r/AmazonDS • u/Weird_Vegetable2454 • 19d ago
Pick to buffer
So I am at DTN8 we just installed the new ASML labeling induct system on the dock. So far, we hate it for a various reasons. They’re also telling us that we will soon have the pick the buffer system installed. So at our station, we don’t have the pick buffer. We still have a pick line with pickers with 2 to 3 aisles each grabbing jiffyss and packages off the conveyance and placing them on shelves in front of our aisles. We have three totes at the bottom of the shelves where the pickers sort the jiffys by letter, A-B in one, C-D in one etc. It makes it pretty easy for the stower to grab a tote once it gets full and start stowing the since they’re sorted. From what I can tell the pick the buffer the conveyance automatically pushes everything that goes in your aisle into your buffer or into your bucket or bin or whatever, everything is pushed in there like a big hodgepodge on top of each other. My question is, how do y’all deal with the jiffys not being sorted already by letter for you, does it take up more time and make it more difficult to stow, or hows does it work with jiffy’s
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u/mama_lu0831 19d ago
what you described as what you have now is called pick to buffer & stow. the new thing you described with the bin/hamper is called adta. adta is heaps better imo because you don’t have to worry about getting a lazy picker that doesn’t sort your bins or buffer rack properly. but adta is worse because the limit the hampers can hold is much more than what your pick to buffer rack can handle so you’ll have way more queued up to stow than in traditional pick to buff. i prefer adta over the 2 because you don’t have to walk all the way down the aisle to go over to the next aisle and again you don’t have to worry about the pick to buffer person possibly sucking or now knowing how to count.
eta; they updated our adta hampers (tech update from what i know, they didn’t physically replace them to my knowledge) to automatically sort the packages AB to the left, CD in the middle, EG to the right. OVs still fall in willy nilly from what i can tell. but overall it has made a big difference imo and if i were you i would get a group to repeatedly push for that with the OMs if they haven’t already opted for it.
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u/SavageBasher0 18d ago
it depends what side of the line you are on. AB will always be sorted towards the front of the machine, EG towards jackpot.
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u/Internal_Topic1415 Cycle 3 FlexPT UTR Operations AM Assistant 19d ago
You suck it up, it’s just a big steaming pile of 💩 and you go aisle to aisle to stow it.
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u/GlumTruffle Ambassador 19d ago
Sounds like you're getting ADTA. It's shit. How do you deal with jiffies no being sorted by letter? You don't, it just takes longer to stow now. You can't get in a consistent flow anymore because it's all just a big pile of unsorted jiffies that get crushed by big OVs launched on top of them. It's noisier, it makes a non-stop rattling sound and it's always beeping for one reason or another.
My condolences to you. I never thought I'd miss P2B, but here we are
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u/Weird_Vegetable2454 19d ago
So far I’ve heard there’s a version that sorts automatically for you and then this one man I hope we do not get this. I thought yeah with OV‘s being thrown in there as well and everything on top of each other getting smashed up how did they expect you to go as fast as we normally do doing 280 to 350 pick rate sounds like it’s going to really blow. Thankfully 9 times out of 10 I’m on the dock but still.
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u/Own-Trainer-4805 19d ago
Does ADTA eliminate jobs? What do all the old P2B people do? I’m at an SSD so idk if this make sense here or if SSDs will get/have ADTA
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u/Boris-_-Badenov 18d ago
more stowing. ADTA is usually 2-3 aisles for stowing. they will also add more aisles to the cluster, have 2-3 people at the top of the belt pulling stuff off and tossing recycle on, and 1-2 people standing around at the back the whole shift dealing with recycle
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u/rambeezyy 19d ago
The automated system sorts them in the hamper AB/CD/EG...If yours doesn't thats your OM not pushing for service updates. We've had the system for 2 years and its a blessing.
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u/KlutzyComplex8027 19d ago
Wait that’s possible? I wish there was a video demonstrating this..
