Hey guys, the name's Josh. I am currently the night crew supervisor on my freight crew at a Smith's. I've been throwing freight since I was 17, started before even graduating high school; I'd work at night, then go home and shower, then off to school. I'm 19 years old, almost 20. Now that you've got a bit of my background, let's hear about you other freight throwers out there. I want to know:
1. How many cases are you expected to throw per hour?
2. Have you reached/exceeded this number of thrown cases per hour?
3. Typical load size (Ours is 1000 cases for a 3 man crew)
4. What's biggest load you've ever thrown with your crew?
And finally,
5. Does your grocery manager/upper management understand the level of difficulty and physicality to getting the job done on time?
I look forward to your answers and comparing them with my own!
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You had an employee bbq yesterday? Thanks for telling the night crew...
Used to be this position, am lead frozen at the moment, taking a grocery manager position soon.
1. 50, not including in time is conditioning/backstock.
2. As a crew, never, personally yes.
3. Our store is overstaffed as allowed by our store manager. Our % effective always runs about 85-88% so there is usually a person on each aisle on load nights, allowing the job to get done regularly with time to spare. So, take friday, an average 1600-1800 pieces we have 7 people. Wednesday is our lowest staffed load night with 6 people and an average of 1200-1400 cases.
4. We've had 2500 piece trucks but the monster loads are usually the ones with lots of bulk for holidays etc. So probably only around 1800 of that is for the shelf.
5. Yes and no. We have a lot of slackers on our crew, so if we weren't overstaffed we'd never get done. Lots of smoke breaks, lots of standing around, etc. Only a couple of decent workers on the crew outside of grocery manager/backup.
That being said, to make production on a regular basis requires no extra break time, no real standing around or chatting. Just pure work, work that is done efficiently. I don't know of many or any crews that have an entire crew willing/able to do that, so making production on a larger scale is pretty impossible regularly.
I am not sure if you use the same system as Kroger. We have a DDP(Daily Planner) that shows what the goal is. Log in to Enterprise Citrix, then goto applications and then select DDP for grocery. Choose truck and it shows run time. If none of this makes sense, then you probably do not use same system.
The old way of estimating time is run and condition at 40 cases an hour. But, there are more shelves and products in the aisles now.
With the DDP, the goal is 60 cases an hour. On KMP night, it is 50 cases an hour. We run grocery mainly off of pallets. We half break down KMP. The 12 packs of pop, bags of dog food and pallets of water do not really count towards this number. We get so many hours to condition(7-10 hours at the 2 stores I have worked in). The DDP does not include conditioning, ordering, breaking down pallets, running backstock or changing the bale.
On a good night, I can throw 80+ cases an hour. I do not do a half assed job. Some of the guys I work with have no clue how to stock cans. They just toss them on the shelves without even spinning them relatively straight. That is the quickest way to make a store go out of business IMO. I have the aisles mapped out to how long I think it should condition each. If the aisle is conditioned well daily, I can make the times.
On the other end, we have one guy that will spend the entire 8 hour shift in the pet food aisle and not even run backstock! :(
I work in a 1m+ store. We are extremely busy. Our normal crew is 5-8 people. One night we had 2 call ins and it left us with a crew of 3. The truck was 1472 cases with about 218 cases for end caps that the day crew runs. DDP said 36 hours plus 10 hours to condition. We didn't have an order that night. The 3 of us were able to run it all and condition the store after working a 12 hour shift each.
I have a regular aisle that I order and run. (Canned veggie, soup, rice, tuna, canned fruit, canned beans, bagged beans/rice, ramen noodles.) I have been taking 10 minutes each night to delete items from the order that I am certain we do not need to come in. My backstock looks good. Most of the holes are warehouse out of stocks. The others are KMP which I do not order. When I do have grocery holes, it is because someone has a coupon or buys everything on the shelf. For instance, the shelf holds 15 chicken rice roni bowls. I had a boh of 16. Someone bought 15 of them 2 days ago. They would have bought all 16 if they knew where I hid the last one! This is not an item I want on my backstock. It sells so so when they are 10 for 10. But regular price is 1.39.
That 1472 case truck was solid cases. There were no shippers or water pallets on it.
