Shipping worldwide, Pt. 2
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Aug 08, 2018 at 01:44:43 AM
Dear backers,
The last two weeks or so we are seeing a lot of comments and receiving a lot of questions via email or Facebook. Most of them about the delivery schedule.
We will point out in an extended way where we are at this moment when it comes to shipping out all perks. Besides this, we try to answer other questions we saw in the comments and emails.
First of all, we want to take away the concern that some people have about getting their pair(s) of Knops. Although we already shipping and some backers commented that they received their Knops some people still have their concerns. We promise that everyone will receive their Knops!
Below we will point out some factors that are worth mentioning to give more clarity about certain processes.
Seal sticker
Earplugs are hygiene products and therefore we chose to seal every Knops box with a sticker. Unfortunately, the stickers we were using break easily during the process of fulfillment and shipping. This resulted in the fact that some backers received their package with the seal broken. We can assure you every product is brand new. We stopped using these seal stickers until we have good ones that work well with the packaging.
Shipping
We are working with a shipping partner that is located not far away from our production partner. This is ideal for our logistics.
Our shipping partner works with PostNL (a Dutch courier), PostNL ships all orders to different countries. In the country of destination, a local courier takes over the shipment and delivers it, in this case, to you our backers. With international shipping, we see a lot of differences in how smooth the shipping goes. Some packages take more time to arrive because they get pick out by the douane. Others can’t be delivered because the address details aren’t right or people aren’t home. In case of wrong shipping details, the products return to our shipping partner in the Netherlands.
We then contact the concerned backer to ask for the right shipping details and ship the order to this address as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, a few backers received a Knops package without the earplugs. As soon as this was brought to our attention we contacted our packaging partner and one of our colleagues went by to discuss this issue. Since this issue, extra supervision is in place before all orders are transported to our shipping partner.
Besides external factors, we are also working to optimize the internal processes with our shipping partner that are relevant in our case. We provide our shipping partner with shipping list for every shipment that we extract from Backerkit. For example, we faced an issue that if a backer ordered multiple Knops sets in different variations only one variation got shipped because their system gave errors if a customer ID was used twice. And since we use the Backerkit customer-ID numbers, to keep track on which orders are shipped, this is important to us. We solved this issue and are shipping all orders where this was the case as soon as possible.
We want to share this all to give you a better understanding and insight into the challenges we face with shipping.
Update delivery schedule
We expect to finish all outstanding Kickstarter orders by the end of this week. These orders will then be packaged and are expected to ship by the end of next week (August 17).
In the meantime, we will start shipping the Indiegogo orders. Looking at our current delivery schedule (below), the orders till 5 February 2018, we have a little delay.
On 17 August we will share a new update with an updated delivery schedule for the Indiegogo and webshop orders.
We value all input, thank you for the questions and feedback. We are still very grateful to have you as early investors, thanks to you Knops is a reality!
Much love,
Team Knops
Note: The response time to emails is taking longer than normal due to the number of emails we’re receiving. We respond to every email as quickly as possible.
Shipping our product worldwide
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 09:02:28 PM
Dear backers,
A lot of good things happened since we started shipping by the end of May. In this update we will bring you up to speed about the last couple of weeks.
Scaling up production
In order to ship all orders as fast as possible, it’s important for us to scale up the production capacity. This is something we are working on every week.
People, People, People
The coming weeks the production capacity is going to grow quickly. This Monday a whole bunch of new people have been added to the assembly process at our production partner. With this we are able to produce a lot more products every week to ship out! Also, the production team is growing closely together, people are working on Knops with a smile! It is a human process, and it is so nice to see the energy in the team.
Tooling
For all the different stations in the assembly process, we made effective and time-saving tools to make the assembly so smooth as possible. This also helps to make it easier for the people to work on Knops.
Test equipment
Every single Knops product is still going through our test procedure to maintain a high quality of the acoustics of the product. To be able to keep up with the growing numbers of products made, we had to expand our testing capacity. The current test equipment now has doubled throughput to test Knops! Beside this we are working on a completely new test bench to ensure every single piece of Knops continues to be rigorously tested.
