronics, H&B, Softlines (occasionally two), Combos, and Stationary/Office/Spot.
 
Luck said:
Okay good I was very concerned. Ig there is one thing that always gets me it's the lack of uniformity between stores. Certain things will work better for certain stores but I cringe thinking at the time loss from so much travel unless the store is absolutely tiny and the domestics section is only a few isles. Everyone keeps saying "team" and "a few people" and all that though. Is it really not just one poor sucker (just kidding I love doing them) doing combos at your stores? My store has one person each doing electronics, H&B, Softlines (occasionally two), Combos, and Stationary/Office/Spot.
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When it comes to domestics and hardlines, there will either be one or two TMs sorting them, depending on how many we get. There are three TMs that our Flow TL likes to have sort them so he'll pick one or two from them. I'm the only one who ever sorts H&B unless I take a truck day off.
 
citrusapple said:
I would love it if they could open and check the repacks on the line. If DC would stop, for example, putting a few H&B items in a box of stationery and marking it as H&B, then I would say having the line check them would be reasonable. I always end up with at least one repack box full of stuff that doesn't go to my area. Yesterday's truck, I had three full mislabeled repacks and two boxes full of stuff in the H&B boxes that wasn't such. The other hardlines repack sorters got two mislabeled boxes that were full of H&B.
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This. So much this.
I've often wished that the folks who pack and label the repacks would come to my store and see what it's like to actually push the product from the boxes they pack. I keep waiting for all the electronics stuff that comes in a repack with a 3-pack of body wash to get ruined because of a leaky bottle..... Or have them pick up a box and have the bottom fall out because it was over-packed with mouthwash and "a few" other heavy things. Ug.
 
Luck said:
Weird, you guys dont actually sort through them? At my store I open every single box and sort every single one into carts when the truck is done on the back of the line. The domestic boxes I open and sort. Towels all in one (been three the past couple of days) cart, bed sheets into another, and so on. Those repacks take literally seconds to sort of you have any good handle on your stores domestic layout. I could not imagine leaving them as-is and expecting whoever is working the area to go box-by-box. Way too much travel time.
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We used to do it this way, and it worked very well. Not any more. All of us who work repacks think the "new and improved" way is stupid, but our opinions count for exactly zero.
 
Luck said:
Weird, you guys dont actually sort through them? At my store I open every single box and sort every single one into carts when the truck is done on the back of the line. The domestic boxes I open and sort. Towels all in one (been three the past couple of days) cart, bed sheets into another, and so on. Those repacks take literally seconds to sort of you have any good handle on your stores domestic layout. I could not imagine leaving them as-is and expecting whoever is working the area to go box-by-box. Way too much travel time.
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Our leaders tell us not to sort and to just work it from the box. So counterproductive.
 
nooooo said:
Our leaders tell us not to sort and to just work it from the box. So counterproductive.
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Now I understand how so many people can say their stores have pallets of repacks leftover from days prior that have not been worked o_O
 
Luck said:
Weird, you guys dont actually sort through them? At my store I open every single box and sort every single one into carts when the truck is done on the back of the line. The domestic boxes I open and sort. Towels all in one (been three the past couple of days) cart, bed sheets into another, and so on. Those repacks take literally seconds to sort of you have any good handle on your stores domestic layout. I could not imagine leaving them as-is and expecting whoever is working the area to go box-by-box. Way too much travel time.
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Ain't got time to sort them by aisle. Best we can do is sort by department. Many moons ago the OG repack team would sort them as you describe, but that stopped being a thing sometime in early 2016 iirc. It takes a couple people about 5-6 hours to push domestics on days when there are 2-3 huge flats, which happens a lot so I've been owning domestics as a strategy to get more hours. It's inefficient but we've never been in trouble for taking too long and sometimes even asked to stay a full shift to finish it so whateva.
 
