Reinventing The Wheel

Delivery Update: Shipping begins in August!

The guy all the way on the left is Bruno, our Director of Ops, and don’t let his smile or checkered sweater fool you. Before bike lights he made rocket-science complex, brain surgery precise, die cast aluminum parts for Tier 1 Aviation. And he has just setup a manufacturing line that’d make Henry Ford jealous.

We’ll let the photos do the talking:

Supplier pulling a tooling mold out to cool off. Each one takes about 4 hours to build.

Fresh out of the tool, the first production Afterburner ever built. We’re working toward the “Golden Sample” - the perfect mass production prototype that will be the Gold Standard for the next 50,000 units.

Assembled view. This first part is good but needs to be dialed in for a precision fit.

Custom jig, or fixture, for assembly. Jigs make the assembly process faster and more precise.

Here’s the other thing - Bruno sends a daily email entitled, “Daily Update from the Shop Floor”. You’re seeing what the company sees except we put a X in place of confidential info. This is what you want your Ops to look like.

A. Shop Floor Walk & Production Overviews

I took a walk on the shop floor and saw all of our raw materials that had arrived. About 85% of all parts arrived, with another 5% of parts arriving tomorrow. 9% will arrive Monday 7/28, with 1 part due on Wednesday 7/30.

1. Golden Sample plan

a. Receive raw materials

-Die cast parts - all have passed initial inspection.

-P/N 0302 (Gasket) - This part required new tooling, so these will be finished by Wednesday 7/30.

-Battery Springs - Factory workers are checking the Solderability of these new springs tomorrow to confirm they’re OK for production.

-Micro USB Connector - The bend on the connector is incorrect and cannot be used for mass production. We will use the current ones for the golden sample stage and get new ones for mass production.

-All Other materials: Before Monday

b. SMT

-Scheduled to start Monday July 28, but instead will be on July 30 due to Gasket (0302).

-To get ahead of schedule on other items while we wait for the final parts to come in, we’ll do the following on 7/28-7/29:

-Confirm one more time that the programming works as expected

-Visit vendors (die cast, IM, gasket, screws, etc)

-Adjust fixtures for mass production

-Sign off on all arrived samples by client (me!)

c. Assembly: 7/31 - 8/1-8/2

-This is where we need packaging sample dates from X - pushing DAILY. Contingency plan is Pkg @ X, starting Monday/Tuesday.

-Upon completion we can take up to 3 samples of each model (18pcs total)

d. Product Testing

-8/4 - Optical testing @ supplier

-8/5 - All other testing inside factory

-TBD - Linear testing - waiting on quotes

e. Packing arrival - 8/5 (Critical!)

2. 150pc/model Pilot Run

-8/6 - SMT (based on USB Connector new arrival)

-8/7-8/10: Assembly, Testing, and Packaging

3. Mass Production - Remaining balance on PO

-8/11 - SMT

-8/12-8/26 - FG

-Ship 8/27-8/30 (Partial shipments as needed)

4. Flow 1 Demand (second PO)

-The procurement manager will try to manufacture this at the same time as the first PO, but they need to make sure they can get the materials here in time before committing to that. Answer TBD.

B. Supplier Visits

-Die cast house: 7/28

-Injection Molding: 7/29

-Screw & Tool manufacturer: TBD

C. Cost Initiatives

These weren’t discussed yet, but quotes came in for X this afternoon. Cost is X% lower, with MOQ of 2K/model and lead time is 2 weeks. This is our contingency plan for X.

D. New Product X Discussions

I spoke with Joe about X, but nothing concrete yet. We’ll get more involved on this post-golden sample stage and when I’ve received specs from the team.

 

Comments

comments