Hi there Everybody,
We’ve needed to make a number of changes to our schedule whereas ready for our up to date chrome steel elements to be accomplished and shipped. As of now, we have constructed 56 machines, however solely shipped 39 since our final replace on December 4th. There have been a number of minor points with meeting and QC, as outlined beneath, however we’ve addressed them and are actually working at a barely decreased capability because of the vacation season.
Early points with new elements:
The brand new fill tubes are barely too lengthy so we’ve needed to shave them down after which re-chamfer the sting. The bends are nonetheless not good. We created a fixture to assist in meeting that permits us to suit the tube earlier than having the entire grouphead affixed to the machine. That is inflicting some leaks the place it’s taking extra adjustment to resolve. We have now ordered new fill tubes with these points corrected.
The brand new restrictor valves weren’t drilled out fully so we needed to drill them out by hand within the store to make sure bleeding accurately, as a result of throughout QC that is once we discover that bleeding is occurring too slowly.
We added a second Scace and Thermometer to assist velocity up our QC course of however began getting ~6C temperature variations between QC runs. This required us to do extra runs (typically greater than 5 per machine) till we had been assured within the outcomes. We opted to cease utilizing the brand new gadget till I used to be capable of calibrate and discover the problem regarding a setting within the Thermometer gadget.
We’ve shipped some batch 2 machines with the newly designed drip tray which sits centered below the group. Sadly these are nonetheless not the ultimate revision because the lip on them shouldn’t be excessive sufficient and the drip tray cowl slides off simply. We’ve determined to nonetheless ship these machines out since it’s not essential to the performance of the machine and can ship the brand new drip freed from cost as soon as we get them on the store the second week of January.
Random:
Enjoyable cameo within the newest Hoffman Video:
Can You Roast Espresso In An Airfryer?
With out spoiling the video, we’re happy to see James truly getting some fruit taste notes on this uniquely roasted espresso and calling the Argos a “very good lever machine”.
We have now posters! These designs had been created 3 years in the past as a means so as to add some related artwork to your espresso nook. We lastly bought round to integrating with a 3rd occasion success service that handles the whole lot for us, so these will normally ship inside 5 enterprise days immediately from the printer.
https://www.odysseyespresso.com/store/argos-art-deco-poster-light-version
https://www.odysseyespresso.com/store/argos-art-deco-poster-dark-version
Excellent Points:
We’re nonetheless working to find out the foundation reason for our fogging boiler gauges. We expect that tolerances within the boiler cap design and gauge internals might trigger some gauges to not compress the o-ring as a lot as needed which can permit some steam to flee and get by way of the glue that holds the quilt to the gauge physique.
We’re persevering with to check screw modifications and thicker o-rings. Sadly, it’s a time consuming course of as we should individually deliver every gauge as much as temperature and strain on a machine to greatest replicate the situation.
With the brand new 3d printed jig that we supplied to our heating factor provider, they’re now capable of get every half made made throughout the tolerances we have to permit for a lot simpler meeting. We should always obtain these items in a number of weeks which can velocity up certainly one of our extra labor intensive sub meeting builds.
Construct Charge:
William and I spent a while doing useful resource planning. Now that we’re again right into a groove with constructing machines, we’d like up to date time estimates for every stage of the meeting course of.
We’re at the moment hitting our preliminary ramp up goal of 4 machines shipped per day. As soon as we will constantly handle this for an additional week, we’ll improve our goal to five machines per day. If no points come up, we’ll add one other full time worker with the objective of 6 per day.
The extra machines we construct and ship per day, the extra useful resource shuffling we’ll have to do with our workers who’re comfortably cross skilled between constructing and QC or constructing and packaging.
That is an thrilling time within the manufacturing course of the place we’re capable of actually begin engaged on optimizing our workflow to have a independent operation that requires much less oversight and daily downside fixing.
As we attain these targets, we’ll work on maintaining everybody up to date extra often so you possibly can monitor the progress with us.
Future Planning:
We’ve spent the previous month updating and ordering our subsequent batch of elements. Timing on this was essential as a result of we needed to verify we constructed sufficient batch 2 machines to substantiate our earlier design adjustments and provider high quality opinions whereas additionally balancing lead time.
With stock orders locked in now, we’ve bought loads of room for delays across the 3 week Chinese language New Yr vacation in Jan/Feb to obtain elements by early March. By having simply completed our high quality opinions in China, and sustaining constant communication, we’re assured that we’re aligned with the suppliers on expectations transferring ahead.
2024 Recap:
As we mirror on this previous 12 months, we’re extremely pleased with the expansion we’ve achieved as a small enterprise. This journey wouldn’t have been doable with out the unwavering assist and persistence of everybody concerned!
Ross made the daring resolution to depart his engineering profession and dedicate himself absolutely to rising the enterprise. We’ve since expanded to a group of 14 proficient full-time, part-time, and contract workers—every of whom performs an important position in our success. As we proceed to evolve, we stay dedicated to studying, adapting, and refining our workflow to create a office that’s each gratifying and productive, whereas delivering distinctive merchandise and customer support.