Archived What can RDCs do better to help stores?

[TgtTrainer]

So I was told yesterday that next week I will be walking the building with other trainers from all other departments and their supervisors to talk about downstream customer relations. In other words, we're going to talk about how our jobs affect each other and what improvements can be made to help the next department down the line.

Since obviously the stores are part of that chain and wont be able to have a representative there to speak for you guys, I wanted to ask you all myself and I will bring these issues up.

Now please be reasonable and dont spam this thread full of useless compaints. I want to hear real problems, and would be even better if you could offer a constructive solution.

 

[unknown]

What is an RDC?

 

[qmosqueen]

What is an RDC?

RDC is Regional Distribution Center.

 

[TgtTrainer]

Id really like to take this a step further and see about actually going into a store and talking to people. Maybe get a kind of tour around and see for myself what kinds of things we are doing that are affecting store team members.

Any supervisors reading this thread with any input on how to go about that? My first thought was maybe just to contact a local store, but I dont know if they can just take my word for it (who I am) or if it has to be officially sanctioned from my GM or something. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[konk]

Palletize. Build pallets with range of aisles. For pre-tied transition, combine range of T aisles. For unlocated transition and revisions, build the pallet by the transition list under RWT. Make pallets short enough so they can be stacked in the trailer to maximize space. Also build them wide if you have to so there isn't a gap in the middle.

 

[konk]

Or use the gap for cribs, mattresses, furniture. Basically, we want to be as picky as you guys are when it comes to the sweep.

 

[Backroom81]

When you ask us to sweep back the 4 pallets of assorted canned vegetables leftover from Christmas, don't refuse them when we send them back in their original f----ing wrapping with the banding still on it.

 

[POGguy]

While palletizing all frieght is probably not a option, it would help a lot if repacks were palletized together.

 

[Noiinteam]

I would like to know why when I am doing soft line repacks numbers 10 thru 16, I find HBA stuff, sheets or whatever in same box. Thank you for caring, I appreciate it.

 

[unknown]

When you ask us to sweep back the 4 pallets of assorted canned vegetables leftover from Christmas, don't refuse them when we send them back in their original f----ing wrapping with the banding still on it.

LOL. That falls under what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Or maybe not.

 

[SFSFun]

This is probably asking for too much...but the best way to help the stores would be to make the entire truck full of pre-sorted pallets that we can just take straight off the truck and out to the floor.

Hell, we could even unload and stage them for the next day as soon as the truck gets to the store, allowing the driver to take the trailer back with him.

 

[backroomguy]

The repacks that are mixed with everything from all over the store, it kills productivity. Thanks

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

Sorry to say, but everyone asking for pre-built pallets, it ain't ever gonna happen. At least not without demolishing or doing an extreme retrofit to the RDC...

The repacks that are mixed with everything from all over the store, it kills productivity. Thanks

I think Trainer mentioned this in another thread, but those are what we call IM Repacks. Stuff breaks at the RDC, but not all needs to be damaged. So the IM (sorta like a DC-side Recv/RL) stuffs what is sellable in a repack (often at random since the items that bust tend to be random) and sends it on it's merry way to the store.

 

[semantics]

What about just making the truck layout somewhat predictable, all like items only found in one spot in the truck. People can work with predictable helping the truck get unloaded quicker is always good especially for flow teams that aren't overnight. Non guest facing hours work can get done at a much quicker pace.

 

[POGguy]

Its my understanding that product is sent to the trailer being loaded as it is needed, based on what is being sold and researched at the store level. Which is why the boxes come out random. Changing that process would probably cost a lot of money. Loading trailers as pallets are built would take longer.

 

[monkeyman90]

So I was told yesterday that next week I will be walking the building with other trainers from all other departments and their supervisors to talk about downstream customer relations. In other words, we're going to talk about how our jobs affect each other and what improvements can be made to help the next department down the line.

Since obviously the stores are part of that chain and wont be able to have a representative there to speak for you guys, I wanted to ask you all myself and I will bring these issues up.

