Hello All,
We’re currently up to Order 670 which is over 400 machines shipped! That now puts us at 74% complete for batch 1. While we didn’t quite hit our goal of 80 machines last month, we did ship a record 77 units! We think we can hit over 80 this month, so that continues to be our goal to get all units out by July and straight into batch 2.
Check out this behind the scenes timelapse video of Ross building an Argos! After this stage of building, the machine goes into quality control and testing which is the next video we’ll post this week.
Video: Building an Espresso Machine | 5 Minute Timelapse
Powder Coating:
The white groupheads were completed and installed on the mostly prebuilt white machines that we had on the shelf that we had to postpone shipping while resolving this powder coating issue. Just about all of those are out the door with no future delays expected on any color or configuration of machine for the rest of batch 1.
Boiler Welding:
While building and QC-ing boilers, we’ve come across some that had a pinhole or hairline crack in the welds. These are caught during our first round of hydrostatic testing after initial boiler assembly and thankfully don’t make it onto customer machines. We decided to set them aside but after racking up 10% of our total boiler stock, we’ve hired a professional welder to come in and repair the welds.
Since the original fusion welds do not use filler wire (TIG welded), we were able to go back over the top, this time with filler wire, to seal and add additional strength. We then retest the boilers on our Hydrostatic rig to verify no leaks.
While an unfortunate circumstance to deal with, we now have the knowledge to make some small design changes on our end while also going back to the supplier with requests to do an initial test after welding to verify no leaks before shipping to us.
Business Operations:
Ross is spending most of his time wrapping up the last few design changes and ordering of batch 2 parts. Most of these items are already in production but it’ll be a huge relief when everything is ordered and he can focus back on batch 1. We’re doing our best to have everything lined up exactly so that once batch 1 is completely out the door, we have a week to re-arrange and clean the shop before batch 2 arrives and gets unloaded.
We’ve spent the past year continuously relocating parts around the shop for improved efficiency and organization. Now that we understand our optimal workflow, this time between batches will be a great opportunity to give us a fresh start moving forward with a more tidy shop.
All Hands Meeting
We had our first All Hands meeting this past month. We’ve got an amazing team of 11 people right now and want to do as much as we can to keep everyone engaged and fulfilled in the work that they do. In an effort to keep our team happy and efficient, we sent out an anonymous 3 question survey looking for feedback on how we can improve. We received some great feedback from our techs and wanted to start doing a better job at keeping our internal team more up to date on the status of the company as well as our short and long term goals. This will help ensure everyone is aligned with when we plan to finish up each batch as well as plan for company growth.
At the moment, we’re looking to hire in July/ August as we wrap up batch 1 and start with batch 2. This person will likely be focused entirely on QC or an additional builder. We don’t think it would be valuable to hire for batch 1 building as there’s too much finessing to get things fitted as nicely as possible. All of these fine details are accounted for with design changes moving forward which will make the assembly and QC process slightly simpler. We think that’s the opportune time to grow our team and push to fulfill batch 2 as quickly as possible.
Drip Tray Re-Design
We’ve brought on an Industrial Designer to conceptualize a new drip tray design. One of the issues with the Batch 1 Argos is that the drip tray is slightly offset from the center of the grouphead. When pulling your cup away, the remaining drips splatter much more than preferred.
This is a 2 part design activity with the first part being a new grate design that does a better job at catching drips exactly where they fall while maintaining a clean aesthetic. The second part will be a new tray design. We’ve seen some great concepts and ideas from customers, so we’re working on a new concept that actually centers the tray under the group.
This second design will unfortunately not be backwards compatible with batch 1 which is why we’ll be offering the updated grate design for batch 1 owners looking for improved function.
Software
Now that William has created a process for automating the fulfillment workflow ie: creating build sheets and shipping labels for batch 1, he’s back to working on app and software updates. We have a few known bugs with the app which are being addressed first, then some fine tuning of the firmware based on our collected QC data.
We’ve gotten more phones and scales in house for us to start resolving some instability issues with our current list of supported scales.
Hiring
Additionally, we’re on the hunt for a part time software developer. We’re looking for someone that has experience with React Native and Expo and ideally with bluetooth integration experience as well. If you think you might be a good fit and are interested in working with us please reach out to us at support@odysseyespresso.com!
Sincerely,
Ross & William