FlowTeamChick said:
This. So much this.
I've often wished that the folks who pack and label the repacks would come to my store and see what it's like to actually push the product from the boxes they pack. I keep waiting for all the electronics stuff that comes in a repack with a 3-pack of body wash to get ruined because of a leaky bottle..... Or have them pick up a box and have the bottom fall out because it was over-packed with mouthwash and "a few" other heavy things. Ug.
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Box bottoms falling out is a constant thing. They load a box with individual bottles of shampoo, that poor box doesn't stand a chance. There's at least one every truck. And there's always at least one leaked bottle in those too.
 
can't touch this said:
Ain't got time to sort them by aisle. Best we can do is sort by department. Many moons ago the OG repack team would sort them as you describe, but that stopped being a thing sometime in early 2016 iirc. It takes a couple people about 5-6 hours to push domestics on days when there are 2-3 huge flats, which happens a lot so I've been owning domestics as a strategy to get more hours. It's inefficient but we've never been in trouble for taking too long and sometimes even asked to stay a full shift to finish it so whateva.
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So for funsies I timed myself today. It took 30 seconds per domestic repack to fully sort by location (not by aisle just like items together). 30 seconds. And that includes the time to open and breakdown the box which frankly is half the time and is time you would use kn the floor too but I wont worry about that as it makes up for the ~2 minutes it takes to grab the carts.

From there it took me about 15 minutes to work each cart as an average. Each cart is, again heavily averaged, 2 repacks of volume. That means via sorting each repack takes approx. 7.5 minutes to work. Considering each flat can handle around 18 repacks, and you said 2 of them it should have taken 4.5 hours TOTAL to do the repacks. And that included the time I used walking back and forth to the backroom to grab new carts when I was done working the 2 I bring to the floor. Which keeps the floor a lot clearer for guests improving their experience.

I dont think there is any two ways about it. You said 5-6 hours which is reasonable for maybe one person if they are little of the slow side or you guys stacked a bit higher than Target safety height but a whole team? You are taking at minimum double the time you are scheduled by corporate to work repacks by not sorting.
 
I really don't get how corporate thinks sorting the repacks is a poor use of time. Maybe I'm weird, but I happen to like and value efficiency. Mostly, I work the health care end of HBA - let me sort the repacks into carts and do all of the first aid & tummy care aisle at one time, move on to the next one. But no, I have to move the u-boat from aisle to aisle, pushing a few items from this repack, 1 or 2 from another. Finish that u-boat and go get another one, repeat. Get annoyed at myself when I find that one thing I missed in the box for 4 aisles back. "They" say this is better, but I sure don't see it.
 
Luck said:
I dont think there is any two ways about it. You said 5-6 hours which is reasonable for maybe one person if they are little of the slow side or you guys stacked a bit higher than Target safety height but a whole team? You are taking at minimum double the time you are scheduled by corporate to work repacks by not sorting.
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I wish I could post pics of our setup without revealing myself, but my admittedly inept description will have to suffice. I should have noted earlier that some of that figure includes time spent fighting our way around guests or getting sent on long side quests around the store by same, especially if it's a busy weekend and/or close to Q4. Most guests seem to have a sixth sense about the location of the item in my hand so they can make sure to move themselves and their cart in front of the shelf location. A single interaction close to the vacuum wall especially tends to suck you in like a black hole ("looking for a belt for this vacuum that I don't remember the model of or where I bought it?????") Also add cart rallies, which the ETL-LOG has explicitly told us we are NOT exempt from. I could probably trim it down to 4-ish hours if this were an overnight gig in a closed store....at any rate the sorting into carts thing will probably be rolled out again once we go back to E2E.
 
Luck said:
That means via sorting each repack takes approx. 7.5 minutes to work. Considering each flat can handle around 18 repacks, and you said 2 of them it should have taken 4.5 hours TOTAL to do the repacks.
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4.5 hours for domestic repacks?!? That's a whole shift for one of my team members, not including the unload! I'm sorry, but one flat of domestic repacks should, under the worst circumstances, take 1.5 hours at MOST. So for 2 flats that's 3 hours or else you're not fit to work repacks on my team, sorted or unsorted.
 

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