Purpose of this post:
· To show sortation (SC)associates looking for a full-time job what to expect when transferring to a fulfillment center (FC)
· To describe the work environment between the two
· To give SC associates to transfer to an FC as one of the options if their building does not have full time positions available
· To prepare SC associates who are transferring to an FC on what to expect
DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to breach any form of sensitive information on this post. All of what you see in this post will be general information friendly to Reddit. No confidential material is being breached here.
DISCLAIMER #2: I am aware that every FC is different from one another. I am only speaking from my experience. This is also a very informal post, so don't expect anything "professional" out of me. I'll speak informally because this is Reddit.
I've made a longer version, but I wanted to cut it short.
You can choose whatever topics you want to read.
TOPICS:
-Differences between FC and SC
-Scheduling
-Leadership Structure
-Break times: SC vs. FC
-Productivity and Quality expectations: SC vs. FC
-Types of FCs you may be working in
-Department recommendations if you're an SC AA that wants to transfer to an FC.
-Time off
-Benefits
-My FC is big and it's like a maze. How do I know where to go?
Differences between FC and SC in terms of what each building does
FC:
- Unloads, stows, picks, and packs inventory to SCs or DSs
- Huge buildings
- First Mile
SC:
- Sorts packages into pallets, carts, or shuttles based on destination
- Third of a size of an FC
- Middle Mile
Scheduling
[FC]:
- Full-Time (main schedule)
- Reduced-Time (RT)
- Part-Time
- Flex
Shift patterns at an FC:
- Four 10s (FT)
- Common Four 10 schedule patterns
- Front Half (FH) (Sunday - Wednesday): day or night
- Back-half (BH) (Wednesday - Saturday): day or night
- Rare Four 10 schedule patterns
- Front or back half swing shift (think of it like TWI-NIT)
- Swing shift is the shift that bridges day and night shifts.
- You'll either be working most of the day and less of the night and vice versa
- Goal of the shift: to increase productivity for faster customer delivery
- Swing shift time examples
- 3pm - 1:30am
- 3:30pm - 2am
- 1pm - 11:30pm
- 11:30am - 10pm
- Early morning shift (Usually for ICQA at Traditional non-Sort (TnS) sites
- Time 4:30am - 3pm
- Donut shift (Monday - Tuesday, Thursday - Friday)
- Friday - Monday (N) day or night
- Thusday - Sunday (L) day or night
- Monday - Thursday day or night
- Saturday - Tuesday (M) day or night
- Tuesday - Saturday day or night
- Standard FC time example for Day and night shift (Inbound and Outbound)
- IB days: 7am - 5:30pm
- OB days: 7:30am - 6pm
- IB nights: 6pm - 4:30am
- OB nights: 6:30pm - 5am
- Some site's start times for IB and OB are different, but those times listed on the first 4 bullets above are just the most basic examples
- Three 12s (RT)
- Three 10s (RT)
- Thursday - Saturday
- If 12 hour shift, usually it's during the night, but in rare cases can be during the day. Not sure if FCs have RT shift during the day anymore, however.
- Example of 12 hr RT shift time: 6pm - 6:30am (IB) and 6:30pm - 7am (OB)
- Five 6s (RT)
- Tuesday - Saturday
- Wednesday - Sunday
- Thursday - Monday
- Friday - Tuesday
- Saturday - Wednesday
- Usually for 2 periods if your site has periods instead of quarters.
- Two 10s (PT)
- Saturdays and Sunday nights or days
FC Scheduled Extra Time (SET):
- Formerly known as Mandatory Extra Time (MET)
- Enacted when there's going to be a lot of units to process during the week
- Called the week before it activates, and your schedule will change within a day
- The FC could decide whether it's the whole building, IB, OB, or for a specific shift pattern for IB and OB.
- FT and RT AAs have SET, but Flex and PT do not.
