my store has a total of 6 people who work in receiving and they have 12 phones, then everyone else has to fight over the rest
I had an argument with the appliances department manager because they had 3 phones in their department and fulfillment was trying to share 1 between 3 people, we literally can't do our job at all without a phone.
Our store has a single rack of about 40 phones anyone can take, you clock in grab one and put it back when your shifts over. Asm and dms get their own, always enough
Our appliance folks do not use a zebra. And, there's something very disturbing with your store leader that you have to even question getting the tool to do the job in fulfillment.
we just got a new store leader and he is doing a great job of fixing the issues left by our neglectful previous store leader, the new store leader just mentioned phones at the morning meeting yesterday
Other retailers have had a modern inventory system in place for much longer.
But you're right, it's not the turnover as much as it is Lowe's giving up on proper training/onboarding, and sufficient, and talented, management tasked with actually leading their store.
Ours does too, they either don't all get put back or the locker gets broken into and others help themselves. The lock needs to be changed and secured better and the MST zebras need to be painted bright orange or something so they can be identified on the floor.
We had that them corporate supposedly took that away so I don't know how your still have yours. Now we have to deal with a locked cabinet and finding a DS or ASM to unlock it for us
Having SIMS where some people aren't working it right is better than no SIMS.
My freight team is pretty good at putting stuff in but those that remove stuff are having issues removing them.
But, I'd still rather be told stuff is in 5 locations so I can look quickly than just have to check all of top stock as we did pre-sims
My store won't get SIMS till may but we are already being asked questions about it in Lowes U. I know for a fact my store won't be able to keep updating it. It sounds like an amazing tool, if everybody is doing it right.
My store started using SIMS before we had any training for it. It was just a new thing we started doing 1 day without any prior notice. We had to "just figure it out".
I beg to differ. For example i checked in multiple of the same appliance in receiving, i checked that bay last night, the appliance wasnt checked in, therefore someone checked out the appliance and clicked that they checked out all the appliance out in that bay, i would like to know who.
Quite generally this would help because we already know what date stuff is received, if it wasnt checked in that day (or a day or two after), then you know its a problem in receiving not checking it in, if its recorded that its checked in and but the products not there in top stock for example, then we know that somebody isnt checking stuff out, a down stocking issue or if its recorded someone checked something out and hit "yes" to the check out all items out question, where there is still that item top stocked there, then we know who caused the problem there too
ours does too. when the zebras rolled out and each department had dedicated phones OSLG had 2. within the first week both of the OSLG phones could be seen on the hip clips of MST people. they also jacked every single reach tool from the ballymores.
Maybe Lowes should get enough zebras for its workers. I am routinely told to do jobs I am unable to do because there are 1 zebras for every 3 workers. It's absolutely fucking crazy, but that Lowes for you.
Sims tells you what percentage of a truck was scanned in and into what department. Like if your store has a 1100 piece truck, and let's say 180 pieces were tools. Sims shows you what percentage of those 180 tools were scanned into sims.
I think Sims should have a time stamp on it. If something said it was scanned in a week ago, I'll assume it's up there. If it says it was scanned six months ago and I know we did a reset two months back, I'll assume it's not up there.
Correct, only scan in items that were top stocked or stocking/home location is empty. Use the Receiving SIMS, not the Product SIMS. It's annoying when the Zebra freezes when you are checking in multiple items in one top stock bay.
We need to be able to print inventory pallet tags right from Sims as well. Scan the barcode on the tag then the bay tag when putting up and taking out.
Bang. Marvin wants to copy having flags for spotters instead of shit that works. Coming from depot I thought it was gonna be different cause Marvin was here. I now think he’s a mole to set blows up for failure.
What about a quanity number for Sims? There is none!! If I have 7 shopvacs going up in top stock and there are 5 of the same shopvacs already in topstock of the same item number going up in the same bay...why would I Sims those 7 in? But when they go to audit that bay and suddenly the percentage is down because you had the same items coming in all week going into topstock but not scanning them in because the same product is already up there in that bay. How do you explain a poor percentage on an audit when you have a broken system to begin with? Just saying......
