Questions for distribution

[grim up north]

Often on here there are stores v distribution questions. Ask away now we don't have long left and I'll do my best to answer your questions on the differing points of view/processes from a distribution side of things

[madness]

Why do distribution get away with not sending stock to stores who cant claim for it when its missing but when stock takes comes the store managers get shafted for it every time?

not really looking for an answer 10 years in the job I've never had an answer that didnt involve "its in the business somewhere" so doesnt matter.

[1982dave]

Few years back after modern stocktake my store was 15k down store manager was roasted as were dept managers I can remember after count sheets came in I was asked to look for about 1k missing non food which was not there .. another store in area was 45-50k down  after modern stocktake ... funny thing was local depot after a little while was up a huge amount of money 

[oldfashionedplayer]

Does a problem ever make it to you guys if its reported through Mpro5? Bad Stacking, Repair Labels on knackered cages still marked from other stores but still filled? etc? Cause that really feels like it goes absolutely NOwhere. lol

[londoner83]

Believe the theory is that stock coming into Tesco is checked off. Once its signed into a distribution centre the stock will end up within a Tesco somewhere....

There is no profit yet a huge cost in allowing store A to claim for missing deliveries and Tesco having to hunt down whether its in store B, C, D or E.

[ImBackBaby]

Why do distribution get away with not sending stock to stores who cant claim for it when its missing but when stock takes comes the store managers get shafted for it every time?

not really looking for an answer 10 years in the job I've never had an answer that didnt involve "its in the business somewhere" so doesnt matter.

Are your backdoor colleague checking each UOD (Cage, Pallets, MU's etc...) as they are coming off the trailer via the drivers tablet? If you do that and you see you have a UOD missing you can reject it on the drivers tablet and it will flag up during the drivers de-brief.

[ImBackBaby]

Does a problem ever make it to you guys if its reported through Mpro5? Bad Stacking, Repair Labels on knackered cages still marked from other stores but still filled? etc? Cause that really feels like it goes absolutely NOwhere. lol

Yes it does, never seen so many investigations, lets talk etc... being done as I have during my time at the DC. All the driver feedback is also logged via MyDC which requires a manager to review and sign off.

Just remember on the Repair/Fault stickers, all stores are required to nest together broken cages and send them back as a group,  not mix them into the perfectly serviceable cage nest. This is how so many end up back into the supply chain. DC's do remove a lot of broken cages and send them to RSU for scrap or repair. Prob well over a million cages in the network the ratio of broken vs useable ones is actually very low.

[oldfashionedplayer]

I know personally I've nested them together and I get them sent back in full of stock the next day.. thats where my curiosity comes from.. cause I put one on the top, and one on the side of each cage I send back with the reason, store number and date. lol

[grim up north]

In Distribution the priority of management is how fast the stock is picked. Everything else comes secondary. I see how this makes things bad for stores but I doubt it'll ever change. The only other thing that comes remotely close is making sure the deliveries are ready to leave on time

[grim up north]

Why do distribution get away with not sending stock to stores who cant claim for it when its missing but when stock takes comes the store managers get shafted for it every time?

not really looking for an answer 10 years in the job I've never had an answer that didnt involve "its in the business somewhere" so doesnt matter.

Depends on what you're missing to whether it'll get investigated. 20 cases of beans probably not, 20 cases of vodka maybe. I dont know how big your store is but if you get 100 cages of stock per day, my dc probably picks 15k cages per day. It might be a lot of stock to you but it's nothing to the DC. And if a cage label falls off it's like looking for a needle in a haystack

[grim up north]

Does a problem ever make it to you guys if its reported through Mpro5? Bad Stacking, Repair Labels on knackered cages still marked from other stores but still filled? etc? Cause that really feels like it goes absolutely NOwhere. lol

I dont know what Mpro5 is but people do get pulled up for badly loaded trailers. A lot of cages get restacked before loading too for the reasons you mentioned. But remember they are loaded by big machines so manually moving them is kept to a minimum. Different for you guys if your pulling them off by hand

[grim up north]

I know personally I've nested them together and I get them sent back in full of stock the next day.. thats where my curiosity comes from.. cause I put one on the top, and one on the side of each cage I send back with the reason, store number and date. lol

