Hi there All,
Transport Updates
Sadly transport has taken a success the previous few weeks whereas we work on some a lot wanted development. We’ve at present shipped 70 items, have 25 able to be boxed, and 12 ready on the brand new lights.
Whereas we had been delayed with transport because of hiring and group efforts, we did nevertheless pre-build an enormous inventory of sub assemblies in preparation for our new lights. We at present have 75 boiler assemblies constructed and strain checked, 50 boiler caps, 140 steam manifolds, 100 steam wands + valves, and 58 piston assemblies.
Staffing:
We’ve acknowledged the necessity and employed 3 full time folks! The primary one began final week as a sub meeting technician serving to us construct up sub meeting stock to enhance effectivity on ultimate meeting.
The second begins subsequent week as a full time order success and packaging technician. I’ve at present been the one particular person doing ultimate QC checks, packaging, and fulfilling orders because of the strict aesthetic high quality we maintain for every machine. There’s loads to this function to make sure that every machine arrives to our clients in the very best form. Staffing this function with a full time worker will assist us meet our objective of transport 40 machines every week. This permits 1 hour to completely bundle every machine with equipment which we predict is lots to alleviate the present bottleneck. We’re very excited for this particular person to begin!
The third full time worker is one other sub meeting technician who might be beginning the sixteenth and proudly owning all components of sub meeting builds, half modifications, meeting fixtures, and so forth. This particular person might be answerable for managing all facets to make sure that machine builders should not slowed down with the distraction of needing to search out or fear a few sub meeting.
The staffing breakdown is as follows now
Half Time
3 half time machine builders
1 bonding specialist (bonds magnets to wooden and metallic parts)
1 half time miscellaneous store duties
Full Time
2 full time sub meeting builders
1 full time order success
This could enable Ross to deal with the meeting course of as a complete and resolve every other bottlenecks which will come up in order that we will meet our targets.
{Hardware} Updates:
As talked about within the final 2 updates, Anthony and Trevor have continued spooling up on the machine constructing course of in preparation for the brand new LEDs which arrived yesterday. They’ve constructed 15 machines with out LEDs so that after they arrived, we may drop them in and start testing on every.
We really feel assured that the brand new LEDs will resolve a variety of our points. After persevering with to dig into how LEDs are usually examined and high quality managed earlier than being despatched out, We’ve discovered that our new provider has a machine to cycle each bulb 100,000 instances to discard failed LEDs earlier than assembling the ultimate mild. Sadly, we’ve discovered that the unique provider solely turns every mild on and off 3 instances after assembling to check earlier than transport.
We’ve now modified our QC course of so that every one machines with the unique LEDs have the lights cycled 10,000 instances by way of the app earlier than we ship. The objective of that is to catch any early failures earlier than sending items out.
The brand new lights could have a barely totally different look from the originals. The unique lights had inexperienced and orange lenses. The brand new lights will all have what we describe as a “milky white” lens the place the bulb is coloured inexperienced or orange to provide the sunshine a cleaner look when the machine is off however nonetheless the identical look when turned on.
The strain compensated movement management valve components arrived final week and are at present in testing. Outcomes are trying good however we plan to proceed testing via this week to amass extra information on consistency earlier than together with in every machine and sending out to all current clients. As talked about in prior updates, these components will enable customers to drag the lever straight down and never want to fret about any particular method for bleeding air out on the appropriate charge in our integrated piston bleed valve. Outcomes will embrace extra constant extractions.
Now that LEDs are in, as soon as our two new folks rise up to hurry on our processes over the following 2 weeks we should always begin to get a real concept of our output and begin monitoring down the following bottleneck within the manufacturing course of. We’re all excited to get right into a groove with getting these out the door!
Sincerely,
Ross & William