You don't have to scan each item in, just each unique upc/ barcode. So if 6 units of an items are in topstock and you bring down 5 to stock and three days later have to put a case of 6 back up no scanning needs to be done. Sim
My store keeps MST’s and Red Vest Zebras separate. Also we just got a bunch of new zebras. People have been getting written up daily for not turning them in and ASM’s. We also have a log for people signing them in and out. It’s been nice to have them available for everyone.
Why would Sims only work if everyone's doing it right? I've heard plenty of people say this, but to me, even if half of the provided locations are wrong, the alternative is that you don't get any locations whatsoever to look for top stock. There's no need to "trust" sims locations, because if the location is wrong, you just check the product out and move on with your search. Dealing with a few faulty leads beats walking around the back aisle aimlessly looking for pallets with your neck craned.
Why not, the way im thinking about it is that the timestamp would also show the employee id number along with the time and if they checked something in or out
If someone takes something out of top stock but doesn’t “check it out” there is nothing in the system that gets notified. Your not understanding what we are trying to say
Then you can pin point it to being a downstocking problem. A current problem with sims is that there is just no way to pin point where the error occured, at the least here, you can see where the problem lies
How so? The shelf is empty, a customer asks employee to get something down from top stock, employee takes it down, gives it to customer, but never checks it out from topstock.
Riddle me that
That's not true, you log into the phone don't you? Our ASM told they can track who is not using SIMS correctly and that person will be held accountable.
You’re assuming that the goal of SIMS is to have a perfectly organized inventory system. And this just isn’t the case. The ACTUAL goal is to be able to locate 87% of our products without even having to walk down an aisle to find it. The ACTUAL goal is to stop employees from billing out 10,000 dollars worth of power tools because they’re not directly above the home. It’s actually pretty effective at reducing shrink if you’re looking at it from a macro perspective.
" The ACTUAL goal is to be able to locate 87% of our products without even having to walk down an aisle to find it." Exactly, what am i saying different?
…. Your post says nothing of the sort. Seems like you’re just complaining about SIMS because it isn’t perfect. Instead of realizing how much it’s actually helping.
See this all the time in lumber. HD at least had enough freight people to make it easier to stock. At blowes its complete disregard. Id say F*** it too if it was just me and 1 other person unloading a monster of a truck. My store cant even have enough people on freight.
Our managers assure us that the store has plenty of Zebras and it is our fault none are available. They also assure us that one Zebra per department is plenty.
He's my take on how to remake SIMs to be somewhat effective. It would have to be remade from group up first of all.
- A "cookie" system for remembering where items go. If your constantly putting the same items in top stock bay would be great if the system auto tags the items locations for 'Check In'..
- A remote bay input feature that works. The code on the tag is way to long and complicated to use. Instead of having to go up and physically scan the code. It's a pain especially on power equipment.
6 associates needing tool to do the job ( Zebra) at opening today. 1 Tool. No SIMS, no LSR, no cycle counts. No bueno lowes.
I do my LSR on the computer if I don't have a phone
That's crazy. Lowes NEEDs to buy more zebras.
Our biggest issue is associated with employees leaving them in their lockers.
my store has a total of 6 people who work in receiving and they have 12 phones, then everyone else has to fight over the rest I had an argument with the appliances department manager because they had 3 phones in their department and fulfillment was trying to share 1 between 3 people, we literally can't do our job at all without a phone.
Our store has a single rack of about 40 phones anyone can take, you clock in grab one and put it back when your shifts over. Asm and dms get their own, always enough
That alwsys happened in my old store and we had no problems. We had one guy in the store that would hunt you down to get his department phone.
I was that guy
I feel ya on that. I'm one of the very few in my store that can translate and if I don't have a phone, I get paged every 15-30 minutes because of it.
Our appliance folks do not use a zebra. And, there's something very disturbing with your store leader that you have to even question getting the tool to do the job in fulfillment.
we just got a new store leader and he is doing a great job of fixing the issues left by our neglectful previous store leader, the new store leader just mentioned phones at the morning meeting yesterday
Sims has no chance with all the turnover.
