# UDC Here



## LordCommander (Mar 23, 2020)

Just looking to see what some of the questions people from the stores or the RDCs have.


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## Luck (Mar 24, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> Just looking to see what some of the questions people from the stores or the RDCs have.


Oh wow boy do I. Alright. What department are you in? That would obviously have a lot of bearing on the questions you can answer.


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## LordCommander (Mar 24, 2020)

I am in the pack to store (PTS) department, and am trained in our universal sorting system (USS)department as well as online ordering replacement (OOR)


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## Luck (Mar 24, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> I am in the pack to store (PTS) department, and am trained in our universal sorting system (USS)department as well as online ordering replacement (OOR)


Huh. Those are new terms to me. Does that mean you could possibly explain why the green repacks are always so empty? 😁


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## LordCommander (Mar 24, 2020)

I can!  So it all depends on what SSZ we are working, and what each store orders.  Some stores only need a few items from us, and depending on the stock zone, it leaves a lot of room left over.  We can't switch to a smaller box for small orders because we don't have access to which orders will be smaller in size and could fit into a smaller OPB, or overpack box.

Currently, we are receiving extremely low density waves of product due to low demand with Covid-19, so there are a lot of OPBs with only a few items.


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## InboundDCguy (Mar 25, 2020)

Is there a reason that box has to leave the UDC like that though? Can’t it wait to be filled more before shipping it with 1 belt inside? Or can’t that belt be combined into a different box instead?


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## LordCommander (Mar 25, 2020)

It would be a logistical nightmare to try and make that happen.  Each OPB has a barcode on it that the system tracks to get to each store, so on the store side they can scan it and see exactly what they are supposed to have.

If we were to combine boxes, our output from the building would slow to almost a standstill.  If all my aisle are packing, and each aisle has 600+ orders with each order going to a different store, we'd need to add a whole new department and new machinery to sort out each box, have people combine them and reassign all the labels so they'd all be tied to one label.  It wouldn't make any sense for my building or the company to lose out on speed and efficiency.

I do sympathize with folks in the stores though, as I can see how it is inconvenient on their end.


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## ManMythMachine (Mar 25, 2020)

When you guys have UDC boxes without any label, what do you do with them?  I think we used to take them to the Inbound problem area but now I think we take them to the 60 dock and someone there just systematically forces those items to stores.


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## LordCommander (Mar 25, 2020)

So if we have a box where the label has come off( or in cases of large orders and due to human error a new box was not added), our conveyor system will not send them to outbound.  It circles around in our USS department, and will either be assigned to a random store or sent to an online purchases DC.


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## Luck (Mar 25, 2020)

What is up with the introduction of the purple repacks? Are they being used interchangeably, are they slotted to take over entirely? And so forth. 
Do you have any experience with OB at the UDC?


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## LordCommander (Mar 25, 2020)

So the purple OPBs were introduced as a way for us to speed up our process.  The green OPBs had less of a lifetime use due to their size, and we were constantly discarding overused boxes that came back from the stores.  Given the smaller dimensions of the purple OPBs, they should hold up longer structurally.  Our plan is to switch over entirely to the purple OPBs.

Unfortunately, I do not have experience in OB.  Only a general understanding.


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## jenna (Mar 25, 2020)

Acronym breakdown, please.

I am a store team member.


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## LordCommander (Mar 25, 2020)

Not a problem.

OPB- OverPack Boxes
PTS- Pack To Store
USS- Universal Sorting System
OOR- Online Order Replacement/Replenishment 
SSZ- Store Stock Zone
IB- Inbound
OB- Outbound 

If you need any others, feel free to ask


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## jenna (Mar 25, 2020)

UDC?  how is that different than RDC? (regional distribution center?)
online ordering replacement -- what is that?

OPB - I think we call those Repacks at the store level.  We have different colors for different areas of the store.


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## LordCommander (Mar 25, 2020)

UDC is short for Upstream Distribution Center.  We deal with product that is more difficult to predict purchases for.  My UDC deals with softlines products and will change between seasons.  Our OBPs are sent to a selection of RDCs that will then be sent from their inbound department to outbound directly because they directly send to the stores we support.

OOR strictly only sends out product for online order DCs.  Stores only deal with that stock when we get liquidation labels, which will be strictly clearance.

And yes,  OPBs are what you call repack.  We use the green and purple ones, as well as any smaller white ones for security (Apple) products.


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## jenna (Mar 25, 2020)

Thanks!


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## Imtired (Mar 26, 2020)

I’m also at a UDC, I was in USS for 3 years and have been in Warehouse for a year now. It’s nice to see someone speak my language lol


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## InboundDCguy (Mar 26, 2020)

ManMythMachine said:


> When you guys have UDC boxes without any label, what do you do with them?  I think we used to take them to the Inbound problem area but now I think we take them to the 60 dock and someone there just systematically forces those items to stores.