Off topic:
I was on vacation for a week. 3 other people were running my aisle. I timed myself conditioning the other night when I got back. It took 1.5 hours to condition it because I was fixing a lot of sloppy work. These guys have as much time as me and they still run stock like a newbie. I timed myself 2 nights later and it only took an hour to condition.
I also have one person that likes to talk. They will stand in the way just to talk. I want to say, gtfo, I got work to do.
This is how my 8 hours is spent:
2 breaks- 30 minutes.
condition- 60 minutes
Order- 30-45 minutes(Ordering the whole store should only take 1.5-2 hours so my time is high)
Change bale- 15 minutes
Scan residual backstock and put away- 15 minutes
That leaves me time to run 300 + cases. On double truck night, I could easily have 400 cases.
Lately, the trucks have been really light(slow time and because I have been deleting a lot of un needed stock). So, I have had time to run backstock. I have 4 Uboats but could easily put everything on 2 U boats.
DeltaGrocery, congrats on the grocery manager position! Anonymouse, thank you for such a long and detailed answer. Very interesting that you order for your own aisle, I would absolutely love it if they'd allow me to do that. We work one of the same aisles, sounds like.
Oh man, you guys work in stores a bit bigger than mine. Believe it or not, my 3 man crew is constant. I feel we might be scheduled a bit thin judging by our typical load sizes, especially considering they will schedule 2 of us for the load nights quite frequently and still expected to be done with 900 cases plus all scanning, stacking, and facing in 8 hours.
We do use the DDP, although I won't print it out every single load night as the connection can be iffy on our back computer.
Wonderful answers, guys. It's great to get some input on the case counts. See, my current and previous grocery manager are really hammering "85 cases an hour!" and that is just throwing. I personally know I can consistently throw 85, and on a good night I have thrown around 100. I take a lot of pride in my speed!!
I'll give you both a breakdown of our aisles and then a rundown of my typical 8 hour night. (Worked almost 11 hours last night and night before, as we're prepping for inventory but working over that much is rare for us.)
Aisles, with product listed front to back for visualization:
12: Canned fruit and tomatoes, canned veggies and dried produce, juice bottles and hamburger helper, Gallon water and juice boxes/packets (one of our heaviest aisles).
11: The infamous cereal aisle.
10: Taco shells and pasta, canned and jarred salsa and more pasta, spaghetti sauce and start of specialty section, Ramen and more specialty, then canned soup and Chef Boyardee, and tuna (Other heaviest aisle).
9: All baked goods and spices.
8: Left side is all pet, right side is paper towels/tp and picnic supplies, as well as garbage bags.
3: Infamous soap aisle.
1: Canned nuts, jerky, crackers, popcorn.
Sodas, waters as well.
Now then, on a 2 man load night with no specialty pallets: I will work 10, 8, 3, 13, sodas, and then begin helping the other guy. That leaves 12, 11, 9, 1 for them. We face the store together on these nights; on a good night we can do a great facing, company standards and all in an hour and a half, but that's if both are 110% on their game.
I never have problems with my crew. The crew is myself, a guy 3 or so years older than me that is only about 6 months into the job, and an older guy that has been here for 8 years! Hell of a crew, honestly. They help me out so much and everybody is always willing to come in and get to work. I literally do not have slackers on my crew, and I suppose I didn't realize how much of a great thing that is. The younger guy can probably throw 50-60 cases per hour, 70 on a good night, and the old guy isn't quite as fast as me, but he can be. He likes to make sure he "gets his hours". Mexican gentleman with very very broken English, but an awesome worker.
So, there's all that! Sorry for such a long reply guys, just thought I'd be extra thorough in describing my typical load night. Thanks again for your feedback!
__________________
You had an employee bbq yesterday? Thanks for telling the night crew...
85 an hour.... What in the paper towel aisle? Lol We're obviously working in different depts because 85 a minute in frozen is virtually impossible. We work off pallets directly as well. 2.5 to 3 pallets in an 8 hour shift is good for me. Thoughts?
85 an hour.... What in the paper towel aisle? Lol We're obviously working in different depts because 85 a minute in frozen is virtually impossible. We work off pallets directly as well. 2.5 to 3 pallets in an 8 hour shift is good for me. Thoughts?