People who take the cages off the trailer are supposed to split the damaged ones away from the 'good' ones to be taken to be repaired/scrapped. However if they get mixed in with the 'good' cages, because the pickers are in a rush they might get used

[grim up north]

When the DC has an audit it is often millions and millions of pounds up in stock, mainly because pickers scan it, confirm they picked it, then 'drive by' it. Only a problem for the picker if they are caught. Those 5l bottles of water are a good example, as they are an absolute nightmare to stack securely in a cage

[oldfashionedplayer]

Mpro5 is the app to record temp checks, store checks, problems with depo cages etc... We use master movers think that's the name? Similar to the depot but just not a ride in one, still able to take 3 cages at time etc.

I just think that there's zero care at a depot as like mentioned "they might get used" - so no ones using their brain and seeing the big yellow labels saying repair required plastered all over cages / stacks of cages.

Just like stacking items, 1 item store has listed as offsale wanting it to put out and then 3/4 of the cage is bulk items?? Both fresh and grocery...

Makes no sense how it happens so easily. And if that is "restacked beforehand" then God knows how bad it was before.. 

[grim up north]

If you walked around a DC you'd be amazed you got anything, never mind what the store ordered

[grim up north]

Mpro5 is the app to record temp checks, store checks, problems with depo cages etc... We use master movers think that's the name? Similar to the depot but just not a ride in one, still able to take 3 cages at time etc.

I just think that there's zero care at a depot as like mentioned "they might get used" - so no ones using their brain and seeing the big yellow labels saying repair required plastered all over cages / stacks of cages.

Just like stacking items, 1 item store has listed as offsale wanting it to put out and then 3/4 of the cage is bulk items?? Both fresh and grocery...

Makes no sense how it happens so easily. And if that is "restacked beforehand" then God knows how bad it was before.. 

As I said, speed is all that matters to the higher ups. There's a well known picker who's stacking is horrendous, however it's laughed off by management cos targets are hit. I don't know what your 'offsale' point is from our side

[oldfashionedplayer]

I'm just saying with the offsale point being annoying, cause it's an item that's needed and usually the only thing on the cage needed but everything else is bulk ontop - referencing the horrendous stacking.

[grim up north]

I think i get what you mean. But another example of why that might happen is; 'here you are oldfashionedplayer, here's your standard 13m trailer that holds 45 cages for you to load. There's 60 cages to fit on though, so get it all on by hell or highwater'. So you see how things get piled on top of other things

[madness]

Why do distribution get away with not sending stock to stores who cant claim for it when its missing but when stock takes comes the store managers get shafted for it every time?

not really looking for an answer 10 years in the job I've never had an answer that didnt involve "its in the business somewhere" so doesnt matter.

Depends on what you're missing to whether it'll get investigated. 20 cases of beans probably not, 20 cases of vodka maybe. I dont know how big your store is but if you get 100 cages of stock per day, my dc probably picks 15k cages per day. It might be a lot of stock to you but it's nothing to the DC. And if a cage label falls off it's like looking for a needle in a haystack

great i'll use that answer in the 6 monthly reprimand we get from the sm about shrink. and also at my review.
doesnt matter the scale of it if someones job is on the line for something not their fault.
also re checking off every cage, even if every cage comes in picker at the deopt just has to click yeah i picked 20x of that even though they scanned and picked 1.    19 lost cases but no lost cage.
not a go at you just the system is flawed.

edited to add..

Are you a depot worker or pretty high up in the depot wanting some on the ground feedback and issues that usually get missed/lost in the lines of communication within Tesco?

[oldfashionedplayer]

I think i get what you mean. But another example of why that might happen is; 'here you are oldfashionedplayer, here's your standard 13m trailer that holds 45 cages for you to load. There's 60 cages to fit on though, so get it all on by hell or highwater'. So you see how things get piled on top of other things

which it shouldn't... especially cause we then get a trailer an hour later with 1-3 cages on it... saving space and the planet.. yeah... sure... travelling 2-4 hours with 1 cage is ridiculous.

we get complained at for how long it takes us to have to fix the trailers that are sent in, everything wedged in, knackered, loose stock on top, trying to check it off.. miss something and it gets picked up by next shift that then passes the blame..

what could be an on and off, easy working, becomes a nightmare day in day out.

