Archived What can RDCs do better to help stores?

[jenna]

Target quick facts

Target has:

1,795 stores in the United States
38 distribution centers in the United States

http://pressroom.target.com/corporate

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hmmm changing 38 centers could improve the work flow at almost 1800 stores

 

[SFSFun]

I know that it would be costly and involve big changes and renovations to do pre-sorted pallets, but the savings would come from increased productivity at the store level.

My other job is in a grocery store and I have seen first-hand how well this can work. The unload can be done by one person in 20-30 minutes and the pallets are dropped at the end of the aisles. Then the overnight stocking team comes in, bowls everything out, and gets to work. It takes 8 hours for 5-6 people to stock a 100,000 sq ft store (store is closed for 5 of those hours).

 

[trowa03]

Target quick facts

Target has:

1,795 stores in the United States
38 distribution centers in the United States

http://pressroom.target.com/corporate

-
hmmm changing 38 centers could improve the work flow at almost 1800 stores

It's actually less then 38 RDC's, we have RDC's, FDC's, IW's, and FS's(.com). I think we have about 23 or so true RDC's, and that number is set to shrink a bit as we develop UPDC's.

As far as how helpful it would be to ship product on pallets, Target wont bother until 1. the price of store based labor becomes to high or the price of moving goods drops significantly. I'm at an IW and for some of the RDC's that we ship to the cost of transportation alone is more then what most TM's make in a month, factor in the cost of labor at either the IW or Deconsolidator and then to the RDC then the cost to ship the product yet again to the store and then factor in all the nice what if's and you find that the cost of moving product around is staggering even for a billion dollar company.
Granted I don't see all the hard numbers, I just get to see a glimpse of it from my end but the bit I do get to see I can see how it can add up fast.


As far as people at the RDC's doing stupid things like putting heavy product on top of light product you can look squarely at a management structure that's more interested in making sure they are meeting specific metrics (being green), then being interested in what those same metrics may or may not be doing further down the line and what it ends up costing us in the big picture.

 

[Backroom81]

hmmm changing 38 centers could improve the work flow at almost 1800 stores

You forget we work for a company who's solutions to the continuing problems with online fulfillment is to create 1800 mini fulfillment centers.

 

[jenna]

It's actually less then 38 RDC's, we have RDC's, FDC's, IW's, and FS's(.com). I think we have about 23 or so true RDC's, and that number is set to shrink a bit as we develop UPDC's.


As far as people at the RDC's doing stupid things like putting heavy product on top of light product you can look squarely at a management structure that's more interested in making sure they are meeting specific metrics (being green), then being interested in what those same metrics may or may not be doing further down the line and what it ends up costing us in the big picture.

hmmm.... oddly enough, that sounds very familiar.

 

[MIRSlave]

Stop putting heavy crap on tvs that are lying flat, seriously. I think this is an issue with my DC. I would hope that this doesnt happen at most DCs.

I think palletizing stuff according to custom block/department would work wonders at the store level.

 

[SFSFun]

You forget we work for a company who's solutions to the continuing problems with online fulfillment is to create 1800 mini fulfillment centers.

I question how much sense this makes every time I pack a box containing nothing but a package of toilet paper to be sent hundreds of miles away...

 

[Backroom22]

All the strip labels should be the peel off kind, not the kind where you have to pull the paper under it. Those little papers end up all over the floor and in my pockets.

 

[Jack of all Workcenters]

All the strip labels should be the peel off kind, not the kind where you have to pull the paper under it. Those little papers end up all over the floor and in my pockets.

The DCs have been doing this for years. I just figure they have that many old labels to get through. Or someone is too cheap to replace the last couple machines using the old shitty method.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

The DCs have been doing this for years. I just figure they have that many old labels to get through. Or someone is too cheap to replace the last couple machines using the old shitty method.

We at the DC would love if all labels were the double-backed kind (you can hand label SOOO much faster with them). Currently the double-backed are only used on the ART stamping arms. I heard somewhere that they cost twice as much as regular labels, so that's probably why we don't see more of them.

 

[SFSFun]

All the strip labels should be the peel off kind, not the kind where you have to pull the paper under it. Those little papers end up all over the floor and in my pockets.

At my store, we peel that part off and attach it vertically (forming a cross).

 

[TgtTrainer]

I feel a very long explaination coming on.

So for those who dont know, here is how the process works for us at a general RDC. This could explain a lot of the reasons we do the things we do.

