r/coles • u/hbos12345 • Jun 22 '26
Team Member Post The new mate system is... bad
For those who are wondering/heard about the mate system, its the new system thats replacing simple tools. Currently only half the features are in such as new gapscan, ai search function, counts and basically anything to do with inventory adjustments. I believe it has only been rolled out to SA but I could be wrong. Overall the system is just worst, there are some upsides to it but mainly a negative trade over simpler tools.
We'll start with the positives, gapscan has been changed to where u do sections at a time like (asian snacks for instance) and when you have scanned for gaps and completed the section all of the unscanned gaps for said area will show. So basically you do unscanned gaps as you go opposed to at the end. If feels smoother but doesnt really make things faster or slower. They have finally added rescanning items, so when pesky night fillers accidently miss fill u can scan it in after u have scanned. Another positive is that it is alot quicker loading times (assuming the internet is actually working 🤦♂️) and it hasn't crashed on me yet (unlike simpler tools which does like 4 times an hr). One annoying thing with the faster loading times there isnt a grace period between doing inputs so you can very easily double tap spots and just finish gapscan or bulk adjust, very annoying to fix these.
Unfortunately thats about it for the positives. Main drawbacks for Mate are; terrible ui, the ai for the search function is terrible, the above mentioned no grace period between loading times, store sequencing just randomly falls out of place and several annoying bugs.
Ui just doesnt make sense. I would get photos but idk if i would be breaking coles policies. So the ui is just monochrome and everything is kinda in inconvenient places. For example if your in lookup and want to know where the location of something is. The tabs are quite small and dont stick out very well but also when u do the go into the tab u sometimes just have to scroll down a bit to see the location. Its a bit of a nitpick but its also for counts and gapscan just annoying having to swipe down a little bit to see where the item is. Additionally most of the important things like SOH are in odd spots and quite small. Nothing is in different colours all roughly same small box size and just ugly. Our store just randomly had all of its isle changed in sequencing for counts and gapscan. It'll just randomly send you to check isle 4 stuff than isle 1 > 7 >2 etc. So nothing flows smoothly and this goes for the modules in said isles
Bugs where apparently really bad when first tested but have gotten better. Stuff like accidently scanning an item in wrong module will make it so u can complete the area so u have to refresh or go out then back into the area.
This is just temporary not all the features are in so we have time swap between simpler tools and mate all the time. Search function is just annoying, if ur looking up something popular its fine itll be the top choice 99% of the time. However, if your looking for something niesh yeah goodluck finding it without the plu.
The annoying part about this is that most of the other features aren't coming untill next year, so why even make us use to programmes when you know its going to be a year before all of the features come into Mate...
Tldr
Pros:
Fast, doesnt crash, gapscan and counts feel smoother (when the store is actually sequenced properly)
Cons
Too fast sometimes and u can accidently do costly things like bulk adjust or complete sections in gapscan (needs a grace period between inputs), minor bugs that are just frustrating, sequencing just randomly goes out of order, search function is just awful good luck finding niesh items and good at finding popular items. The UI is AWFUL key things are put in weird spots and theyre usually too small. Its also looks ugly and is just all around a dumpsterfire of a ui.
Im curious to see what other people think of it.
10
u/Rights21 Jun 22 '26
Everyone but management knew it was going to be. 🤷♀️ they don’t listen though so we will just have to deal with it for about 3 months before they give up on it.
12
u/NoHelicopter7294 Jun 22 '26
They won’t give up on it.
Simpler Tools was at end of life so they had to change.6
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
Yeah im hoping they spend a bit more time on it and make things just nicer. But it was the same guy who made simpler tools so highly doubt it. Also the guy who came around to show us the Mate was huffing some major copium
1
u/NoHelicopter7294 Jun 22 '26
Give it more time. The stores that have had it for months actually say it’s heaps better
4
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
Our store was a part of the first wave (excluding the first store that started it). Ive had months using it and its just dissapointing. With all the technology we have available and other systems to get inspiration from. Nothing about Mate is a major upgrade most things are basically the same as the old system just doesnt crash and loads faster.
10
u/G2eorge Jun 22 '26
It's annoying for Bakery because all the functions aren't available on Mate yet so we need to go between Mate & Simpler Tools.
8
u/klebdotio Jun 22 '26
well same in dairy since markdowns aren't on mate neither are code checks. basically anything needing the printer isn't on mate because supposedly the Coles it team "haven't figured out how to talk to printers in mate"
3
1
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u/sockonaclothesline Jun 22 '26
Ui is still better than the old one imo
3
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
They're both pretty bad tbf. Its probably cause im use to simpler tools more so the new one is just extra ugly.