[Last hurrah]

Sounds like OP works in a packaged site. I work in fresh as a manager, so I can jump in and answer questions too.

In terms of shrink, there was an agreement reached a number of years ago that the amount of time spent investigating missing stock wasn't financially viable when realistically the stock really is in the business somewhere. That's a c**p answer for managers and colleagues in store getting hammered for shrink, but it's the reality of things. The store service policy says that DCs will investigate to try and solve the root cause of missing stock, but only tobacco will be repicked.

In reality, half the time we don't even know for sure that we have the right amount of stock from suppliers because we don't count every pallet in (in Fresh, we do in packaged sites) so there's a chance it never even arrived in the first place.

Damaged cages I have to agree are a major problem, but there's as much to do from stores returning them correctly and drivers unloading them correctly as there is for pickers to identify them. I'm not making excuses for warehouse workers because they should spot them, but unless it's a missing door or wheel it's pretty hard.

mPro5 reports do come through to depots, but being frank they are hardly answered. Most managers don't know how to access it because the training and engagement was terrible. ATC feedback rarely gets beyond the DCM, so chances are the people who can really make changes just aren't aware of all the problems.

[oldfashionedplayer]

its the missing wheels that tend to make it back to store the quickest though 

[grim up north]

Why do distribution get away with not sending stock to stores who cant claim for it when its missing but when stock takes comes the store managers get shafted for it every time?

not really looking for an answer 10 years in the job I've never had an answer that didnt involve "its in the business somewhere" so doesnt matter.

Depends on what you're missing to whether it'll get investigated. 20 cases of beans probably not, 20 cases of vodka maybe. I dont know how big your store is but if you get 100 cages of stock per day, my dc probably picks 15k cages per day. It might be a lot of stock to you but it's nothing to the DC. And if a cage label falls off it's like looking for a needle in a haystack

great i'll use that answer in the 6 monthly reprimand we get from the sm about shrink. and also at my review.
doesnt matter the scale of it if someones job is on the line for something not their fault.
also re checking off every cage, even if every cage comes in picker at the deopt just has to click yeah i picked 20x of that even though they scanned and picked 1.    19 lost cases but no lost cage.
not a go at you just the system is flawed.

edited to add..

Are you a depot worker or pretty high up in the depot wanting some on the ground feedback and issues that usually get missed/lost in the lines of communication within Tesco?

I'm just a normal worker in the DC. To add to your other point, once the picker has finished their pick, they randomly get an accuracy check where the cages are checked so see if everything is correct. If they should have put 68 boxes in and they put 67 or 69 they'll get a slap on the wrist. If they have none or 1 and should have 20 they'll get the sack

[grim up north]

I think i get what you mean. But another example of why that might happen is; 'here you are oldfashionedplayer, here's your standard 13m trailer that holds 45 cages for you to load. There's 60 cages to fit on though, so get it all on by hell or highwater'. So you see how things get piled on top of other things

which it shouldn't... especially cause we then get a trailer an hour later with 1-3 cages on it... saving space and the planet.. yeah... sure... travelling 2-4 hours with 1 cage is ridiculous.

we get complained at for how long it takes us to have to fix the trailers that are sent in, everything wedged in, knackered, loose stock on top, trying to check it off.. miss something and it gets picked up by next shift that then passes the blame..

what could be an on and off, easy working, becomes a nightmare day in day out.

That'll be because someone has spent 3 hours trying to squeeze 60 cages on to a 45 capacity trailer and couldn't do it. So they'll put another run to your store, which they should've done to start with but someone thought they'd spend a pound to save a penny. I agree, things should run like clockwork, but because pressure is put on by 'higher ups' who all have different priorities, everything becomes a s*** show

[grim up north]

its the missing wheels that tend to make it back to store the quickest though 

DC work many hours in front so if the person loading the trailer spots the cage with the wheel missing, chances are the person who picked it has gone home. So if the loader reports it, guess who restacks it? It takes a second to check a cage before you use it but sadly some people just dont care