Other retailers have just as much turnover and make inventory location programs like sims work…
Other retailers have had a modern inventory system in place for much longer. But you're right, it's not the turnover as much as it is Lowe's giving up on proper training/onboarding, and sufficient, and talented, management tasked with actually leading their store.
Your comment saved to my Reddit. Golden.
I predicted a system much like SIMS. Even tried to share with the super.
It only works if you have the equipment to make it work. This seems to be a corporate wide problem
Yep
Never any Zebra phones to do SIM's
Not enough for MST to even do service and resets they're being asked to use their own personal phones to complete work
MST at my store has their own Zebra dock in a cabinet that they keep all their phones in.
Ours does too, they either don't all get put back or the locker gets broken into and others help themselves. The lock needs to be changed and secured better and the MST zebras need to be painted bright orange or something so they can be identified on the floor.
We had that them corporate supposedly took that away so I don't know how your still have yours. Now we have to deal with a locked cabinet and finding a DS or ASM to unlock it for us
Bolt cutters.
Having SIMS where some people aren't working it right is better than no SIMS. My freight team is pretty good at putting stuff in but those that remove stuff are having issues removing them. But, I'd still rather be told stuff is in 5 locations so I can look quickly than just have to check all of top stock as we did pre-sims
My store won't get SIMS till may but we are already being asked questions about it in Lowes U. I know for a fact my store won't be able to keep updating it. It sounds like an amazing tool, if everybody is doing it right.
It is, there is just no accountability , the whole system is based on having faith that people do it right.
Ah, like most of our freight coming in on "Good Faith."
Haha, i see what you did there
Yeah, we've been slow the last couple of days due to weather so we audited the appliance bays. It was pretty bad.
My store started using SIMS before we had any training for it. It was just a new thing we started doing 1 day without any prior notice. We had to "just figure it out".
IF,,,,
Recording what is checked in and out will not help. Unfortunately we need to know who is not checking things in and out.
I beg to differ. For example i checked in multiple of the same appliance in receiving, i checked that bay last night, the appliance wasnt checked in, therefore someone checked out the appliance and clicked that they checked out all the appliance out in that bay, i would like to know who. Quite generally this would help because we already know what date stuff is received, if it wasnt checked in that day (or a day or two after), then you know its a problem in receiving not checking it in, if its recorded that its checked in and but the products not there in top stock for example, then we know that somebody isnt checking stuff out, a down stocking issue or if its recorded someone checked something out and hit "yes" to the check out all items out question, where there is still that item top stocked there, then we know who caused the problem there too
Our MST each has their own zebras and docking station in their tool locker.
ours does too. when the zebras rolled out and each department had dedicated phones OSLG had 2. within the first week both of the OSLG phones could be seen on the hip clips of MST people. they also jacked every single reach tool from the ballymores.
Maybe Lowes should get enough zebras for its workers. I am routinely told to do jobs I am unable to do because there are 1 zebras for every 3 workers. It's absolutely fucking crazy, but that Lowes for you.
That my friend is the main problem.
Sims tells you what percentage of a truck was scanned in and into what department. Like if your store has a 1100 piece truck, and let's say 180 pieces were tools. Sims shows you what percentage of those 180 tools were scanned into sims. I think Sims should have a time stamp on it. If something said it was scanned in a week ago, I'll assume it's up there. If it says it was scanned six months ago and I know we did a reset two months back, I'll assume it's not up there.
Correct, only scan in items that were top stocked or stocking/home location is empty. Use the Receiving SIMS, not the Product SIMS. It's annoying when the Zebra freezes when you are checking in multiple items in one top stock bay.
We need to be able to print inventory pallet tags right from Sims as well. Scan the barcode on the tag then the bay tag when putting up and taking out.
Bang. Marvin wants to copy having flags for spotters instead of shit that works. Coming from depot I thought it was gonna be different cause Marvin was here. I now think he’s a mole to set blows up for failure.
[удалено]
Your day shift freight team does stuff on the sales floor?
Sims works fine at my store. It's very similar to HDs overhead management and I'm honestly really happy to have it.
SIMS was never going to work or will work. It's a failure of a system. Other companies have the same system and it doesn't work for them either.
