We just switched over to this new cao program and was told that ordering will be much simpler as long as back stock is run and scanned every night and lows and holes are done every morning. The only thing we would have to focus on is ad items and special requests.
Anybody here have any experience with the new system? Also heard that mins are no longer in our control or rather if we do change it the system will automatically change it back when it updates itself weekly. Any advice or stories anyone can share will be much appreciated.
it seems to work for other departments that work during the day where they are well staffed but they typically understaff the grocery department, don't manage the 2nd shift part time grocery department help properly, so what you have is a grocery manager that is throwing stock for 8 hours a day or more and not able to spend the time required on the scans to make the system work right. it is all about staffing. this system is only as good as the amount of good stockers your stock crew has and whether or not the grocery manager can actually do his/her job because the staffing is right.
The min change will completely mess you up, so keep a very keen eye on it. we have some mins set at 50+ in slots that only hold 20. One min was set at 450 because we have a guy that likes to special order it a few times a year. Most mins will be 50% of what's on the shelf. Other things that sell will have low mins and will never order enough. Most mins will not allow a full box to be ordered and fully stocked. Watch your k-cups like a hawk. Our backstock in k-cups alone has quadrupled. Be careful after holidays or events, your system will over-order. My store has been on the new ordering system since about early November. It is not simpler because what wprks for the Kroger 20 minutes away won't necessarilly work for your store... it's just that the system tries to do it all for you, and outlines the steps to do what it wants you to do. Seriously... Do not trust this system.
Thank you for your in site. Please define "never enough" are you saying you will not have enough for the customer or stating that you are not receiving your mins from the warehouse?
order de-evolution is more like it. the process is supposed to work around the fact that all backstock is worked everyday. this will never happen because you will have the same number of workers as before order evolution . it orders way to much of what you dont need never enough of the good sellers. you will have no control on mins, only store and co managers do, and even if they change them for you the system will update min to where it thinks it should be. i have mins of 3 that are 88 or so days supply of an item with allocation of 6 and it will order this and create backstock that you might as well markdown as soon as it is delivered. thats just a tip of the iceberg. we all know there are items we need to keep backstock on, but its almost as if it wants to keep it on everything in the store. then managers and zone staff say focus on out of stocks like they want you to stack down a whole backstock cart to find one or two oos instead of working through the whole cart. you will never be able to run all backstock everyday because you will have the same number of workers as before. it is a total nightmare in my opinion
Atlanta District here. We went for a meeting LAST YEAR about this, and it's been pushed off and pushed off and apparently it's happening "this year" but it's going to be a mess. But I'll give you guys some advice that we do at our store; set your BOH incredibly high for these items you don't want coming in. That's the only surefire way to get the computer to not order it. Yes, I know we have inventory here and there, but I keep a paper record of everything we've "bumped up" and when inventory comes, I edit the numbers back down and keep an eye on the order to make sure it doesn't come back in. I look at the 30 day sales and say we sell two in a month, have a whole case of backstock, I bump the BOH number up way high and mark all that crap down so the computer doesn't reorder and we get rid of it. Either I mark it down below cost or sometimes I'll mark it a dime/quarter above cost. The money lost is less than the time/money lost by associates digging through the same crap daily.
I don't know if any of you remembers when the computer first started stacking grocery pallets instead of people ... yea, it had a ton of bugs. I expect this system to be the same way, and either they're going to retool and retool it until it works decent or they'll scrap it after enough stores have dramatic shrink increases. At the meeting I met one of the guys who had worked on this process; young college kid, doubt he's ever worked in an actual grocery store. System looks great on paper; doesn't execute well in person.