3 to 3.5 pallets by one person in frozen is about average. When i was in Grocery I did cans and cereal. I could maybe start at 85 cases an hour for a couple hours but to maintain that pace requires substances that I don't do. 70-75 is what I averaged and I was considered the fastest at my store. Anything faster seems like you are just chucking cases at the shelves and not caring if they land anywhere near the right spot not to mention rotating and facing.
85 cases an hour? Jesus. Are u on adderall or coke?
Haha nothing of the sort lol... just an occasional Rockstar or NOS. And pure, concentrated motivation on the really good nights.
Is this you? [video=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpvVmMdfhI]
Haha I've seen that video lol. But no, that isn't me and I do not throw that way. I throw cans, but not literally throw them at the shelf lol. Might have to upload a gopro vid to show you guys one of these days
__________________
You had an employee bbq yesterday? Thanks for telling the night crew...
85 cases an hour? Jesus. Are u on adderall or coke?
Haha nothing of the sort lol... just an occasional Rockstar or NOS. And pure, concentrated motivation on the really good nights.
Is this you? [video=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpvVmMdfhI]
Haha I've seen that video lol. But no, that isn't me and I do not throw that way. I throw cans, but not literally throw them at the shelf lol. Might have to upload a gopro vid to show you guys one of these days
well, if u really can stock that fast for an entire shift then my hats off to you.
People, 85 isn't impossible. I can throw up 100 in a hour and I also work frozen. No lying or exaggeration, I have tried to go over that actually, and 100 is definitely my limit.
I need 8 mins to load the U-boat.
I load no more than 50-52 cases. This takes me 30 minutes to work it. The next load near the same amount.
100 right there.
There's ways to getting faster stock time. Speed up your load time, and try not to stack U-boats higher than the highest you can reach. I don't go higher than 6 ft for example, hence only 50-52 to a load. This could be more if the cases are mostly small, but those actually take longer to stock than say, Family Size Stouffers Lasagna.
Find different, quicker ways of taking items out the cases. If you can grab more than one of a product, go for it. Using the above as an example, I can grab 2 at a time and put both to the shelf at the same time, with one hand. Doing this with both hands, can clear the case in under 5 secs I guess.. This is hard to explain online, it's easy to show you. All I can say is, experiment, and find your limit. 40 is too slow, and so is 50 an hour. We should all be thankful, that Kroger isn't too strict about this.
Also Frozen is easier to stock than Dry Grocery, seeing as it's basically a standup job. Dry Grocery has that killer factor of constantly getting on the floor to stock the bottom shelf, hence tiring yourself as you have to exert energy to get off the floor. All that has an effect on stock time.
In closing, if you can't go faster, don't worry about it. Don't kill yourself.
People, 85 isn't impossible. I can throw up 100 in a hour and I also work frozen. No lying or exaggeration, I have tried to go over that actually, and 100 is definitely my limit.
I need 8 mins to load the U-boat.
I load no more than 50-52 cases. This takes me 30 minutes to work it. The next load near the same amount.
100 right there.
There's ways to getting faster stock time. Speed up your load time, and try not to stack U-boats higher than the highest you can reach. I don't go higher than 6 ft for example, hence only 50-52 to a load. This could be more if the cases are mostly small, but those actually take longer to stock than say, Family Size Stouffers Lasagna.
Find different, quicker ways of taking items out the cases. If you can grab more than one of a product, go for it. Using the above as an example, I can grab 2 at a time and put both to the shelf at the same time, with one hand. Doing this with both hands, can clear the case in under 5 secs I guess.. This is hard to explain online, it's easy to show you. All I can say is, experiment, and find your limit. 40 is too slow, and so is 50 an hour. We should all be thankful, that Kroger isn't too strict about this.
bzzt!
DDP doesn't allow us time to load uboats or spot product. The pallets never arrive from the warehouse falling over. And, Johnny is so careful when he unloads the truck. We are all supposed to work off of pallets. The Frozen department is supposed to have a frozen blankey for the pallet. :)
The correct calculation is 38 minutes to run 52 cases is 82 cases an hour. Not bad for an old fart....:)
But, yes, the DDP is reachable if a person isn't distracted by customers and can focus on the job. And, the pallets actually being aisle friendly.
