For grocery, I run our evening (kmp) truck, for the most part on my own. We used to have multiple people working these trucks but now with the **** hours, they rely on one person to do the whole thing. It averages around 300 cases, but sometimes goes to 500. Anyway, seems like most of the time the DDP says it's supposed to take between 5-6 hours to run that truck and of course it has the number of cases. Well after busting my ass several days and typically getting most of the truck finished (sometimes they give me a little help if it looks like I won't be able to finish it), I got to wondering how in the hell a guy can get these trucks ran, by himself, in 5-6 hours that it allows. So I started investigating, counting my cases. Occasionally the case count is pretty close, but usually it's off....we'll have 350 when it says 300. One time we had close to 600 when it was only supposed to be like 450 (I can't remember the exact figures). So I kept track of the cases and times it took me to run them. typically I was running about more than a case a minute for most of the truck (obviously some aisles are more difficult than others). I generally do the hardest ones first and I still run more than a case a minute. It just aggravates me when I'm told that it's only supposed to take 5 hours to do something that's clearly not accurate. I don't know how much more streamlined I can make this job. I sort the product on the carts by putting similar things together (front of cart= front of the aisle, back=back), I only empty my cardboard when it's full to save time on that. I'm literally finishing a cart, dragging it to the back room, dumping my backstock and grabbing another cart. I'm in the backroom for maybe 2 minutes.
What they don't factor in is things like helping customers, breaks, phone calls, tying bales, cleaning up spills, and fatigue. Nobody can work a full 8 hour shift and keep the same full-speed pace that you had when you got into your groove. Oh and I actually rotate much of the time. Not 100% because that'd be impossible, but probably 25% or so (whereas my coworkers rotate <1% of the time). I know what things have a shorter shelf life (tortillas, some coffee, etc) so I keep an eye on that stuff. Even still, I'm making good times.
Oh something else that i don't feel the computer is allowing for is sorting product for produce and drug/gm that's mixed in with my product. Those are extra cases that I have to handle. What about mispicks? Those errant cases have to be sorted ..plus the time it takes me to grab the gun and make the necessary adjustments to the BOH when I find something that clearly wasn't meant to be ordered. When you're looking for mispicks, they're super easy to spot and it's wild how many of them we actually get. multiple cases every truck.
I'm not bitching, I'm just trying to find a way to show them that their almighty system is flawed.
First off, DDP doesn't count a lot of the product. If 1000 pieces came in, you may only get "credit" for 900 of those. This is because some things aren't given any time to work(yes, it's ridiculous) For example, they give 0 minutes for a pallet of water so those cases aren't counted. Even if you did just drop the pallet, you'd still need to get it off the truck, haul it to the appropriate spot, drop it, wrap & sign it. That's not 0 minutes. That and you have to fill the shelf individually. Some stores even have enough shelf space for Kroger 24 count water to have an entire pallet in the shelf. Hand stacking the 72 or so cases of water is not an instant job.
Everything you mentioned about other tasks are "supposedly" included in the time allowed, but everyone knows that's BS. Or if it is, it assumes a robot is doing the work at 100% efficiency. If I'm working at my average pace, doing everything I need to be doing including stock, scanning residual backstock, & cleanup it's usually right at the DDP allotted time. But that's with no major interruptions like assisting a customer, cleaning up spills, tipped pallets etc. Basically, if things are perfect, you should be able to get done on time, otherwise it's impossible. Luckily, our store manager knows this and doesn't pull in the reigns when it comes to hours, and allows overages a lot of the time. A lot of stores are not like that, and go strictly by ELMS and those stores are naturally negatively affected by it.