You mean at an RDC if the label came off the box?
Then you can just do a single label reprint, when you get to the label id field just scan the little white label on the side of the box and it should reprint the top label. Predistro works the same way with the shipping label.
If it says it already diverted then I go to CIS, scan the little white label to get the store it should’ve gone to and just throw it on the trailer it’s supposedly already on, and look at whatever UDC boxes are visible to make sure the label didn’t come off on another box that was for a different store.
If it says invalid then we have to create a new overpack label and send it to our highest volume store. Some of our sorter people just slap a label for that store on it and send it without tying the contents, so the store gets free stuff sometimes...


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## Luck (Mar 27, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> So the purple OPBs were introduced as a way for us to speed up our process.  The green OPBs had less of a lifetime use due to their size, and we were constantly discarding overused boxes that came back from the stores.  Given the smaller dimensions of the purple OPBs, they should hold up longer structurally.  Our plan is to switch over entirely to the purple OPBs.
> 
> Unfortunately, I do not have experience in OB.  Only a general understanding.


Less of a question and more of a personal favor, but please please please tell the OB team to keep a dedicated seperate noncon pallet for MCIM and nothing else so we can just scan the labels and not have to down stack two pallets, seperate the MCIM from the rest, and build a new one back up every day! It also lets us just scan the labels and shove them back in the pouch rather than having to label everything ourselves too 😁 I have zero sympathy passing that headache downstream when they make us palletize repacks for them.


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## LordCommander (Mar 27, 2020)

MCIM?  And I will send this up the my superiors.  May I ask how it impacts you on your side?


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## Luck (Mar 28, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> MCIM?  And I will send this up the my superiors.  May I ask how it impacts you on your side?


I honestly have yet to figure out what it stands for or why we call it MCIM, but it's an online fulfillment center that we act as a filter for. Almost half of what we reciece in a UDC (slightly exaggerated) passes straight through us to the online fulfillment center. This includes certain non conveyable items. 
When we receive UDC non con, often it is pallets of infant furniture, ice melt, and winter wiper fluid. And (although the labels are always out of order) we sort them door to door like normal. 
The issue with MCIM is that we will sometimes receive a pallet that is a LOT of small little boxes. And almost all of these go to MCIM. It can take hours to down stack a pallet of 200 smalls, IUP each box, search through the labels, then scan them in and so forth. 
In a perfect world the pallet contains nothing but MCIM product, we open the pouch, scan all labels, and put the labels back in the pouch and never have to break the shrink wrap. 
But every single time, there is always a handful of boxes that DONT go to MCIM. Requiring us to go through the whole pallet to find them and rebuild the pallet again before dropping it off. You can see how this is a giant waste of time. Happened to me today in fact. 
I know you said your UDC focuses on clothing so it might have nothing to do with you guys. 
T3004 is MCIM by the way. Dont really care if that reveals too much.


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## InboundDCguy (Mar 29, 2020)

Wow, glad I don’t work near a fulfillment center.
Stupid question, but do you know if anyone has contacted the UDC about it? Seems like that’d be something to email their feedback account with every time it happens, especially if it’s that time consuming.


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## LordCommander (Mar 29, 2020)

Luck said:


> I honestly have yet to figure out what it stands for or why we call it MCIM, but it's an online fulfillment center that we act as a filter for. Almost half of what we reciece in a UDC (slightly exaggerated) passes straight through us to the online fulfillment center. This includes certain non conveyable items.
> When we receive UDC non con, often it is pallets of infant furniture, ice melt, and winter wiper fluid. And (although the labels are always out of order) we sort them door to door like normal.
> The issue with MCIM is that we will sometimes receive a pallet that is a LOT of small little boxes. And almost all of these go to MCIM. It can take hours to down stack a pallet of 200 smalls, IUP each box, search through the labels, then scan them in and so forth.
> In a perfect world the pallet contains nothing but MCIM product, we open the pouch, scan all labels, and put the labels back in the pouch and never have to break the shrink wrap.
> ...



I will talk to my IBOB OMs and see how we can best solve this issue.  Perhaps we can get this info out to the other UDCs and work on a plan together


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## Luck (Mar 29, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> I will talk to my IBOB OMs and see how we can best solve this issue.  Perhaps we can get this info out to the other UDCs and work on a plan together


That would be fantastic. I dont really think it would be all that much more work UDC side either.


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## Dcnewb4now (Mar 30, 2020)

LordCommander said:


> So the purple OPBs were introduced as a way for us to speed up our process.  The green OPBs had less of a lifetime use due to their size, and we were constantly discarding overused boxes that came back from the stores.  Given the smaller dimensions of the purple OPBs, they should hold up longer structurally.  Our plan is to switch over entirely to the purple OPBs.
> 
> Unfortunately, I do not have experience in OB.  Only a general understanding.


