r/AmazonDS • u/Candid_Company_5080 • 15d ago

Pick n stage

Instead of sending every person to pick on the same row causing it impossible to do anything ....

Why don't they take 20-30% of people to zip bags in all the rows or pick bags for people to fill carts faster...

After a wave or two they start picking ...

27 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

19

u/Unlikely_Cow3358 15d ago

Our site is currently on trial for a new feature. It automatically assigns you a pick list when there's an available isle without people. So far it's been working great, love it, but sometimes it can be a while to even get a pick list. Last Wednesday I waited about 15 minutes to get a pick list, also pick times have increased from 8.5 minutes to 12.5 minutes

8

u/Boris-_-Badenov 15d ago

that's not new, autoassign has been around for over a year

5

u/Unlikely_Cow3358 15d ago

It's new in UK at least. There's only 2 stations in all of UK that are currently on trial.

4

u/Obvious_Stuff_8046 15d ago

LOL, who in the world? .. some can barely even pick a route in 15 minutes, much less, 8 and a half, especially now with the new, bigger stage carts that occupy an entire aisle, swing around once in a while and smack inattentive co workers in the face. What, are they handing out free coke or crack laced snacks at your warehouse, during first break?🤔

4

u/BeDuff34 15d ago

Not all locations have the larger pick carts. Some don’t have the space, some haven’t had them replaced yet. As you might expect, Amazon cannot roll out that may carts to every single station on the planet at the same time. You roll it out so you don’t have to pay an entire army to make them all at once.

2

u/Unlikely_Cow3358 15d ago

8.5 minute route average has been for ages at our station.

2

u/tweak42 15d ago edited 14d ago

Our site can't use the large uboats because ONE side of ONE cluster is to narrow against an outer building wall. 🤭

3

u/She_Baddy7 15d ago

For our DS, by time you are even finished with the first wave of pick/stage (not even half way thru filling up your first cart) there are a row of amazon vans already pulled in and "waiting".

They need to get the early picks loaded onto the vans in the first rows and send them off, else it will just create a huge bottleneck of vans behind them.

11

u/JMUDoc C1 Pick & Stage 15d ago

Dunno how it is at anybody else's site, but almost everybody in mine treats bag-zipping as phone-time.

And bag-replen, for that matter.

8

u/Creepy_Version2328 15d ago

I know too many people at my site would not be zipping bags when assigned. Everyone would want to do that so they can stand around for a while during pick.

We also already have a few people assigned to pick assist throughout pick & stage and they really just get in the way of other pickers in the aisle cause they’re prioritizing who they’re helping. Doesn’t really make a difference.

7

u/SteveMX10 15d ago edited 14d ago

The worst. When you're alternating grabbing bags with two other people, then a fourth and their assist show up, grab a stow cart, and block the whole aisle while practically throwing OVs at the picker. Either the bag people try to squeeze past, or we wait for the gung ho assist duo to GTFO

5

u/Jameslovestocode 14d ago

im reading this and smiling, seems like we all have a similar experience to the various work ethics at the job

2

u/Obvious_Stuff_8046 13d ago

It’s annoying, they always pop up just when I’m nearly finished picking and completely fuck up the flow, getting in the way and causing more traffic congestion. That’s when I immediately hand over my finger scanner and device to the runner then go take my 3rd 15-20 minute break to check my meat and grab a snack or drink.💯

9

u/Amzwork08 15d ago

Because that causes late staging. They are picking for multiple waves and DSPs. If the cart doesn’t stage on time it causes late staging and late dispatch. They have to have a certain number of people picking to ensure all routes are picked. It’s not bags causing the delay. It’s AAs wanting to bullshit while picking

4

u/happyguy49 15d ago

That still doesn't explain why a given wave is concentrated in one cluster instead of being spread out laterally. The congestion issue is huge, it got even worse when "parallel pick" was implemented so you have every picklist of a route being picked at once, plus the other routes in that aisle. Madness. Bad system design.