The different departments have different standards. Look up your DDP for a particular load. Make sure there are not too many shippers or distros on the order. Divide # cases per the time it allows you to run the truck. That is what you are expected to do an hour. You will need to move faster because of unseen tasks that need to be done also.
01 dry grocery is generally 60 cases an hour without conditioning for aisle friendly pallets. 69 dry grocery is 50 cases an hour. I think because there will be some breaking down to be done. It sux to try and drag a 1000#, 8' high 69 pallet with a pos pallet jack and work off of it.
-- Edited by Anonymouse1 on Wednesday 15th of April 2015 05:56:56 PM
Also Frozen is easier to stock than Dry Grocery, seeing as it's basically a standup job. Dry Grocery has that killer factor of constantly getting on the floor to stock the bottom shelf, hence tiring yourself as you have to exert energy to get off the floor. All that has an effect on stock time.
In closing, if you can't go faster, don't worry about it. Don't kill yourself.
I've never understood this. I've worked both departments and I'm on my knees equally in both. I don't see any other way of getting to the bottom shelf of frozen to stock more than just the visible part. At least in grocery you can spot the bottom shelf items so that you can get them done in one go, instead of frozen where things would melt if you were spot an entire pallet, and it's only yourself working it.
And the whole thing about stocking frozen faster, I don't get this either. I can definitely throw more in dry grocery than frozen over an entire shift.
Also, no, 85 isn't impossible if you factor out all of the other tasks you're to be doing while you're stocking. Sure if you have everything spotted perfectly, or on a dolly right in front of where it needs to go, and no hiccups or interruptions. These production numbers are to be inclusive of these things.
The point is, you can't work an 8 hour shift and throw 700 pieces(+ condition) if you don't have someone else doing all of the other work for you & you never get fatigued. I really don't like low sample sizes, oh I threw this particular case in 10 seconds that means I can do 600 an hour.
Tonight for example, working frozen. I had a 352 piece truck. Including all necessary tasks, I threw it in right at 7 hours + 30 minutes to condition. Not to mention, frozen bread and chicken are on the opposite end of the store, so at least 1 trip over there for each pallet worked.
1) Breaking down 2 mixed pallets of deli/bakery/frozen.
2) Scanning residual backstock and making any necessary adjustments.
2.5) Helping various customers while working when store is still open.
3) Conditioning various parts as I go to make the end job easier as well as organizing backstock in their rightful spot after completing each pallet.
4) Taking product and filling/rebuilding displays.
5) Working in a host of new items.
6) Cleanup + scanning out damaged/out of date product that is found.
7) Condition
8) Replenish a few things I had on backstock in easy to get locations.
9) Scan holes/low spots to check for mispicks/shorts and make necessary adjustments.
Not to mention they claim to be aisle ready pallets, but mine are never that except for most of the ice cream which is still separated onto the bottoms of other pallets.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Thursday 16th of April 2015 04:16:02 AM
Also Frozen is easier to stock than Dry Grocery, seeing as it's basically a standup job. Dry Grocery has that killer factor of constantly getting on the floor to stock the bottom shelf, hence tiring yourself as you have to exert energy to get off the floor. All that has an effect on stock time.
In closing, if you can't go faster, don't worry about it. Don't kill yourself.
I've never understood this. I've worked both departments and I'm on my knees equally in both. I don't see any other way of getting to the bottom shelf of frozen to stock more than just the visible part. At least in grocery you can spot the bottom shelf items so that you can get them done in one go, instead of frozen where things would melt if you were spot an entire pallet, and it's only yourself working it.
And the whole thing about stocking frozen faster, I don't get this either. I can definitely throw more in dry grocery than frozen over an entire shift.
Also, no, 85 isn't impossible if you factor out all of the other tasks you're to be doing while you're stocking. Sure if you have everything spotted perfectly, or on a dolly right in front of where it needs to go, and no hiccups or interruptions. These production numbers are to be inclusive of these things.
The point is, you can't work an 8 hour shift and throw 700 pieces(+ condition) if you don't have someone else doing all of the other work for you & you never get fatigued. I really don't like low sample sizes, oh I threw this particular case in 10 seconds that means I can do 600 an hour.