- On the schedule you want to select in HiTS, it will list an OT day(s), that's your SET schedule
- SET can either be:
- Five 10 hour shifts (50 hours)
- Five 11 hour shifts (55 hours)
- An extra hour on your shift (44 hours)
- Six 10 hour shifts (60 hours)
- Or whatever your site decides
FC schedule codes and what they mean:
1st letter = Represents whether you work day, night, swing, or flex shift
- Examples
- D = Day shift
- N = Night shift
- S = Swing shift
2nd letter = Represents what days of the week you work
- Examples
- A = Front half
- B = Back half
- C = Donut
- N = Friday - Monday
- L = Thusday - Sunday
- M = Saturday - Tuesday
Numbers = Your OT day
- 1 = Sunday
- 7 = Saturday
- You can figure out the rest
Now, let's make up our own schedule code:
· NC7. N = Night shift. C = Donut (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). 7 = OT day on Saturday.
· DB1. D = Day shift. B = Back half. 1 = OT day on Sunday.
· Whether you get accepted into the shift that you choose or not, you will receive an email about the schedule you chose, and the code for that one.
[SC]
· Basic Schedule patterns:
o MOR = Morning shift
§ Times for MOR shift examples:
· 2am – 6am, 3am – 7am
o DAY = Day shift
§ Times for DAY shift examples
· 8:30am – 12:30pm, 9am – 1pm
o TWI = Evening shift
§ Times for TWI shift examples
· 2pm – 6pm, 3pm – 7pm
o NIT = Night shift
§ Times for NIT shift examples
· 7:30pm – 11:30pm, 8:30pm – 12:30am
o WD = Wrap down
§ Times for WD shift examples
· 11:45pm – 3:45am, 12:15am – 4:15am
o Drip Shifts = WD shifts for all the regular shifts mentioned (MOR – NIT)
· At an SC, you use shift choice if you want to change your shift schedule. FCs don’t have that.
o FT or PT AAs (T1s) can use this feature
· SCs have the ability to flex up and down an hour
· 4 hour shifts.
· No flex scheduling
· No RT
· Mostly PT, but FT is very rare to get.
· Depending on the site, Some SCs have heat maps for which shifts need the most people or not.
Leadership structure
[FC]
· Each building is split up into different departments
o Department umbrellas: Inbound (IB) and Outbound (OB)
§ Think of each department as a different type of Sort Center.
· Structure of operations from top to bottom:
o Site leader (L7)/General Manager (GM) (L8)
§ Oversees all of the departments.
§ The GM usually has a General Manager’s Assistant (GMA). They usually either have their own office or their own cage.
o Senior Operations Manager (SOM) (L7)
§ In the Sort Center mindset of things, think of these people like miniature site leaders for this department.
§ Usually in charge of financial decisions and other big things
§ There’s one for each department, although it’s incredibly rare to have another SOM that works nights.
· Inbound
· Pick/Count
· Outbound (packing side of things)
· Ship dock
o Operations Manager (OM) (L6)
§ 4 for each department.
· 1 for FHN
· 1 for FHD
· 1 for BHN
· 1 for BHD
o Area Managers (AM, L4 and 5)
§ 2 or 3 for each department, in whatever shift pattern they work
o Process Assistants (PAs, L3/T3)
§ 2 or 3 PAs for each department, in whatever shift patterns they work as well, but they are hourly. They clock in 30 minutes early to prepare with their AM.
· Labor Share: The process of sending a cross-trained associate from their home department to another.
o Sent either in the beginning of, middle of, or near the end of a shift.
o Think of it like going from one Sortation Center to another
o How it works:
§ Way 1: One department asks another department. The other department pulls up a list of people who are trained in that department. They usually try to do the low performers first, then the top ones
§ Way 2: One department asks the flow desk. The flow desk then communicates through the other department and asks them how many they are trained in that department. Then the other department sends AAs to that department.
[SC]
§ Structure of operations:
o 1 site lead (L7)
o 4 – 6 OMs.
§ 1 for DAY-TWI
§ 1 for TWI-NIT (rare, depends on site)
§ 1 for NIT-WD or NIT-MOR
§ They usually either are on the floor overseeing production
§ They check in with AMs
§ Talk to T1s if necessary
§ Make moves to the AMs when needed
§ In office doing admin work.
o 2 – 3 AMs per day or night team on either FH or BH. Some working TWI-NIT or MOR-DAY, whatever your site has.
§ Could have 1 deliver feedback
§ 1 leading the whole shift and deciding whether the shift flexes up or down.
§ 1 involved in yard audits
§ They sometimes assist the PAs or line/team leads when needed.
o 3 – 4 PAs (or more) running different areas per shift for day and night teams
o Some SCs have SOMs and GMs, but it’s rare. Also depends on the site.
