Howdy All,
Actually sorry for the a lot overdue e-mail replace!
We’re at present as much as Order 559 which roughly equates to 345 machines shipped! This places us at 60% of the way in which by way of batch 1. Whereas this may occasionally not sound encouraging, needless to say 41% of those models have shipped this yr alone.
We’ve lately plotted some information to trace guarantee points relative to models shipped in addition to what number of we’ve shipped per 30 days.
The returns as a result of guarantee points tracks with the early challenge of the steam manifold o-ring which has been addressed for a number of months now. When you haven’t run into any points along with your machine up till now, this isn’t one thing you’ll want to fret about. The second small spike got here from a small alignment challenge with our redundant pressurestat on a really small variety of machines which led to a brief. This has additionally since been addressed and guarantee points are on a declining pattern which is to be anticipated!
Alternatively, our models shipped per 30 days noticed a major enhance in December, then a slight dip as we misplaced a technician and began coping with preliminary guarantee repairs, now a gradual rise. I count on to realistically do at the very least 80 machines this month with a stretch aim of 100.
Batch 1 Configuration Modifications
In an effort to additional enhance our meeting effectivity, we is not going to accommodate anymore configuration modifications to batch 1 orders ie: steam wand aspect, wooden choice, powder coat shade, and so on. Orders for add-ons will nonetheless be allowed, however please place them as early as potential if you want them to ship along with your machine. In any other case they might ship individually.
Staffing
We’ve continued so as to add to the workforce since our final replace! Wern has joined us as a component time buyer assist consultant from all the way in which down in Australia. As an Argos proprietor, she’s very accustomed to the quirks of pulling photographs on the machine as a brand new consumer in addition to potential points and diagnostics.
Kennie has joined the workforce as our new full time Order Success Technician. Hiring is rarely simple because it at all times takes time to get folks spooled up. Now that Kennie has been with us for over a month, the Odyssey Workforce is settling into a very good rhythm.
Normal Updates
We’re persevering with to tuning the meeting course of by way of the usage of 3D printed jigs for helping in alignment to enhance consistency and high quality. Duplicates of our mostly used instruments have been added to take care of constant units throughout all workstations and keep away from the necessity to share between techs.
Powder Coating:
Final yr we acquired new white groupheads from the provider since a number of of our unique ones had corrosion forming within the cylinder bore as a result of a mistake within the powder coating course of. Sadly as we began utilizing the brand new groupheads, we discovered that they have been extra cream coloured than the remainder of the white components. We determined to take them to a neighborhood powder coating store to have them stripped and re-coated to match. The components have been lastly stripped final week and are anticipated to be coated this week.
We’ve 8 white machines which might be utterly assembled minus the grouphead. As soon as these are in, all of these older serial numbers will likely be prioritized and shipped out instantly. Actually sorry about that delay! We’ll ship just a little present along with your machines.
It’s inevitable that whereas constructing and QCing machines, small dings or scratches can happen. We’ve began testing out a brand new liquid powder answer and heating with a soldering warmth gun. This has been working extraordinarily properly for smaller contact ups and is proving to be very sturdy. For bigger contact ups, we’ve been disassembling the affected elements and can do a re-coat and bake in home with a small powder coating setup..
To mitigate these small points, we’ve picked up rubber trays to construct on with separate smaller rubber components trays in addition to rubber liners on our cabinets. This could assist defend surfaces over the unique skinny neoprene foam layers we’ve used to line our tables whereas additionally decreasing any unintended putting of machines on components or instruments.
Wooden Matching:
Portafilters have been one of many first few elements we sourced for this enterprise. Over time we discovered a brand new wooden provider that was delivering greater high quality components that have been extra inside spec. Sadly, which means typically we’re not capable of finding a very good match between our walnut portafilters and the remainder of our walnut components.
We’re engaged on getting new portafilter handles constructed from our present wooden provider and can have the ability to ship out new handles to anybody with a drastically totally different shade. Sadly it’s not possible to completely match all the wooden on every machine so we do our greatest at that from the store however we additionally acknowledge that some portafilter handles specifically are very far out of the norm.
