Visiting Decent's main metal parts manufacturing partner
When COVID hit, all our suppliers went down one of two paths: they went bust, or they didn't want to work with us anymore, because we were too demanding and too small an order quantity.
Because we have 3 of our own employees in China, visiting every supplier, during COVID we were commonly the only client “showing up” and demanding high quality from a run. They border was closed, so everyone else had to accept “whatever”. And “whatever” it often was. We fired all those suppliers (or they fired us) and started again at zero.
During COVID, one of the companies we started with was a small dozen-employee precision CNC (computerized manufacturing) company, about 90 minutes' drive from us. They now make virtually all our metal-based parts, which is most of our espresso machine. Bill, the owner (top left two photos), was down to one major client (an Australian robotic arm designer) and really needed one key customer to keep his business alive.
Unlike larger companies, that “do a manufacturing run” and then move onto the next client, Bill's company is always making parts for us. He doesn't “do and forget”, but instead “repeats and improves”. As we arrived, they were making lids for our “flush diffuser”: a metal maze that slows down high pressure water after espresso making (middle right photo)).
Bill and my lead mechanical engineer Ben Champion, have developed a close working relationship. Bill will propose that they buy a certain machine to solve a problem that Ben is worried about. For instance, sharp burrs are a common problem with CNC manufacturing. Bill has solved this by buying a machine that vibrates hundreds of ceramic cones around finished metal pieces as they circulate in a “bath” of these cones. It takes a while, but you end up with a burr-free, smooth part. You can see that machine in the left-center photo.
Bill's is a small production, with most things made using the 12 quite expensive computer-controlled CNC machines. One employee is all that's needed, for each six CNC machines. There's quite a bit of standing-around while the machines do their thing, and since this is a dog-friendly environment, there's a lot of dog-head-scratching going on while the machines buzz away. These are high-knowledge, skilled jobs, as CNC machines “don't just work”. The programming of them has to work around manifold physical limits and realities. A few years ago, Ben convinced me to spend a bundle on a high end CNC machine for his home, and it now sits unused, as Ben discovered just how much skill it takes to program these to actually deliver good parts.
That's why dogs-at-work are encouraged: expert employee hiring and retention is key to Bill's success. For us, it's also vital, because we want to continually improve what we make. Most of our espresso machine clients are on a “forever warranty”, where we're on the hook to fix any problems, so we're highly, highly motivated to reduce the need for repairs! We're also lucky to find a small company, who really values our business, and …. we've helped them become wealthy. Nonetheless, I'm always on the lookout for telltale destructive-behavior signs. A previous supplier who was very paid well by us, but was a gambling addict, so it was never enough, and we had to leave.
Yesterday, I went to visit Bill's factory, along with Terence (Ben's HK-local lead on Bengle), Johnny (my most senior engineer), Nicole (who runs the factory) and Winnie (who runs the China side of Decent, including factory QC). Bill picked us up in his Mercedes and drove us to lunch by a lake. Bugs stayed home but sent in a “toast” selfie.
We spent quite a lot of time with the beta 1 build of our upcoming Bengle model. There's been a bulge in the chassis that we didn't like: this version adds two screws to address that. And the shot mirror in my “alpha 3” model had scratches in it, which I wanted to see disappear now. We discussed a QC test with Bill and Winnie, to detect a limit on acceptable optical distortion, using A4 graph paper reflected in the mirror. There's no such thing as perfection (this isn't going to be used for astronomy, after all). Both sides (buyer and seller) need to agree on what the goal is, and what will be considered acceptable.
Being located in the free port of Hong Kong, where we can bring parts in tax-and-duty-free, we get to choose, worldwide, who to work with. Pumps and valves from Italy, flow constrictors from America, raw metal from Korea, adhesives from Japan, and precision metal parts from China, are some of the choices we've made.
-john
Updated 2024/06/28