§ If you move from one area (like the lanes/chutes) to another (like non-con, problem solve, inbound), that’s not labor sharing. Reason: those areas do not have more than one AM overseeing it. Just one PA/line/team lead for each area.
o The metrics for each area at a sortation facility are not that deep compared to the ones for each department at an FC.
Break times SC vs. FC
[SC]
§ No set breaks
§ Usually it is decided on a shift plan, whether it be emailed or a piece of paper that the PAs, and all of upper leadership sees.
§ By hour 3 of the shift, that’s when break is decided.
§ The lead AM decides on a break time, and the flex call 2 hours within the shift.
§ Breaks are paid 15 minutes.
o SCs follow the 2.5 minute walk, 10 minutes to take break, and 2.5 minutes back. HOWEVER, scan-to-scan does not exist. Attendance is usually relied upon.
§ Scan to scan means that the first item that you scan at the start of break time counts as your break, and then you have 2.5 minutes to the breakroom. 10 minutes to take your break. Then 2.5 minutes to get back to your station and start to scan something at the 15 minute mark.
o In SCs, a PA or an AM will announce whenever break is over or not, and will announce the flex call and how much volume the site has to process.
§ Work 2 SCs, well in between shifts counts as your unpaid break.
o Unpaid break for double shifts at an SC, ranges from 30 minutes, up to 2 hours and 30 minutes, depending on the flex call.
[FC]
§ Set breaks
§ No announcement for when break time is over. You’re just excpected to follow the scan-to-scan rules.
o Write ups occur if you’re way too late from your paid break. AMs and leadership are mostly lenient on that though.
§ 2 types of break patterns
o Paid 15, unpaid 30, and one last paid 15
§ If your site has this pattern, then your shift will be split into quarters.
o Unpaid 30, and then paid 30
§ If your site has this pattern, then your shift will be split into 3 periods
· For the periods, each one is like a tiny shift.
· 1 period can last as short as 2 hours, and as long as 4.5 hours. No break in between them (unless you’ve won some type of competition for your department.)
o Whether you have quarters or periods, your site may have what’s called a Safety Rotation/Job Rotation.
§ Purpose: To prevent injury from repetitive motion. Especially if you are in pick.
§ Some sites do not have this feature
§ Pattern for job rotations
· Periods:
o 2 periods of your home department, and 1 in your cross-trained one.
o 2 in cross-trained, and one in home
· Quarters:
o 3 in home, and 1 in cross-trained
o 2 home, 2 cross-trained
o 3 cross-trained, 2 home.
Productivity and Quality expectations:
[SC - Productivity]
§ Relaxed
§ Whether your site says there’s a rate or not, there’s always a rate. They don’t announce it since they could just flex the shift up or down depending on how strong of a leadership they are.
§ PAs and AMs only want to see if you’re working
§ Fast worker? The whole building will definitely notice you. T1s will be like “Oh my gosh. You move so fast” and will even make fun of you. PAs will want you more. AMs may have you in one area based on rate (L4s specifically.) L5s and up won’t say anything much
[SC – Quality]
§ “Eh”
§ The SC will only worry about failed moves/errors if you made too many of them.
o Too much miscans/missorts? Coaching time and write up time!
o Didn’t complete the whole WSSW process correctly? Waterspider permissions removed temporarily or permanently!
o Made 8 failed moves staging? Coaching and write up time!
§ Pallet building quality is frowned upon by the DSs, USPS people, and maybe other SCs, but hey, what can they do? They gotta send it out somehow.
o Even though quality is kind of “eh” at an SC, you can say that productivity and quality kind of balance out. Again, even though there’s a plan, the lead AM could decide on whether to flex the building up or down no matter how fast or slow you go.
§ Learning curve levels and veteran curve levels do not exist at an SC. However, time to proficiency (TTP) in path exists.
[FC – Productivity]
§ Whole lot to explain here, but I’ll just explain the basics.
§ Rate is calculated in many different ways:
o How many units you’ve processed per whole shift
o How many units you’ve processed per hour
o How many units you’ve processed per period or per quarter.
§ PAs will come to you about rate every now and then
o Top performer? Not as much
o Mid? Maybe
o Bottom? YEP!