Tonight for example, working frozen. I had a 352 piece truck. Including all necessary tasks, I threw it in right at 7 hours + 30 minutes to condition. Not to mention, frozen bread and chicken are on the opposite end of the store, so at least 1 trip over there for each pallet worked.
1) Breaking down 2 mixed pallets of deli/bakery/frozen.
2) Scanning residual backstock and making any necessary adjustments.
2.5) Helping various customers while working when store is still open.
3) Conditioning various parts as I go to make the end job easier as well as organizing backstock in their rightful spot after completing each pallet.
4) Taking product and filling/rebuilding displays.
5) Working in a host of new items.
6) Cleanup + scanning out damaged/out of date product that is found.
7) Condition
8) Replenish a few things I had on backstock in easy to get locations.
9) Scan holes/low spots to check for mispicks/shorts and make necessary adjustments.
Not to mention they claim to be aisle ready pallets, but mine are never that except for most of the ice cream which is still separated onto the bottoms of other pallets.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Thursday 16th of April 2015 04:16:02 AM
Exactly. I guess 85 or higher is possible when all you have to do is stock, but, you described perfectly all the various other tasks that take up so much time. In Grocery, the grocery mgr likes to order by himself and scan everybody's backstock instead of having everybody responsible for their own aisles bc he doesn't trust anybody to do it right. Plus, there is somebody there everyday that just conditions. In that scenario, stockers should be able to have high case counts approaching 70 and above, but, i think most managers would prefer to have their stockers to at least manage their own aisies. Am i wrong? I realize some people are just too dumb or irresponsible to be given that responsibility, but, anybody with an average intellect should be able to handle ordering, filling displays, and scanning their backstock every night along with just stocking their aisles which makes 85 cases in hour seem unreasonably high to me.
I'm confused on ddp. I'm told by management that ddp absolutely includes breaking down boxes, loading carts, tie bails, customer service and personal fatigue time. I work gm so I can easily get tied up with someone wanting info on every single cell phone for a solid 20 minutes or so, or wanting outside furniture that's locked up in a pod outside the store that takes a good while. and usually there is no one in center store but myself and with make it right and mystery shops, I focus a lot of attention on customers. And I'm told that's all in the ddp. Is there info somewhere to back this up, because when a ddp calls for a 7 hour truck (I know, small compared to grocery, but there's always only enough hours to schedule 1 person for truck) i can't always get it done.
I'm confused on ddp. I'm told by management that ddp absolutely includes breaking down boxes, loading carts, tie bails, customer service and personal fatigue time. I work gm so I can easily get tied up with someone wanting info on every single cell phone for a solid 20 minutes or so, or wanting outside furniture that's locked up in a pod outside the store that takes a good while. and usually there is no one in center store but myself and with make it right and mystery shops, I focus a lot of attention on customers. And I'm told that's all in the ddp. Is there info somewhere to back this up, because when a ddp calls for a 7 hour truck (I know, small compared to grocery, but there's always only enough hours to schedule 1 person for truck) i can't always get it done.
sigh.....
DeltaGrocery or LordUboat might have better insight into that.
Before ddp we used Team Stocking Guide(tsg). I remember filling them out and processing them on the computer. Each person was supposed to show where there time was spent each shift. At end of shift, all the hours were added up and saved during processing.
I do not know where to find it but I am guessing it is probably somewhere on BarneyWeb.
I got my info from a Night manager interview. The store manager interviewing asked me about the ddp and I had no clue what he was talking about. I knew there was a new program to replace the tsg but it was a big secret to me. He logged in and showed me how to get to it. He specifically said, "this time is for running stock only. It does not include conditioning or anything else." Each store allows a certain time to condition. I knew my store condition time from when I filled out the tsg. I know there is a lot of sorting for the Drug/GM department. The products are not easily ran off of pallets.
Maybe there is confusion between ELMS, WDP(?) and DDP. DDP(Daily Planner) is the time for stocking only. Elms does(supposedly) allow time for conditioning, answering calls, helping customers, setting up patio furniture, hauling patio furniture to cars after digging it out from the back of the semi storage trailer, setting up the holiday set and processing Peyton totes.
