Batch 1 Configuration Modifications
In an effort to additional enhance our meeting effectivity, we won’t accommodate anymore configuration adjustments to batch 1 orders ie: steam wand aspect, wooden possibility, powder coat colour, and many others. Orders for add-ons will nonetheless be allowed, however please place them as early as attainable if you need them to ship together 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 an element time buyer assist consultant from all the way in which down in Australia. As an Argos proprietor, she’s very aware of the quirks of pulling photographs on the machine as a brand new consumer in addition to attainable 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 individuals spooled up. Now that Kennie has been with us for over a month, the Odyssey Workforce is settling into rhythm.
Normal Updates
We’re persevering with to tuning the meeting course of by the usage of 3D printed jigs for aiding in alignment to enhance consistency and high quality. Duplicates of our mostly used instruments have been added to keep up constant units throughout all workstations and keep away from the necessity to share between techs.
Powder Coating:
Final 12 months we acquired new white groupheads from the provider since a number of of our authentic 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 had been extra cream coloured than the remainder of the white components. We determined to take them to an area powder coating store to have them stripped and re-coated to match. The components had been lastly stripped final week and are anticipated to be coated this week.
Now we have 8 white machines which might be fully assembled minus the grouphead. As soon as these are in, all of these older serial numbers might be prioritized and shipped out instantly. Actually sorry about that delay! We’ll ship somewhat present together 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 resolution 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 lowering any unintended inserting of machines on components or instruments.
Wooden Matching:
Portafilters had been one of many first few elements we sourced for this enterprise. Over time we discovered a brand new wooden provider that was delivering larger high quality components that had been extra inside spec. Sadly, because of this typically we’re not capable of finding match between our walnut portafilters and the remainder of our walnut components.
We’re engaged on getting new portafilter handles made out of our present wooden provider and can be capable of ship out new handles to anybody with a drastically totally different shade. Sadly it’s unimaginable to completely match the entire wooden on every machine so we do our greatest at that from the store however we additionally acknowledge that some portafilter handles particularly are very far out of the norm.
SCA Expo:
William and I introduced 2 individuals from our workforce to expo this 12 months! We had an incredible nook sales space and had been capable of showcase 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 whole occasion worthwhile. On prime of assembly new suppliers, I discover it a good time to fulfill different founders and staff at numerous phases of manufacturing. This 12 months I used to be capable of chat with people from Superkop, Meticulous, Zerno, Weber, ArtPresso Design, MX Cool, and extra! By creating these relationships, it makes it simpler to debate issues like how all of us deal with powder coating points, course of updates, wooden suppliers, patent writers, and extra! The espresso neighborhood actually is a superb group the place firms are keen to share useful ideas and methods to assist one another out to proceed the development of recent merchandise.
First Official Overview:
As I’m positive most individuals have already seen, our first official product evaluation has been posted by Lance Hedrick. We’ve been cautious to not ship out any free evaluation models earlier than we’re at a great spot with delivery 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 subsequent month pulling and Scace testing over 300 photographs, after which launched his preliminary evaluation, adopted by a deep dive evaluation calling the Argos the “Greatest bang on 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 Overview
We do have another massive evaluation machine that might be despatched out with Batch 1 and some extra lined up in Batch 2 which is able to hopefully give everybody as a lot goal suggestions as attainable. 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 might 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 very best at maintaining with as a result of at all times having a ton of duties on our plates on the identical time. With taxes being due in April it took a number of work to get all the things organized and in place. We’ve now began doing bi-weekly conferences to take a seat down and keep on prime of all the things finance associated so we don’t must cope with this once more subsequent 12 months!
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 charge, we’ll realistically get all of batch 1 orders out by July and go instantly into batch 2. The design adjustments, 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 might be out the door earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
Inner course of updates
William has been working arduous at enhancing our inner processes and monitoring. Tackle confirmations and shipped machine monitoring emails at the moment are automated to the press of a button. We’ve been revisiting our delivery 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 data manually which was typically required as a result of adjustments in delivery addresses.
App Updates
Now that William will quickly now not must spend time creating delivery labels and inner automation, he’ll be going again to engaged on app and software program updates. Now we have a number of recognized bugs with the app which might be addressed first, then some nice tuning of the firmware based mostly on our collected QC knowledge.