§ If you were performing poorly, you’ll get written up (what r/AmazonFC people call, “the bottom 5%”
§ Different learning curve levels. The lower the curve level, the lower the rate. The higher the curve, the higher the rate.
o Ranges from LC1 (40 hours) to LC5 (160 hours).
§ Rate is only worried about in LC3, which is 80 hours.
§ Veteran Curve = How long you’ve worked in the building.
o I don’t know much about lengths
[FC – Quality]
§ Very emphasized depending on department
o Examples:
§ Pick: 3 false pick shorts = write up
§ Count: 3 wrong counts = write up
§ Stow: 3 misscans = write up
§ If you are doing quality correctly during the shift, if you’ve seem to make too many quality errors before they are counted as accurate or inaccurate, your PA or PG will come to you and ask if anything is ok or not.
§ Every week, your AM will deliver either positive or negative feedback regarding quality, productivity, or if written up, behavioral.
o Example: “Hi Jimmy! You’re in the top 10% for productivity. Congrats”
o Example 2: “Hi Johnny! It shows that on [insert date here] you’ve been doing [insert wrong-doing here].”
§ In example 2, they’ll tell you whether you’ve received a doc coaching, or a final.
§ 4 write-ups for productivity, quality, or behavioral = promoted to customer.
Types of FCs you may be working in
§ AR Sortable: You’ll be stowing, picking, or counting from kiva drives taking the bin directly to you. Packing types may be different.
§ AR non-sortable: Same as sortable, except for big and bulky items
§ Traditional sortable: You’ll be moving to different aisles, either stowing, picking, or counting. Packing and ship docking should be the same
§ Traditional non-sortable: You’ll be driving PIT trucks: Order Pickers (OPs) being the very prominent ones. You’ll be stowing, picking, and counting from very narrow aisles (VNAs), and wide aisles. You’ll either be stowing/picking/counting from drawers or bins, or even from pallets. If packing, you’ll be packing from a cage that a picker has made. They’ll have yellow totes too depending on the site or depending on the pick. Packing and ship docking may be slightly similar but different from sortable FCs. Usually, non-sort FCs use clear tape for their packing. Some even have an automated tape machine.
o The OPs go up to 50 feet in the air.
Department recommendations if you want to transfer from an SC to an FC:
1. Ship Dock if you still want that “SC” feel
2. Stow, pick, and pack singles if you want to be left alone (especially at AR FCs)
a. Pick if you really want some slight exercise while being in one spot
b. Stow if you want your brain to be relaxed a little
c. Singles if you want to be in one spot all the time
3. Count (ICQA) if you don’t want anything rate based, but quality based. Also if you like to take your time
4. Pack flow (AFE) if you want slight communication between your packers or sorters.
If you want indirect roles for whatever department you’re in, that’s fine too. The good thing is you won’t be focused on that as much because there’s no rate. You’ll also be labor tracked too.
Time off
§ Since FCs are FT mostly, you’ll get Standard PTO (formerly known as vacation time).
o 2 hours and 10 minute increase (well, for me at least)
o Maxes out at 160 hours
§ Flex PTO maxes out at 48 hours unless you’re in a different state.
§ UPT still the same
Benefits
§ Benefits will likely increase. You’ll have health benefits if you work FT.
§ Not much to say, other than you can even choose other benefits that are offered through Amazon Benefits.
My FC is big and it’s like a maze. How do I know where to go?
Upon arriving in the building, show security your badge. Afterwards, they will have you enter inside of the building, and you will be directed to the training room/day 1 room, whatever your site has. You’ll either be given a tour or you’ll just be thrown into your department with only a slight tour on where the bathroom is, breakrooms, exits, etc.
If you have gloves from your previous site, keep them! You will not have badge access to the PPE vending machines until day 3. It will take a while for you to get processed.
When you take your break, remember where you are going, and how to get back. Especially if you are taking your break in your vehicle. The moment you clock in or the moment you get back from your paid break, you have 5 minutes to be at your station making your first scan. If it’s been past 5 minutes, then tot will start to accumulate. An AM will warn you about this when they see it and if they know you’re new.
Your Ambassador will show you where you need to go, and how to find your stations, and so forth.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all I have. If there’s any FC AA that likes to add anything, feel free to comment. Any other questions, feel free to comment as well.