Now please be reasonable and dont spam this thread full of useless compaints. I want to hear real problems, and would be even better if you could offer a constructive solution.

get us things we beg for that we're sure that are in the dc? we can't call the dc anymore, it has to be mysupported and corp has to call the dc

 

[commiecorvus]

Take better care of the signing pallets?
I know you guys don't build them but stacking pallets on top of them that bust the signs seems a tad counter productive.
Or jamming a pallet of water into it, etc.
Just saying.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

Heavy furniture does not go on top of paper pallets stacked on top of dog food with a package of sugar thrown in. But my problems aren't with the RDC anymore, its that damned FDC that keeps screwing things up. Don't put yogurt on the bottom of the dairy pallet. Or tomatoes under the potatoes. And replace your printer ink on the damn label machine.

 

[RetailWorld]

Repack management I think would generate the most value vs effort. Let's be real....smartly loading the truck, or being able to separate cases by department is just not going to happen. Not without drastically changing the way the DC works. I mean, I'd love to be able to open the truck and see 24 pallets, separated by department, ready to go. Not going to happen though.

Break out(sans zone 9), pushing product into shopping carts, trying to work out product without pick labels, making sure those TM's have PDAs or mydevices or something...it's time consuming. I'd go as far as to say that repacks, while adding only about 10% extra product to the truck, add at least 25% increased workload.

What might really help is having color coded repacks for departments that commonly get repacks. Or color coded labels. Stationary into black, Personal Care into green, Pharmacy into blue, cosmetics into pink, domestics into yellow, bath into brown, etc etc. Ideally this would make creating the repacks at the DC easier(Less likely to throw random stuff into a pack and "forget" to circle a number) and separating product at the store level most intuitive.

Ideally what I'd like is to have your repacks on 2-4 pallets at the tail of the truck, so that as soon as you open, you can wheel those repacks out and get to sorting. That's wishful thinking though.

But as far as what is currently possible given the system, and not having to spend a drastic amount of payroll to get some kind of value....repacks are our greatest opportunity.

 

[RetailWorld]

Oh, and transition product. Since transition product isn't based upon sales, couldn't it be pre-loaded or pre-palatalized? Imagine having all your mini-seasonal candy on 2 pallets wrapped and ready to go inside the truck.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

What about just making the truck layout somewhat predictable, all like items only found in one spot in the truck. People can work with predictable helping the truck get unloaded quicker is always good especially for flow teams that aren't overnight. Non guest facing hours work can get done at a much quicker pace.

While a good idea in theory, that would require changing the entire DC process. Not to mention the first time depal rolls into food auto-freight and carts, you'd probably have most of Outbound quit on the spot. Massive amounts of gatorade, water, arizona and spaghetti sauce is no beuno.

Oh, and transition product. Since transition product isn't based upon sales, couldn't it be pre-loaded or pre-palatalized? Imagine having all your mini-seasonal candy on 2 pallets wrapped and ready to go inside the truck.

This could potentially be possible, but would require changes to IB and GPM practices, and that the transition freight is all coming off of one truck (which may not be the case).

 

[qmosqueen]

And replace your printer ink on the damn label machine.

I second this FDC wake up please.
I just STO by typing in the DCPI and i piity the poor BRTM that has to pull these.
usually they "M" delete and leave on the shelf unlocated creating a ghost.

 

[jenna]

That's funny that SPOT requires the stores to make massive changes, yet is unwilling to do so at the DC.

KOKO

I've seen the equivalent of a full pallet of Gatorade split up over several pallets. Think about how much time (Payroll) we could save if we could roll a pallet of just Gatorade off the truck and straight to the correct aisle.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

That's funny that SPOT requires the stores to make massive changes, yet is unwilling to do so at the DC.

The DC also goes through tons of changes, big and small. Best Practices change. Roles get added on. Pilots happen. It just never seemed like what happens at the DC ever gets communicated to store-side. There also aren't very many of us on these forums, so we don't talk about them a lot.

 

[jenna]

How many DCs are there?