I have never used the WDP(?). Weekly planner. That might plan time for conditioning and all the other misc tasks we do during the week.
-- Edited by Anonymouse1 on Friday 17th of April 2015 02:41:07 PM
They ARE supposed to account for breaking down boxes, personal cleanup, customer service, organizing backstock on carts, working product to displays, making a bale(but this is sort of just added to an entire crew, not a particular person), breaking down your load(only non-aisle ready pallets) Obviously if you have a day heavy on customer service, you're going to be short on hours to finish your load. It's just an algorithm, an average customer service time, it can't know that someone will come in and take all of your time to assist. Things are based on averages, which is the reason why we did the TSG, this was to give corporate an idea of how long it took to accomplish these individual tasks so that they could adjust the algorithms.
Basically, when you pull up the DDP hours, that's what you're to input on the first section on your WDP, the rest of the sections and tasks are additional time allotted.
I work in Frozen every night from 11pm -7am and on truck nights the ddp is never ready until the next day after i'm long gone so the Dairy mgr has to fill it out for me and grocery. lol.
I worked with a guy who was a frozen lead that could run a 500 piece truck by himself in 8 hours and have little to no backstock. He was a machine. He did like to take the caffine pills too!
when I was 20 I could throw 85 cases an hour too. and I also went to school full time so all I can say is "good for you". BUT what you don't know is you throwing that fast makes management say everyone should. and when they figure on everyone throwing 85 cases an hour your hours will get cut for night shift and then you will be told "we gave you the hours for your shift based on how many cases you can throw". union says there is NO cases per hours Kroger can force anyone to do. as long as you do your best and give an honest days work to the company it is what it is. you can not be wrote up for how many cases you throw. at 20 years old you have no idea how this company thinks and all you are doing is digging your own grave. you'll find out soon enough.
Ddp says I should be throwing 70 cases an hour. I'm spread from aisle 2 to 17, also have items such as baby formula that requires find me store stickers and eas tags. I told my manager I couldn't do it in no way. took 5 hours rather than the 3 it called for. I can usually do 50 to 60 per hour.
We just changed recently to this whole new cad program, No aisle assignments, run pallets straight off the truck in two man teams, In theory it may sound faster, but in application it's not, here's what will happen, theres no accountability now, because every aisle is done by everyone, so you just gave the already lazy workers, a reason to be even lazier, they don't give a ****, they figure, hey the hard workers will just pick up the slack
Why is nobody throwing dairy? Lol only frozen and dry food?? nobody works in a store that has yogurt, milk, tofu, eggs, hummus, salsas, artificial milk, small drinks and big cold juice cases? Lol trying to find some answers with how my store is doing things and why their times and backstock is so crazy overstocked but nobody to relate that works in the cooler sections of the store?
Why is nobody throwing dairy? Lol only frozen and dry food?? nobody works in a store that has yogurt, milk, tofu, eggs, hummus, salsas, artificial milk, small drinks and big cold juice cases? Lol trying to find some answers with how my store is doing things and why their times and backstock is so crazy overstocked but nobody to relate that works in the cooler sections of the store?
The dairy staff usually works on the day shift. If you are part time, you are probably just missing them. Go in your store during the middle of the day and you will see 1 or 2 people working in your dairy. Dairy actually has a higher priority than frozen does. Frozen has many choices but if you run out of milk, cheese, eggs, juice or yogurt customers will complain.
Hey guys, the name's Josh. I am currently the night crew supervisor on my freight crew at a Smith's. I've been throwing freight since I was 17, started before even graduating high school; I'd work at night, then go home and shower, then off to school. I'm 19 years old, almost 20. Now that you've got a bit of my background, let's hear about you other freight throwers out there. I want to know:
1. How many cases are you expected to throw per hour?
2. Have you reached/exceeded this number of thrown cases per hour?
3. Typical load size (Ours is 1000 cases for a 3 man crew)
4. What's biggest load you've ever thrown with your crew?
And finally,
5. Does your grocery manager/upper management understand the level of difficulty and physicality to getting the job done on time?
I look forward to your answers and comparing them with my own!
230 cases per hour?! That was our divisional standard several years ago; now it's 360 cases per hour. Geez! I wish we could go back to the old standards!