This is how MOST pallets come to us, delivered by the vendors. (Picture included somewhere).

Most freight comes to us on very mixed up pallets by the vendor. Our inbound department unloads these pallets off the vendor trailer, and breaks down these pallets into individual cartons.

Depending on how logistics schedules the cartons, some freight is labeled and put on a series of conveyors to be taken to our trailers being loaded to be sent to a store. The rest is labeled, or repalletized if the amount is significant enough, and set to be stored in specific locations throughout the warehouse.

As for the stored away freight, every day at 4am, a computer generated set of labels is printed out for the warehousing department. These labels are generated based on store sales, and each label is for a specific item for a specific store. Warehousings' job is to take these labels, find the freight specified on the label, label each carton, and put it on the conveyors to be sent to the trailer being loaded for that store.

So heres 1 problem. Most trailers are loaded for 3 consecutive days before they are full, or needed to be cut and sent anyway. Say the computer generates 3 labels of a specific carton of diapers. Three cartons are labeled and loaded. Say the next day the computer generates 5 more. They are labeled and loaded, but since 24hrs has passed they are certainly loaded further back on the trailer. 3rd day same thing, and so on.

There is a lot more to it, but that is a nutshell.

 

[konk]

Makes sense. So every store that the DC services has its own bay? Or does each store have multiple bays since they are there for 3 days?

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

Makes sense. So every store that the DC services has its own bay? Or does each store have multiple bays since they are there for 3 days?

Each store has it's own dedicated trailer bay. Store 0123 will always be in bay 001, 4567 in bay 002, et cetera.The only exceptions are for EXTREME high volume stores, which have a separate non-con/PIPO and conveyable trailer bay. The length it sits there is based upon sales (ie. a AAA store may only be there for 10-14hrs before filled and a new trailer for the same store is back-filled in, while a ULV will wait the whole 3 days til cut).

 

[TgtTrainer]

And to take this a bit further, at a DC we have 2 main obstacles we have to worry about. LOS (dont remember the exact meaning, Loss of Sales maybe?) and production numbers.

Every department has its own LOS concerns. LOS is basically a time countdown of how long we have to get the job done. If we dont meet LOS, that department can become RED by Target standards. Enough RED days and we earn a visit from Corporate with a nice butt chewing.

So heres how LOS goes. Once a vendor trailer arrives, Inbound has 72hrs to have it completely unloaded and recieved in.

Any freight being stored, warehousing has 48hrs to have that freight put into its storing locations.

Once labels are generated, Warehousing has 72hrs to find and label the freight.

Once the freight is labeled, Outbbound has 72hrs to have it loaded onto the designated trailer.

All that sounds like a lot of time, but keep in mind Inbound only has about 25 team members with vendor trailers arriving constantly 24hrs a day.
Warehousing has about 20 team members to get that freight put, and also pull labels that have been generated. Generally a daily drop of labels consists of about 40,000 labels to pull.

And finally, Outbound has about 20 team members to get all the labeled freight loaded into its designated trailers.

Then to top it all off, we have our production rates to hit.

Inbound team members have to unload and recieve at a rate of about 275 cartons per hour (per team member).

An example of warehousing, team members have to put stores pallets of freight into rack locations at 54 pallets per hour(per team member) using a type of forklift. And the guys pulling labels have to run 180 cartons per hour.

And honestly I dont remember Outbounds numbers, but they are pretty outrageous too.

Balancing the LOS concerns and production rates is pretty rough for us.

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

And honestly I dont remember Outbounds numbers, but they are pretty outrageous too.

Balancing the LOS concerns and production rates is pretty rough for us.

OB doors=445 cph, non-con sort is 55 cph, depal is 575 cph, and the mezz is somewhere around 2100 cph per person, though I think our wage survey comes out in the near future, so everything's prob gonna jump up again...

And LOS=Level of Service, though if something rolls into day 3, it might as well be loss of sales in corporate's eyes....

 

[TgtTrainer]

OB doors=445 cph, non-con sort is 55 cph, depal is 575 cph, and the mezz is somewhere around 2100 cph per person, though I think our wage survey comes out in the near future, so everything's prob gonna jump up again...

And LOS=Level of Service, though if something rolls into day 3, it might as well be loss of sales in corporate's eyes....

Thanks for the input. Closest I really ever make it to outbound is sorting pipo as a GPMer, or taking freight to depal.