Guys,
Remember this?:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=54677.0Finally, we find ourselves in the position of having completed most of the CNC programming for all of our own enclosures. The Minis are done and are being produced. Timepiece 3.0s are done, likewise. Today, the Continuum programs will be completed. Revelation Grand Masters are partially done (bottom enclosures) and Revelation MR-1 bottom enclosures are yet to be re-done, but we have some in stock. Finally, we are back where we started – doing everything in-house ourselves. Hindsight being 20/20 as it is, this should have been the plan from the beginning. The Mini saga is nothing more than an example of the pitfalls a company encounters when trying to solicit outside vendors.
As slow as we have been up to this point, all I can offer is that future orders will not suffer the same.
To reiterate and and offer even further detail... things are different now. FINALLY... for the first time since we officially started the business by moving into our present facility and investing in a plethora of woodworking equipment, we are in the position we
should have been 3 years ago.
Since the very first day you guys have been reading about us here on AC, we have been engaged in an ongoing process of R&D and Industrial Engineering. Along the way we were forced to go into production, simply for the sake of survival - while still trying to refine every step in the process of building enclosures...and we had 3 people to do it all (and one was part time)... then last summer even then the part-time partner completely left our ranks.
So... for all intents and purposes we amassed 3 years of Non-Recoverable Enginering losses (NREs) and at the same time attempted to operate as a functioning manufacturer - with no more than 2.5 to 3 people at any given time. Trust me... you have no idea how hard that was. Add to this, the one guy I could count on - my son Jason - had essentially no prior experience in woodworking and we had no resources to send him to training classes. God love him - he's smart as a whip... but being a single young man he didn't exactly have the kind of self discipline it really requires to take on such a challenge. You wanna talk about figuring everything out from scratch and ungodly levels of "trial and error"? I should go see a doctor for a sanity check for having even attempting all of this.
Oh...and it's a small miracle that either Jason or I aren't in prison right now for having murdered the other.
But... those days are pretty much over. From the beginning of the process (a design & construction approach that is relatively efficient and nice looking) to CNC programing of all parts, to engineering assembly procedures, to sanding systems, to finishing systems... all have been figured out and are now working with repeatability and consistency in final quality. Essentially, all of the systems are in place and are now ready for scaling to higher levels of production. The final resource we require is hired labor in order to staff each of several positions in the production line. Of course... hiring will be based on demand for product - just like any other manufacturer faces.
As far as orders received since the first few customers ordered the Minis (or any other model for that matter)) are concerned, they have been and continue to be accelerated through the system such that... those who ordered first will have had the longest wait and those following shorter and shorter waits until all orders are started and completed in the shortest possible time frame.
So...
Goosepond, it won't be 9 months.
-Bob