Packaging
More products produced means more products to be packed. We are working closely with our packaging partner to help assist with to growing numbers of products that need to be packed. Making sure that they are able to work as efficiently as possible and to add more personnel if needed.
Fancy versions
We have different variations of Knops. Besides the Original version with the smooth Stainless steel rings we also have the Knurling and Gold versions.
These Knurled and Gold versions are much more elaborate to build. The gold versions are treated at a specialist all the way in Germany to make sure the quality is optimal. We received our first batch of the gold rings last week. The Knurled version has a much more time consuming process compared to the smooth ring and is batched separately. We optimized the knurling pattern to best fit the design and function. This week our supplier will provide us with a large batch of new Knurled rings. So we will start to send out Knurled and Gold versions this week.
Delivery schedule
As mentioned last time, we have a dynamic schedule that we will update for you as we go. We have the production running well now to catch up with the delivery of all the Kickstarter backers. Below is the schedule. Please note that the open Gold and Knurled Knops orders of the first weeks will be shipped expedited now.
Knops review by New Atlas
We are thankful for the extended review that Loz Blain made about Knops! You can read the review here.
We will keep you posted about any development regarding production and the delivery schedule.
Much love,
Team Knops
Delivery schedule on schedule?!
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Jul 06, 2018 at 01:16:29 AM
Dear backers,
We like to give you an update about how production is going in relation to the delivery schedule. A few of you backers mentioned that they were in the understanding that they should have received their order based on their backer number. This was right, in the last two weeks we faced some hiccups in the production process which resulted in a delay when it comes to shipping. That being said, we solved these issues.
With the shipment that goes out this week and early next week, we will be on schedule again, even a little ahead of schedule.
We already received a lot of positive feedback on the product from people that used Knops. We will share some of these experiences any time soon.
We will keep you posted about any development regarding production and the delivery schedule.
Much love,
Team Knops
Delivery Schedule
almost 8 years ago
– Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 01:09:39 AM
Dear backers,
As promised, we would like to share with you the delivery schedule. This schedule will give you a good indication of when to expect your order.
This schedule, as mentioned in our previous update, will be a dynamic schedule which we will update according to how the production is going. As said, we are improving production and are accelerating as we go and we will update the schedule accordingly.
If you need to update your shipping details, please send us an email at [email protected]. When we ship your order you will receive a tracking number from us via email.
Much love,
Team Knops
Time to Control Your Volume
almost 8 years ago
– Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 09:50:43 PM
Dear backers,
A lot has happened the past few weeks. We started shipping Knops by the end of May and have shipped orders every week since then. We are extremely happy with the first feedback we received from backers telling us they use Knops in all kind of different situations with great success. Check out this review by Unbox Therapy, which is also very positive!
Most of the team members are working at our production center every day. As Knops is a completely new product, it requires new production processes, and the entire team been working around the clock to optimize and accelerate those processes. We are helping out by providing good work instructions, assisting the employees in the process and fine-tuning and optimizing the assembly process ourselves. We also acquired an extra welding machine to ramp things up, and are almost doubling our output (number of knops) every week.
Arjen and Richard have spent a lot of time optimizing production and quality control. Each set of Knops is going through an extensive testing procedure on 7 points to ensure perfect fit, acoustic quality and smooth operation. We are testing every single unit to maintain a high-quality standard and making sure we only ship great products.
So now for the news you all have been waiting for: we will share the earlier promised delivery schedule this Tuesday! This schedule will be a dynamic schedule which we will update according to how the production is going. As said, we are improving production and are accelerating as we go and we will update the schedule accordingly.
In broad lines: We expect to have sent out all orders to our Kickstarter backers by July.
O yes, some of you have been asking how many Knops we have sent out. By the end of next week we expect to have shipped over 30% of all Kickstarter orders.
We will share a new update this Tuesday with the delivery schedule.
Much love,
Team Knops