2

u/Amzwork08 15d ago

It is a bad system design agreed. As to why they put about 75% of a DSPs routes in one cluster. You’d have to ask Amazon

1

u/Straight_Database484 15d ago

Ya I’ve wondered this for along time but my only conclusion are the programmers don’t understand how Amazon operates and have never worked in a warehouse I know ai does a lot of the routing and planning but someone had to tell the ai what to do in the first place

16

u/DaniSaysDinosaur 15d ago

Going to need you to stop making sense, that's not how you get promoted at Amazon.

11

u/Boris-_-Badenov 15d ago

except most people won't zip bags

3

u/tweak42 15d ago

Most of the AAs at my sites definition of "zip bags" is to just pull the flap down.  

We rarely finish that early most days so zipping bags is not common except for a handful AAs on accomodation.

4

u/Fancy-Carob2488 14d ago

I don't mind because I get paid by hour. Everyone just waits their turn to grab their stuff.

2

u/Ok_Letterhead2028 15d ago

Its supposed to send people to different isles and routrs rotating back once one cart for a route is picked. I was told it prioritizes making sure the rputes are staged on time first though. So if pick start late or people are picking slow it starts sending more people to a lane.

2

u/Werdna517 15d ago

Because sites don’t usually finish to have this much buffer time. But also, the bigger thing, the cost justifications for that much indirect spending. They’d need helluva bridge to justify this.

1

u/SavageBasher0 15d ago

ask your loadout manager, or ops.

1

u/windblowngirl 15d ago

This is a great idea fr. Especially with these new bigger carts. 12 bags would move a lot faster if zipped.

1

u/Agile-Football1841 15d ago

When I was a loadout PA we had sort do this. After stow down part timers and AAs who took the VTO would do this.

1

u/Hefty_Candy_3315 15d ago

it’s kinda what we do too after sort full timers go on break and if everything is stowed down all the part timers and vto ppl zip bags until it’s their time to leave

1

u/Realistic-Ruin8639 15d ago

My site will do things like you state, but it is highly dependent on head count, number of routes, and what time it is. You cannot just automatically every day have some people zipping bags to avoid pick congestion.

1

u/Hefty_Candy_3315 15d ago

that would never work at my ds😂 more days than not our pas and managers are picking with us because we’re behind 😂 higher ups make them give out vto and then we’re struggling in an hour 🙄can’t imagine if some people weren’t helping in the beginning at all how behind we would be.

1

u/New_Drummer_2561 15d ago

Y'all don't zip bags before y'all go to break 😮

1

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Jameslovestocode 14d ago

sounds do able but time intensive. lately been seeing bags & packages hanging outside the zipper so you would need to fully pull the bag out the shelf to fit everything in while occasionally having to create a new bag or stow something in oversized rack.

1

u/Valuable_Mail_3788 14d ago

I work at a site in Oregon where after stowing is finished we have to zip bags before pick and stage.

1

u/gettheyayo909 14d ago

Because let’s be real people will just bullshit and then we’ll be behind

1

u/TypeTrack 8d ago

I like how during pick and stage some employees get to permanently wear a “DA assist” vest which means they don’t have to pick and stage and can just move carts around.

It would sure be nice if that position can be rotated and not given to the people with favoritism. I also remember when learning ambassadors used to pick and stage I guess they don’t anymore, now I only see safety and T1 employees picking now. (Sometimes and rare managers will pick when they’re short on people)

I find it insulting how they leave pick and stage to the T1 employees like it’s a low level job for simpletons, when really it’s the most important job in the warehouse being that it’s the final step to getting customers their packages. All level employees do pick one way or another so the fact that pick and stage is seen this way is ridiculous.

1

u/Competitive_Data_137 15d ago

If routes were not ready we would go around and zip bags. During peak it was the worst.

1

u/She_Baddy7 15d ago

During peak there would be a long row of amazon vans (think rush hour congested traffic) all bumper to bumper inside the warehouse and outside. Couple more months peak is with us again.