The purple ones are a little smaller, correct?  Idk if you know, but does anyone know if the new purple repacks fit on a single tray in the sorter?  I’ve never been ob trained but heard the green boxes were on 2 trays on the sorter. Anyone have any insight?


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## Luck (Mar 30, 2020)

Dcnewb4now said:


> The purple ones are a little smaller, correct?  Idk if you know, but does anyone know if the new purple repacks fit on a single tray in the sorter?  I’ve never been ob trained but heard the green boxes were on 2 trays on the sorter. Anyone have any insight?


From what I have seen glimpsing up at the sorter, memory is telling they are still two tray. I will pay attention more next time a UDC is hitting.


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## Luck (Apr 1, 2020)

Luck said:


> From what I have seen glimpsing up at the sorter, memory is telling they are still two tray. I will pay attention more next time a UDC is hitting.


Well the box only physically occupies one tray. But it still drops 2 trays every time. Perhaps it extends off the tray just enough that makes the sorter decide go donit as insurance. But it does seem like with a bit of tweaking to the logic it could easily be a single tray.


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## a1flow (Apr 30, 2020)

Who or what determines the product a store receives.  I understand additional product for transitions, revisions or upcoming sales but what about other products.  If i have a product and shelf is full and the numbers (shelf capacity and backstock) are correct why do we receive more.  Example: shelf holds 12 and shelf is full and lets say i have 3 cases outback why do i get more?  especially when we are only selling only 3 or 4 of that unit a week.


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## LordCommander (Apr 30, 2020)

a1flow said:


> Who or what determines the product a store receives.  I understand additional product for transitions, revisions or upcoming sales but what about other products.  If i have a product and shelf is full and the numbers (shelf capacity and backstock) are correct why do we receive more.  Example: shelf holds 12 and shelf is full and lets say i have 3 cases outback why do i get more?  especially when we are only selling only 3 or 4 of that unit a week.




So, I've had a couple things pop up recently that allow me to answer this question.

So, because UDCs hold freight that is more difficult to predict, we often use sales from each store to predict how much of each item will be shipped to each store.  This info comes from headquarters and is shared with our Product Control (PC) lead on each shift.  

Unfortunately, we have outlier data for each area we serve and adjust based on an algorithm that is frankly above my pay grade.

If you are referring to more recent issues related to COVID-19, I can say that our DC is over capacity right now.  We are currently pushing out freight on a scale comparable to the holiday season.  It has a mix to do with apparel sales down 40% from last year, and hoping to market to states where restrictions have eased.


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## stillsearching (May 15, 2020)

I have orientation next week at a UDC.  The offer letter isn't super specific, just says Operations TM.  I'm second guessing myself about starting a job and not knowing what to expect.  I worked at a DC for auto zone before and when you first started they had some flexibility on position/dept. for example if you preferred to use power equipment or not.  Can anyone offer some insight?


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## Luck (May 17, 2020)

stillsearching said:


> I have orientation next week at a UDC.  The offer letter isn't super specific, just says Operations TM.  I'm second guessing myself about starting a job and not knowing what to expect.  I worked at a DC for auto zone before and when you first started they had some flexibility on position/dept. for example if you preferred to use power equipment or not.  Can anyone offer some insight?


If it's similar at all to a RDC, you will be put where they need you and you will have to wait 6 months before trying to transfer somehwere else. 
Your first 90 days will be spent doing the grunt work and then you are trained on more fun equipment and roles.


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## stillsearching (May 18, 2020)

Luck said:


> If it's similar at all to a RDC, you will be put where they need you and you will have to wait 6 months before trying to transfer somehwere else.
> Your first 90 days will be spent doing the grunt work and then you are trained on more fun equipment and roles.



Thanks for responding.   Makes sense that you gotta put your time in first.  I just hope everything goes well, I'm changing industries and have some anxiety since the job description is vague and I didn't have an interview to be able to ask questions.


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## dcguy86 (Jun 13, 2020)

So, here's a question. Is there any load quality checks before a truck is sent out? I threw UDC as a flex in last night and the boss wanted five of them thrown. I had to use stop work authority on three of the five I did.  I understand that loads shift, but in these three trailers they were overloaded past the do not load past this point.


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## InboundDCguy (Jun 14, 2020)

dcguy86 said:


> So, here's a question. Is there any load quality checks before a truck is sent out? I threw UDC as a flex in last night and the boss wanted five of them thrown. I had to use stop work authority on three of the five I did.  I understand that loads shift, but in these three trailers they were overloaded past the do not load past this point.


I think I know the point you’re talking about, but it should say “loads over 46,000lbs do not load past this point”. It’s so that extremely heavy loads have all of the weight in between the rear semi tires and the trailer tires. If more weight was added beyond that point it would be harder to control on the road because most of the weight would be on the rear tires.


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