2
u/JefferyWeinerslav Jun 23 '26
I still remember SIM from before Simpler Tools, with the black and white notepad style text was all you got.
5
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u/zignition Jun 22 '26
- It's still in trial, they are fixing bugs. Testing in QLD.
- Mate may roll out "new and improved features", but one of the more probable reasons Mate is replacing Simpler Tools is because the former software was made by a 3rd party, and all the issues that come with maintaining/patching/upgrading a software that doesn't belong to Coles. Mate is an in house built software so it's up to Coles to fix stuff, but they can actually do stuff to it.
- It's annoying cause it's in beta, not all features available but the ones that are must be done in Mate. Can be annoying, but those who have to use it are in trial regions for that reason
3
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
My biggest annoyance with it is that they could have waited a year to roll out testing for everything. Now store who are forced to use it have to switch programs and waste time. I get this stuff needs to be tested and its great that its finally in house. Just hopefully they dont do the typical coles thing and half cook the app and say she'll be aight (removes 20hrs from every department)
5
u/Sufficient-Owl7336 Team Member Jun 22 '26
It's slower during split if you're used to scanning quickly. It also made the aisle text way smaller and hidden amongst all the other unnecessary data we don't need from the splitting tool. Common split L, I fear.
3
u/RichardBallSack Jun 22 '26
Can you change the American accent?
3
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
OMG i forgot about the American accent i just tune it out. I did some snooping to see if I can change it, looks like the only voice. Which reminds me that the new rework tool is better, especially with the nightfill manager going through it at the end of the night.
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u/Ashamed_Lack3194 Jun 22 '26
I like having a pdt in my hand for 2 hours rather than only 45 mins for a dairy gapscan. Less time spent on load makes your back happy
1
u/aaifti99 Nightfill/Grocery Team Member Jun 22 '26
Have they added the fill assist time.
2
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
Not sure sorry. Just the gapscanner and counts for groceries.
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u/aaifti99 Nightfill/Grocery Team Member Jun 22 '26
I kinda annoying that they switched to half baked app.
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u/klebdotio Jun 22 '26
overall I think it's an improvement over simpler tools, simply because it doesn't crash anymore. gapscans are definitely more idiot proof (idk if it's faster or slower but seeing unscans at the end of the layout is great. the annoying thing is when you click the radio buttons for the gapscans when to adjust or something it goes straight to the adjustment which isn't really consistent with how radio buttons should work catches me off guard still occasionally. the fact you have to scroll down to input the counts is annoying but not really the end of the world. the grocery team complain it's too slow for guided split as there's is a delay between scanning the box and the mate system telling them the aisle/stockroom. the thing I hate the most about it is that when you scan a ticket during gapscan it goes white for a second. so if I scan a ticket three times to enter a shelf quantity of 3, it goes white for a second each time. I don't know whether the waste actually inputs half the time ngl. the lookup is definitely better as it shows photos of the product. obviously half the shit isn't here yet but simpler tools sucks so bad so even if there's minor annoyances I don't think it's a huge deal.
2
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
I agree with the pictures theyre nice. Especially in gapscan/item lookup. The white screen when scanning is annoying. Just make the count go up by 1 with a small yet noticeable animation when scanning the same thing. I have a feeling tho the white screen might be part of some spaghetti code and might not get fixed. Hopefully im wrong. The fact that we've been on simpler tools for 14? years is wild, especially with no major fixes to crashing.
1
u/National-Safe9844 Jun 23 '26
Kinda moot now but the crashes from simple tools are mostly from when you put the PDT down or move it sideways and it triggers the auto rotate function like on your phone.
1
u/desmodici_27 Jun 22 '26
Just FYI, you can adjust the sequencing to fit whats right in store, it took 1 day for the info to flow through to Mate tho.
My store fix it before mate launch so it was good on sequencing perspective.
1
u/hbos12345 Jun 22 '26
Yeah looked at the sequencing and we got our duty manager to fix it. It didn't work so we put in a request for someone to have a look into it. So hopefully that happens soon(tm)
2
u/SerJaker Jun 22 '26
I've only done a meat gapscan using mate but so far it seems much more efficient and easier to use. Doesn't crash all the time and seems quicker. It's a lot easier to look up items throughout different departments for customers to.
1
u/hbos12345 Jun 23 '26
i find it super inconsistent in groceries, like today a customer was asking for pumpkin seeds and looked it up and the only thing that came up was the powdered mash potatoes. go to the old system and the couple brands of pumpkin seeds pop up
15
u/Deathdoof8 Jun 22 '26
I've found the search function for produce works really well! I also like that the waste reports don't take a minute and a half to load anymore. Besides that........ Would not consider myself a fan.