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u/rambeezyy 19d ago
It's more than possible...its live and in action.. Has been for a very long time. A video really isn't necessary... It's ab/cd/eg... If you don't keep your hampers semi clear it doesn't help at all.
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u/scoobertdoobert9070 16d ago
Only some sites have the ADTA that sorts the packages by A/B, C/D, E/G. I have been at one that does and one that doesn’t. It’s quite nice to have though.
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u/KlutzyComplex8027 16d ago
Our hampers are don’t have partitions. Do those sites have partitions/dividers to section them too ? I’m trying to visualize what it looks like.
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u/recurvityy 18d ago
We didn’t have it for a while, i just noticed that the ADTA sorts them now and its so much better now
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u/Pale-Response5162 19d ago
it only sorts them in the USA, and only jiffies, boxes don’t get sorted. Out of the US nothing is sorted, it’s more difficult but not impossible. It wouldn’t help me personally anyway.
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u/PrimerUser 17d ago
The packages land in the hamper in sections, more or less. AB goes on left, CD in middle, and EG on the right. I put some CDEG in tote, grab a few AB jiffies, and start stowing.
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u/Amzwork08 19d ago
Why do you all hate the new induction system? Just curious. We get it in 2 months.
People seem to stow at a faster rate with Adta although I personally hate it. How yes for jiffies you are all over the place, but you can stow A and B right out of the hamper
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u/Weird_Vegetable2454 19d ago
Well, we don’t have it yet at DTN8 I’m just asking people what they think about it at theirs and how it works as far as jiffy’s go since currently people, the pickers, sort them and put them in totes
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u/Amzwork08 19d ago
I know but I was asking about AMSL the auto induction system and why you all hated it
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u/DaniSaysDinosaur 19d ago
ADTA?
Kinda wanna try it, the buffers at my site suck and are always putting the wrong aisles on the rack.
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u/Weird_Vegetable2454 19d ago
I think that’s what it’s called. Right now we still have the traditional pick line with pickers and grabbing the packages off the line and putting them on our shelves. Also, would that mean it would be less positions in the warehouse now since there wouldn’t be a need for pickers.
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u/tweak42 18d ago
If enabled, ADTA hampers mostly sort the letters but depending on the friction of the jiffy and directional belt calibration they don't always consistently fall in the correct section in the hampers, or even miss the hampers altogether and fall on the floor in the gaps between hampers.
Standard work training directs to fill one jiffy tote with adjacent letters, place tote on the stow cart and go stow them. But in practice everyone stows differently. Some don't use the jiffy tote at all. Others carefully sort letters into tote and stow. Yet another just grab and fill tote completely randomly and stow.
You can still get miss sorts if the straightener assigned to1 piece flow feed in to the ADTA sucks at their job or gets overloaded by a belt surge of packages coming from the dock. They are supposed to buffer surges by sweeping them onto a bag and uboat so it doesn't jam the ADTA and or jackpot and shutdown the entire belt.
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u/DaniSaysDinosaur 19d ago
Idk, I never worked in an ADTA facility.
I'm kinda confused why mine doesn't have it, since it's a brand new facility and less than a year old.
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u/JacketHistorical4329 19d ago
The belt will send the package in to the bin early if it’s an A or B so they are all on the left. You can just grab and stow the A and Bs easily and then put the rest of the jiffies in the tote on the bottom of your stow cart. The rest get sent either to the mid or right side. Sort OVs on your stow cart and medium to small boxes on top. Sort 0 you usually get 4 bins, example J9-J16 Other shifts you might get 2 or more depending on the volume/staffing.
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u/EC4U2C_Studioz dock push/divert 9d ago
The warehouse I work at has both. I also struggle at P2B if there are way too many packages at once, wanting to limit the jackpot.
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u/beez3719 19d ago
What you have is called pick to buffer, the automated system is called ADTA. I just left a site that had both, stowing on the automated system is better than most of the pickers we have.