From what I have read on this site, the computer is suppose to keep the store stocked and the ordering manager barely has to order anything.
Can you give examples of the pitfalls? Maybe I can figure a way to mitigate the damage when it rolls into our store.
I do not think we use Evolution yet. Definitely use forecasting.
If I do not order fast sellers, they become holes and it takes 3 days to get products in those spots. A product was on sale 2 weeks ago, CAO tried to order a half pallet last night. I changed it from 24 to 2 just to be safe. Forecast said we are going to sell 28 but we only have 9 in the store and the shelf only holds 8. I know that 1 will be on backstock when I work again . No one on days will look for it if a customer requests it.
I was off the last two orders so my back-up ordered. I did the order lastnight and there must be 20+ holes because he missed the boat. And, he has been doing this for 45 years(30 as a department manager)!! :/
It's just another example of Kroger relying too much on technology rather than common sense. Just because you sell X amount of a certain item on a particular day 3 weeks in a row doesn't mean you're going to sell the same amount on the 4th week. You have to look at it on a day to day basis. No matter how hard you try, you can't predict people's buying habits.
It's just another example of Kroger relying too much on technology rather than common sense. Just because you sell X amount of a certain item on a particular day 3 weeks in a row doesn't mean you're going to sell the same amount on the 4th week. You have to look at it on a day to day basis. No matter how hard you try, you can't predict people's buying habits.
As a former stocker, I knew I was smart to bail out at the start of the year.
As someone who works at a store with Order Evolution running at full speed, I can say that most of what has been said in this thread is just scare tactics. I agree that before it actually began, it seemed like it would not work. For the first week or so, it didn't work right....not every commodity was ordered properly. Some things ordered incredibly heavy on (bread) while others didn't order enough (soda). I'm not sure what was done, but those have both been fixed (it may have been Allocs or mins, but either way it's working smoothly).
As far as I can tell, the biggest change is that menus have been simplified. When I go into the gun to make an order and hit F2 to change order quantity (which is an option, btw) it automatically goes to OpOr to let me enter the quantity I want to order (whereas before I'd have to hit F2 then enter a couple times to get to the OpOr spot). When scanning residual backstock, it doesn't prompt you when your BOH is less than the ALLOC the way it used to (informing you that something MUST be wrong if you're backstocking something that has a BOH less than the ALLOC.
I'll add that all this streamlining is to allow time to keep up on BOH's. When you actually scan ALL your residual backstock and change BOH's, you'll be amazed how well the computer does at ordering. In the past, we might not catch all the mispicks which would throw the BOH's off. Now we catch them immediately, change them, and the rest takes care of itself.
There are other changes, but overall this has been a smooth transition with very few hiccups.
As someone who works at a store with Order Evolution running at full speed, I can say that most of what has been said in this thread is just scare tactics. I agree that before it actually began, it seemed like it would not work. For the first week or so, it didn't work right....not every commodity was ordered properly. Some things ordered incredibly heavy on (bread) while others didn't order enough (soda). I'm not sure what was done, but those have both been fixed (it may have been Allocs or mins, but either way it's working smoothly).
As far as I can tell, the biggest change is that menus have been simplified. When I go into the gun to make an order and hit F2 to change order quantity (which is an option, btw) it automatically goes to OpOr to let me enter the quantity I want to order (whereas before I'd have to hit F2 then enter a couple times to get to the OpOr spot). When scanning residual backstock, it doesn't prompt you when your BOH is less than the ALLOC the way it used to (informing you that something MUST be wrong if you're backstocking something that has a BOH less than the ALLOC.
I'll add that all this streamlining is to allow time to keep up on BOH's. When you actually scan ALL your residual backstock and change BOH's, you'll be amazed how well the computer does at ordering. In the past, we might not catch all the mispicks which would throw the BOH's off. Now we catch them immediately, change them, and the rest takes care of itself.
There are other changes, but overall this has been a smooth transition with very few hiccups.
As somebody who always has balances correct and minimums that make sense, does it take into account anomalies? For example, last weekend the walmart across the street had a power outtage that lasted almost all day, sales soared(more than doubled for the day). This weekend CAO ordered insanely heavy. Also take into account things like weather related anomalies(snow scares, flooding, etc). If I didn't take off a good 30% of my order it would be a stupid amount of backstock. I'll provide an example: Chilis frozen meal, not on sale: 7 day movement 4. BOH 17 ALLO: 12 MIN: 4 PAK: 8 CAO ordered 2 cases.
In a PDF they sent out yesterday they said that we were to stop putting out partial cases, and only put out product if the full case can go out. This makes less than zero sense to me. Our store is smaller and the majority of items don't have the shelf space to allow multiple cases. So many items actually hold equal to or less than a case. If we applied this policy we would have holes and backstock out the yazoo.