SCA Expo:
William and I introduced 2 folks from our workforce to expo this yr! We had an important nook sales space and have been capable of exhibit and pull photographs on 3 manufacturing machines displaying the capabilities and flavors from our 6 bar, 8 bar, and direct profiles on a wide range of coffees.
The principle aim of Expo for us isn’t essentially a gross sales or advertising and marketing occasion, however extra of a networking and academic expertise. Our very first expo the place we had a sales space was World of Espresso Milan which is the place we met our Italian components provider. That connection alone made the complete occasion worthwhile. On prime of assembly new suppliers, I discover it a good time to fulfill different founders and staff at varied phases of manufacturing. This yr I used to be capable of chat with of us from Superkop, Meticulous, Zerno, Weber, ArtPresso Design, MX Cool, and extra! By growing these relationships, it makes it simpler to debate issues like how all of us tackle powder coating points, course of updates, wooden suppliers, patent writers, and extra! The espresso neighborhood actually is a good group the place corporations are keen to share useful suggestions and tips to assist one another out to proceed the development of latest merchandise.
First Official Evaluation:
As I’m positive most individuals have already seen, our first official product assessment has been posted by Lance Hedrick. We’ve been cautious to not ship out any free assessment models earlier than we’re at a great place with transport paid manufacturing machines. Some reviewers did pay for pre-orders and can ship accordingly. Lance was the primary to obtain his machine in early March. He spent the following month pulling and Scace testing over 300 photographs, after which launched his preliminary assessment, adopted by a deep dive assessment calling the Argos the “Greatest bang in your buck, interval.” He covers our shot temperature consistency and precision whereas additionally going into the tradeoffs that this creates with pre infusion strain.
BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: Argos by Odyssey Evaluation
We do have yet another massive assessment machine that will likely be despatched out with Batch 1 and some extra lined up in Batch 2 which can hopefully give everybody as a lot goal suggestions as potential. Lots of the critiques we’ve seen are fairly constant throughout the board referring to aesthetic enhancements, drip tray splatter, and ease of filling. All of those and extra will likely be addressed over time as new components are ordered.
Enterprise Operations:
William and I’ve been fairly busy the previous month engaged on getting our 2023 financials updated with our bookkeeper. It’s at all times a continued effort to enhance documentation and group which we haven’t been the most effective at maintaining with as a result of at all times having a ton of duties on our plates on the similar time. With taxes being due in April it took numerous work to get every little thing organized and in place. We’ve now began doing bi-weekly conferences to take a seat down and keep on prime of every little thing finance associated so we don’t should cope with this once more subsequent yr!
As soon as the remaining batch 2 components are ordered, I’ll work on assembling, QC, and packing machines to assist catch us up in preparation for batch 2 components to reach. At our present price, we’ll realistically get all of batch 1 orders out by July and go instantly into batch 2. The design modifications, fixtures and jigs, and continued hiring will assist us construct and ship models barely faster than batch 1 however with out having these components in hand, we don’t wish to assume precise numbers. We do really feel assured that each one batch 2 models will likely be out the door earlier than the tip of the yr.
Inner course of updates
William has been working arduous at enhancing our inner processes and monitoring. Tackle confirmations and shipped machine monitoring emails are actually automated to the clicking of a button. We’ve been revisiting our transport contracts and William has been capable of automate quoting and label creation to a single click on with out the necessity to manually enter buyer info manually which was typically required as a result of modifications in transport addresses.
App Updates
Now that William will quickly not must spend time creating transport labels and inner automation, he’ll be going again to engaged on app and software program updates. We’ve a number of recognized bugs with the app which will likely be addressed first, then some positive tuning of the firmware based mostly on our collected QC information.
Out of spec half with right angle however threaded too far into the boiler. That is the elbow becoming for the fill tube as much as the grouphead. [/caption]
In spec half with right angle and top. It will make grouphead set up simpler for techs with improved alignment and consistency.
We now pre-prep all prime plates with LEDS to avoid wasting time through the ultimate construct operation.
PCB prep. We’ve obtained 2 superior sub meeting techs that at all times keep on prime half prep earlier than ultimate construct.
Holy Crema! These beans have been rested for two weeks!
Wouldn’t be an replace with out buyer photographs! The last word handbook setup?!
