Definitely not moving back in line! In fact, that part of the site (waiting list position) should have been deactivated, we have about 250 shipments to make – not 320. The system calculates waiting list position based on an order tally that takes into account quotations and unsuccessful order attempts. In the case of orders placed where you saw your number scoot up it’s probably because someone paid for an order before you, but we had to confirm the payment manually afterwards.
We have ~250 units to ship, about ~170 of those are backorders that we’re on track to deliver around the end of September, and the other ~80 are new direct customer and dealer orders (since we opened ordering back up) that will ship in October. We can take another 30 orders before we need to close down orders again to reassess and get caught up. On the production side we have ~80 units undergoing final QC and packaging right now and another ~90 with their main assemblies finished out. We had about 2 weeks of incredible output, then the team here had to go do the KnobCon event, and the week after returning our assembly team was on break. Everyone’s back at it full force as of Monday this week.
We’re building these in 100 piece sets, in phases, rather than a daily output. Ask me again about 6 weeks into continual production and I can give you some numbers on daily throughput, but while it’s a big assembly project, it hasn’t been the build times slowing us down, it’s been access to labor and purchasing/funding related to meeting the batch sizes required to meet demand. Those issues are now resolved and we’re plowing through the backlog. The overall milestones we’re making decisions by right now is all the pre-September backorders shipped around the end of this month and any orders placed this month shipped by mid/late October.
Everything’s being shipped exactly in the order payment was received, whether dealer order or direct customer order. We’re not sure of a more fair way to do it.
I’ve been vigilantly looking out for a box from LZX for the past month or so even though I haven’t received a tracking number hope I’m in the next batch!! longest I’ve waited for gear, but I’m so sure it’ll be worth it thanks for the updates!
I ordered my Vidiot in Feburay - it’s been a painful wait to say the least! However I’m not hear to add fuel to the fire, just to say I appreciate the honesty in the posts above - and fingers crossed I’ll have my Vidiot soon!
Up through February, we were expecting new orders to ship in March or April. We were well past sales of our first production batch at this point, which was still in progress with our CM, and had already completed purchasing for all of the consigned components for the second production batch, which we assumed would be handled the same as the first and begin right afterwards, sometime in late February or March.
Completion of the first production batch drug out past February, March and well into April. By this time we’re sweating a bit, because we were already heavily invested in components purchased for the second production batch, but orders were coming in faster than the CM was making progress. At this point we were in a pickle, because we’d committed to a second run of 300 units and spent all our funding on components; but without a manufacturing solution that was going to have them built fast enough. We decided to undertake some assembly in house while our CM was finishing up the first batch.
Most of May was spent just trying to set up new machines and processes; most of which has stuck with us and is a huge help to us now (new inventory system, website, erp, etc.) as we prepared to take distribution and manufacturing management back in house. Bringing the timing of everything under our control seemed like the only way to pull through and get everything shipped, but with any new process comes a lot of lag time. At this time we thought we were only weeks away from getting caught back up finally. We were just going to power through it, as elbow grease was the only good option.
In June our first production attempts crash and burn and we’re only able to get 1 out of 5 units through QC, and lack the endless hours of inspection and rework required to push them all through fast enough. Around this time we stopped taking orders for Vidiot entirely, since we were going to be dealing with yet another delay. We got another contract manufacturer involved for SMT assembly, someone who’s fabricated our PCBs for us in the past. We placed the order and wired funds for complete assemblies, meanwhile organized parts and tried to squeeze a few more units through here. We had to tell all of you it would be not just a few more days, but a few more weeks, before we were shipping (and this was the second time we’d had to backtrack on expectations, for anyone who had ordered in Feb/March.)
In late August (3 weeks ago) the assemblies arrived for the second production cycle and we immediately got to work with a new team that was ready and waiting. Everything’s passing QC beautifully and we’re handing more and more parts of the process over to the builder team each day. We have all the parts to build 300 in this second production run, and any orders placed now are part of that run. We’ll close orders when we sell out of what we’ve already allocated to build (we’re pretty close now) and open orders again once all the purchasing of components is done for the third production cycle.