ELMS is actually incredibly detailed & incredible when you think about it, down to the survey of the store you are working in. How many steps it takes to get from the back room to the aisle etc. That being said, even as incredible as it is, the inherent flaw is that stuff happens, and things never go perfectly to plan especially when dealing with humans at every point of the process. Humans are not robots, mistakes happen, fatigue happens, shoddy warehouse pallet stacking happens, spills happen, customers happen. It can be a great tool, but in my opinion it should be treated as CAO is, as a tool and not an end all solution to hour distribution.
lol. I thought I was the only person that paid attention to the DDP.
I am still annoyed about a night last month. It was a 01 grocery truck and a kmp truck on the same night. There were 7 of us. 1669 cases. I ran 469 cases, conditioned, pulled 12 items off of backstock and did a 30 minute order that night in 8.5 hours. I run the canned veggie, soup and tuna aisle. We should have each ran 15% of the truck. I ran 28% of the truck in the "hardest" aisle. While a part timer with over 6 months spends the entire 8 hour shift running pet food.
My Day Grocery manager said something the other day. We are not supposed to be sorting the kmp pallets. They are aisle friendly! Yeah, I like dragging a 2000 pound pallet thru out the store. We work at night and sometimes it is able to be done but not often. My 01 grocery pallets are much easier to work directly off of the pallet.
Before the DDP, we had TSG(team stocking guide). For a 600 case kmp truck, it would allow 1.5-2 hours to sort it onto L carts. The DR/GM manager would sort the blue totes. If the store was conditioned, pallets were on L carts, a case a minute is doable.
If you are running a case a minute, that is 100%. I have heard doing 80 % of the DDP is acceptable but the goal is 100%.
OP here. Glad I'm not the only one! I'm not sure if I should be more aggravated at the genius who thought the DDP was a great idea (who looks at it anyway?) or my fellow coworkers who can barely do half of what I do in a shift. You've just got to stay focused. My coworkers are notorious for going to the bathroom 2-3 times in a shift, standing around talking, or coming up with other excuses for not getting it done. I, on the other hand, can work and talk to someone at the same time, unlike a coworker who will literally follow you just to talk (run a damn case!!).
As for the actual DDP, do all stores have the dry-erase clipboard with the different tasks on it? Our clear plastic is coming off from people rubbing too hard, so the clipboard is a mess (hello, ever heard of a wet paper towel? windex?). But seriously, who comes in to look and make sure that items are checked off as they're completed? I don't have time to do that!!
OP here. Glad I'm not the only one! I'm not sure if I should be more aggravated at the genius who thought the DDP was a great idea (who looks at it anyway?) or my fellow coworkers who can barely do half of what I do in a shift. You've just got to stay focused.
I think if there are too many OT hours, the store manager will bring up the DDP and ask why are there so many hours being used. The day grocery manager is supposed to be filling out the clip board and inputting it into the computer I believe. Someone from corporate can look up the info from the DDP if they want. I am betting it is supposed to be part of the key retail inspections. Just to make sure it is being filled out. I do not think enough managers understand the DDP enough to press the issue why everything isn't getting done. 4 bodies does not equal for workers. There will always be a slacker on the crew. Eventually, I could see it used to fire full timers if the contract goes further downhill.
When I was part time and in charge of the crew, a co manager showed me the DDP and asked me why the truck and all backstock didn't get done. I went down the list for her. The DDP doesn't include running backstock water, ordering, spotting, changing the bale, unloading a grocery truck, conditioning or answering fast alert. I could easily spend 4 hours doing manager type tasks before doing any actual work to help the crew finish.
I do have a clicker and I do count cases every once in a while. I am working above 100% and always get asked to do more to pick up someone elses slack. I try to focus on what I am doing and ignore what everyone else does.
I am wondering if you are getting cases from the blue totes or natures market and that is adding cases to your workload. I will look at our kmp DDP tonight. I think the totes are supposed to be separate. You could go into ISP and check the case count on the order for kmp if you are curious about the case difference from DDP and the ISP order.
Um, if you're not rotating you're putting a lot of people at a health risk. Tell me, is getting "good numbers" worth causing a taco epidemic in your community? Didn't think so.
