From Paul, our voyager to Kansas:
The meetings in Kansas are going great! I met with three critical manufacturing partners and was impressed with all of them.
First, Western Industries is our contract manufacturing partner. I am very impressed with their ability to turn out hundreds of products every day for other customers – complete with blow-molding, inserts, hinges on doors, lots of colors, assembly, packing, and distribution. Their other clients are confidential, but I got to see them in action first hand, and they are awesome!
I went through the assembly instructions and the steps we needed to make the Origami Paddlers with the Western engineering team on Wednesday and their production control team on Thursday. I know they "got it".
It is far from the most complicated assembly process they are doing today for other customers, so it won't be a stretch for them.
Ferguson Production is our injection molder. They will be making our hinges and some other critical components. They produce thousands of molded parts every day for companies you would know. Again, precisely who they are also working with is confidential. I saw dozens of machines producing injection molded parts of all sizes and in a wealth of colors.
Last, but not least, Galaxy Technologies is our toolmaker. They have some super-sized customers and equipment, working a lot with the aircraft and defense industries. It exciting to see our molds carved out of huge blocks of aluminum (pictures below)!
(Did I mention that I have a lot of experience as a manufacturing consultant and have toured over 200 manufacturing companies in my career? That experience really paid off when having these conversations!)
The bottom line: all of our partners have been amazing this trip! We want to go in-depth about each of these great partnerships in future emails. They are all critical to getting Origamis shipped!
In case you are a newer member of the Origami family, remember we did have a 4-6 week setback we announced in the February update. We estimated that we could start shipping around April and fulfill orders made as of February within 10-12 weeks. Orders placed after February we estimate to start sending 12-15 weeks after we start shipping.
I know you still have many questions about where your specific Origami stands in the shipping line. We haven't surveyed anyone to start shipping yet. We will be providing more precise production and shipping details as we can.
This journey to Kansas has helped to make those future steps much more clear! And as soon as we can, we will provide as much information as possible.
This week was incredible.
I feel Kai and Lucille (the mythological spirit and Cat Goddess of the Origami, respectively) are watching and will help us overcome any challenges we may face in this final stretch to producing the Origamis!
One last thing: I've taken some videos that our team will put together and show everyone soon. I can't wait for you to see all the amazing energy, light, and love bringing the Origami to life. Stay tuned!
- Paul Hoyt, CFO Origami Paddler