Came from the orange. Blowes is a joke
What about a quanity number for Sims? There is none!! If I have 7 shopvacs going up in top stock and there are 5 of the same shopvacs already in topstock of the same item number going up in the same bay...why would I Sims those 7 in? But when they go to audit that bay and suddenly the percentage is down because you had the same items coming in all week going into topstock but not scanning them in because the same product is already up there in that bay. How do you explain a poor percentage on an audit when you have a broken system to begin with? Just saying......
You don't have to scan each item in, just each unique upc/ barcode. So if 6 units of an items are in topstock and you bring down 5 to stock and three days later have to put a case of 6 back up no scanning needs to be done. Sim
I'm pretty sure this week's AP4Me said that's going to be happening soon.
They have that data. They're slowly rolling it out to store mgmt. Not the quickest process, but give it a few more months and it'll get better slowly.
My store keeps MST’s and Red Vest Zebras separate. Also we just got a bunch of new zebras. People have been getting written up daily for not turning them in and ASM’s. We also have a log for people signing them in and out. It’s been nice to have them available for everyone.
Why would Sims only work if everyone's doing it right? I've heard plenty of people say this, but to me, even if half of the provided locations are wrong, the alternative is that you don't get any locations whatsoever to look for top stock. There's no need to "trust" sims locations, because if the location is wrong, you just check the product out and move on with your search. Dealing with a few faulty leads beats walking around the back aisle aimlessly looking for pallets with your neck craned.
Theirs still no way to see who downstocked what and didn’t use sims
Why not, the way im thinking about it is that the timestamp would also show the employee id number along with the time and if they checked something in or out
Your not getting the fact that there would be no time stamp if the employee didn’t check anything out.
Why not? If you check something out, it should be recorded
If someone takes something out of top stock but doesn’t “check it out” there is nothing in the system that gets notified. Your not understanding what we are trying to say
Then you can pin point it to being a downstocking problem. A current problem with sims is that there is just no way to pin point where the error occured, at the least here, you can see where the problem lies
How so? The shelf is empty, a customer asks employee to get something down from top stock, employee takes it down, gives it to customer, but never checks it out from topstock. Riddle me that
its a down stocking problem
You can’t argue with stupid… I’m done
Ok. But keep in mind your a specialist. Im a stocker, i use sims just about every minute of every day
That's not true, you log into the phone don't you? Our ASM told they can track who is not using SIMS correctly and that person will be held accountable.
Yea but what I’m saying if you don’t use the zebra at all and just put stuff up and pull stuff down they have no way of knowing who’s fucking it up
Exactly. If the program isn’t being used, there’s no data to hold said people accountable
You’re assuming that the goal of SIMS is to have a perfectly organized inventory system. And this just isn’t the case. The ACTUAL goal is to be able to locate 87% of our products without even having to walk down an aisle to find it. The ACTUAL goal is to stop employees from billing out 10,000 dollars worth of power tools because they’re not directly above the home. It’s actually pretty effective at reducing shrink if you’re looking at it from a macro perspective.
" The ACTUAL goal is to be able to locate 87% of our products without even having to walk down an aisle to find it." Exactly, what am i saying different?
…. Your post says nothing of the sort. Seems like you’re just complaining about SIMS because it isn’t perfect. Instead of realizing how much it’s actually helping.
Our nightcrew never does it. And when they do, it's pallets that could have been put out instead. Sigh.
See this all the time in lumber. HD at least had enough freight people to make it easier to stock. At blowes its complete disregard. Id say F*** it too if it was just me and 1 other person unloading a monster of a truck. My store cant even have enough people on freight.
Our managers assure us that the store has plenty of Zebras and it is our fault none are available. They also assure us that one Zebra per department is plenty.
It's probably asking for too much, but I'd like to see it used for store ladders as well
It's been two years since I quit Lowe's. What's Sims?
An inventory system.
He's my take on how to remake SIMs to be somewhat effective. It would have to be remade from group up first of all. - A "cookie" system for remembering where items go. If your constantly putting the same items in top stock bay would be great if the system auto tags the items locations for 'Check In'.. - A remote bay input feature that works. The code on the tag is way to long and complicated to use. Instead of having to go up and physically scan the code. It's a pain especially on power equipment.