What is considered a "small"

[local804]

The 5 lbs and can fit through a coat hanger was the old school definition. Now it's exactly as westsideworma described: 16x16x7 inches or less, 8lbs or less, no hazmat. There's no variance anymore by building, this is the corp standard. I think the biggest reason is the transition from the old plastic bags on a roll to the new(er) reusable nylon bags.
The reason it's on everyone's hot list is that due to the lane enhancements, we've taken volume out of day sorts and moved them to twilight and night sorts. All over the country now, buildings are claiming they're out of capacity. One (cheap) way to raise capacity in a building is to increase the smalls % so there are fewer handles on the belts. It's cheaper than building new facilities.
I guess you can tell by the post I'm an IE guy. I've lurked on here for awhile and I know how most of you view the department. Go ahead, let fly. I can take it...

Your the first IE guy that actually has made any sense.
gratz

 

[brownmonster]

Hard to tote em if you can't find any totes. No I will not use forever bags, too hard to load.

 

[over9five]

"Your the first IE guy that actually has made any sense."


Yup, you won't last long in that dept!

 

[westsideworma]

"Your the first IE guy that actually has made any sense."


Yup, you won't last long in that dept!

department? more like management period lol

I mean I get long with our managerial team for the most part but I won't deny they don't make sense too often.

 

[Joopster]

"What is a small"

Answer: anything smaller than a refrigerator.

 

[old levi's]

"What is a small"


Ask your girlfriend

 

[upsgrunt]

That's brutal Dino-funny, but brutal!!

 

[Lobofan5]

A small is...


anything smaller than 1 girth unit.


(see thread... publics view of dim weight)

 

[dudebro]

Thanks for the welcome. I like to think if the communication was better, some decisions might be better understood, if not always agreed with. And yea, if we could bag refrigerators and save handles without killing anyone, we would!

 

[scratch]

Thanks for the welcome. I like to think if the communication was better, some decisions might be better understood, if not always agreed with. And yea, if we could bag refrigerators and save handles without killing anyone, we would!

dudebro, Welcome to the Brown Cafe. I'm actually glad you registered and admitted your in IE, I hope you have a thick skin. You have posted a few things already that I find interesting. I encourage you to hang tough and keep it up, IE and PT Supes get blamed for everything at UPS.

 

[dudebro]

IE and PT Supes get blamed for everything at UPS.

There's a good reason for that....

And don't worry about my skin. I started my career as a loader and then a P/T supervisor on the Meadowlands Midnight sort, so I've taken every kind of abuse from above and below. D*** ***** (our COO) told me I was the worst part time supervisor in the world while pounding his Mack Truck bulldog on his desk at the time. And he liked me. I had just taken over a PD with all CT center loads and no employees or load charts and my misload frequency on my first day was 1/63.

Thanks for the welcome and the warning

 

[DebbieSue]

from UPSers.com

To help you identify smalls, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Key Messages

§A small is defined as a package with a maximum size of 16 inches by 16 inches by 7 inches, weighing less than eight pounds. That’s about the size of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and the weight of a gallon of milk.

§Smalls typically can be handled with one hand.

§Smalls can never contain hazardous materials.

§It is everyone's responsibility to containerize smalls, starting with the drivers during pickups.

Conclusion
Remember, smalls are a big deal because they carry items that are important to our customers and are a large portion of our daily package volume. When smalls are handled properly, our efficiency is increased while damages and losses are decreased.



16x16x7??? that doesn't sound too small to me lol

Look at what I found on UPSers.com when I was trying to get information about smalls. They say smalls are the size of three pizza boxes!
Size Matters—Smalls are Huge

Smalls have grown up and are now bigger than you may realize.



[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Many UPSers are unclear about what is now considered a small by UPS standards. Questions such as these are often asked: [/FONT]

• [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Is it any package smaller than three stacked large pizza boxes? [/FONT]
• [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Is it any package weighing the same as a gallon of milk? [/FONT]

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]We define smalls as 16x16x7 inches or less and weighing eight pounds or less. This is a standardized definition used at all centers. Therefore the answer to all of these questions is yes—as long as both the size and the weight limits are not exceeded. [/FONT]

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Reusable network containers (RNC), sometimes referred to as smalls bags or forever bags, have the ability to hold packages as big as three large pizza boxes stacked on top of each other. [/FONT]

 

[freeloader]

16 x 16 x 7? Will that even fit through a small sort bin? Smalls got progressively bigger due to the forever bags that UPS has been using for the last several years. They are waaay stronger than the old plastic bags.

With the automated small sorts (aka bullfrogs), you can't place oversized smalls on the trays, otherwise you get rejects, missorts, or a pile of packages at the end of the bullfrog.

Containerizing smalls has always been a good thing in my opinion. Too much stuff gets lost otherwise.

 

[outamyway]

Anything easily tossed, that won't break

 

[trplnkl]

Hard to tote em if you can't find any totes. No I will not use forever bags, too hard to load.

Totes are not allowed in our building for smalls, they tip over too easily on the slides doing away with the principle of smalls containerizing.

 

[UPS Lifer]

Dudbro and Westside have the textbook answer. BUT another way to improve your performance numbers PPH and reduce the sort span is by increasing the smalls production. (BYPASS BAGS) The more smalls flowing through the small sort the less pkgs going through the sort isle. If you can cut 15 minutes off the sort and you have 60 loaders in the outbound you can cut 15 minutes per employee in the outbound...which would increase your PPH accordingly. These are some of the things an operator can do to reach the numbers that are said to be unrealistic. Most of the loaders I dealt with would rather get out of the hub earlier and handle less pieces.

Another fix to improving the small sort to get the numbers is to put in a secondary sort which breaks down the small sort read which becomes easier to learn and staff.

Your staff comes from the load side and you move those folks back and forth as needed. You also train some unloaders to go to the small sort as soon as they are ramping down in the unload. This stuff all works. You just got to implement it.

By talking with your people.... you found out who wants the work and who wants to go home (of course everything is by seniority). But you get your folks backing doing it this way.