When it concerns pre-orders placed through dealers, we’re shipping the dealer’s order based on the date they ordered and paid for it, the same as we do direct customers. I’m not sure what date Switched On’s order was exactly placed, but it’s not worth worrying over at this point since everything will be in the mail soon.
I know it may seem like LZX should be doing much better, with such a successful product. The truth is, despite how expensive our products may appear from a synth gear consumer perspective, our margins are lower than most others in our synthesizer industry – even for a small module, the upfront cost of a production cycle can be daunting. So when timing and fulfillment in our supply chain go awry, it really screws us up, and we have to double time it until we’re caught up. We may consider refactoring the pricing on some of our products at the end of the year, but only if we have to. We’d prefer to run a tight ship and get more of our work into others hands than raise pricing.
Thankfully the juggling act is much easier after having pushed through the Summer and with a new production era in full swing around here.
Man, I remember waiting a year plus for LZX modules I’d ordered back in the olden days.
The important things to understand: Lars & the LZX family are SUPER dedicated to this shit. There’s so much completely out of their control that it’s amazing they pull this off so cleanly and in such a big way. Ya just have to be patient, approach the game as a lifelong hobby not a shiny new toy to get this second and forget about in 3 months.
Like I get that y’all have/had expectations but it’s through no fault of Lars/LZX that they haven’t been fulfilled. If they could have foreseen any of the myriad obstacles best believe they’d have kept your expectations in-line with reality.
Just the way it is with small batch boutique electronics.
Also, you’re a VALUABLE member of the team. Your dough, and patience is what allows the badass wizards of LZX to bring all these amazing ideas to fruition.
So when you get bummed on timelines… get super psyched instead because you’re part of making magic happen. You’re gonna love your new gear and so will we the community. We’re all in this together.
Everyone should just send LZX all of their money. 3rd mortgage your houses, work 80hrs of overtime, sell your grandma’s pearl necklace so we can get banging digital video delays and more TVFKG’S to play with. Forget about deadlines, just paypal LZX all the money in your damn bank account right now so they can realize you some amazing gear you didn’t even know you needed.
I wouldn’t say we’re blame free when it comes to fulfillment issues on Vidiot, after all we’re the responsible party here. That said, we certainly haven’t been negligent and we certainly haven’t been lazy when it comes to navigating our supply chain woes this year, and we’ve certainly learned a lot and made a lot of proactive changes in response. The big one is that to make this all work and prevent delays in the future we need to be managing the flow of materials and projects in and out of our queue as an in house process rather than putting everything production and distribution related in the hands of a single external contract company.
Another thing that we’ve learned is consumer expectations have changed, especially dipping our toes outside the modular world. When we first started selling modules in 2011, the industry was a fraction the size it is now. It was a natural offshoot of Synth DIY traditions. Waiting 6-12 weeks or longer for an order to be built and shipped was a natural expectation when dealing with a manufacturer directly – it was more like commissioning a specialty instrument than a retail purchase where you expect next day shipping. We need to adapt around our current customer base’s expectations and find ways to do that.
Full house in the LZX basement today, very proud of everyone who’s been helping us get caught up, they are a bunch of badasses.
Going into September we had about 200 backorders (from before closing down orders in late May) and the first half of those have been shipped now. Your order was entered May 3rd and that would have been shortly before closing the orders, so your current list spot of #84 seems correct to me.
On the bright side, the Sensory Translator and Bridge I ordered from Perfect Circuit shipped today after ordering it last night, so when the Vidiot finally arrives, I’ll be ready to integrate it with less fuss.
Edit to my previous reply: I found several more old dealer quotes that needed to be cleared out of the system. So you may see your waiting list # drop from somewhere between 1-60 spots just now, depending on how recently you ordered.
hope I’m in the next batch!! longest I’ve waited for gear, but I’m so sure it’ll be worth it 
thanks for the updates!