We Are Still Doing The Boards+Population In The Usa, But It Looks Like

[Monk]

The company does want an incredible high amount (about 100USD per unit, AFAIR) just for assembling.
That would be a whopping 400.000 USD!

Reality check? Shouldn't this have been something you figured out months ago, when it was first suggested that the factory offered an assembly floor? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad a backup plan came together (seemingly) so quickly, but what if there hadn't been such an option?

Problem was: The company didn't want to make a quote as long as they didn't know how much work it was. Then they got the documents from Michael quite a few weeks ago and needed up until now to make the quotes.
Nothing bad, just a lot more hard work for us

So - we've had the "Chinese Holiday unexpectedly interrupted production" at least a couple of times, now we even get "Our device is much more sophisitcated and complicated and hard work to make than the factory anticipated" AGAIN? :lol:

Let's get ready for this. Now is the time.

Somebody needs to logisticize stuff like trucks for transporting the parts to Craig's garage assembly line and arranging flight tickets and configuring EvilDragon's alarm clock. I mean, somebody with a knack for it. The actual trip to UK to assemble the Pandoras will develop into a Guy Ritchie movie plot where everything is so complex and intertwined that the Pandoras are only likely to disassemble even further, or the completed units end up in the van of some slick criminal who's never heard from again. With forgiving music in the background. EvilDragon's luggage is certain to get lost in transit, probably accidentally sent to Bermuda or Atlantis, and his passport gets stolen. The OP team could go for a drinking spree and play some Mario Kart that turns into a fight, in the end Craig proceeds to collect everyone's order number. EvilDragon ends up as a hobo in a foreign country. Powered by Craig's optimism, estimates are pushed forward the standard quantity.

I mean... It's just assembly. Right? What could possibly go wrong?

Your best post EVER! (IMO).

The question in my mind, if this is the case (no pun intended), is how much time will be spent (over how long) building the final products. Sure, this is a project done in the Team's spare time, and I commend how far it's gotten with that. The same thing for all the devs and their great work on the OS/etc. But it's time spent after work, outside of family, sleep, and whatever else they've got going on. What's a realistic number of hours a day they can spend building these, if they do it all themselves, even in an assembly line? Because I doubt it can be done in an all out weekend (or two), and if there's only a couple of hours or so each day during the work-week (not to mention getting everyone to coordinate times, etc.) it will take ages to complete assembly, not to mention boxing, addressing, and double-checking accessories, all before shipping.

Yes, I respect the work going into this, as a project of love, outside of a day job. But that still doesn't shed any light on my question.

Somehow I don't think Michael (MW), Michael (ED) and Fatih will be popping in to do this after work each day. They all have to take international flights to get there. I think they'll be taking leave from work and assembling full time.

It's also been said that the whole crew will be there "at least at the start", suggesting that after a little while they will go back to work, leaving the hired hands to continue building the Pandoras.

I've had another possible reason for the change suggested to me from a couple of directions, but I don't see how that theory helps - it's not even a good source of humour IMHO, but I do worry. It's going to be cheaper to fly MWeston, Faith, and ED to the UK and transport them to Craigs than it is to pay the existing factory to make them? Have OpenPandora actually checked on the cost of airline tickets, or might these prove to be more complciated, more sophisticated, and above all more expensive than the team are currently aware of?

 

[Monk]

It's a shame that Craig's up in the north where as I'm aaaaaaalllllllll the way down south, because I would gladly offer a week of my time to help out. I have fixed many a console in my time (and made a half decent amount of money doing so )
And It's not so much to get to play with the pandora a week before everyone else, but getting to spend a week chatting with a bunch of equally open-source, homebrew, retro gaming geeks like me.

"The North" isn't THAT far away - ED is flying in from Germany! MWeston from across the Atlantic! you can't make it just from the South Coast? :blink:

 

[Tokiopop]

I'm about a 2 hour drive away, but I doubt they'd want me + I have school

 

[chris_r]

It's a shame that Craig's up in the north where as I'm aaaaaaalllllllll the way down south, because I would gladly offer a week of my time to help out. I have fixed many a console in my time (and made a half decent amount of money doing so )
And It's not so much to get to play with the pandora a week before everyone else, but getting to spend a week chatting with a bunch of equally open-source, homebrew, retro gaming geeks like me.

"The North" isn't THAT far away - ED is flying in from Germany! MWeston from across the Atlantic! you can't make it just from the South Coast? :blink:

Short answer: I'm a student

 

[gruso]

It's going to be cheaper to fly MWeston, Faith, and ED to the UK and transport them to Craigs than it is to pay the existing factory to make them?

The company does want an incredible high amount (about 100USD per unit, AFAIR) just for assembling.
That would be a whopping 400.000 USD!

Safe to say yes.

 

[taylor-madeak]

Please sign somewhere on the inside of the case! Please!

It would be sooooo cool to have a Pandora signed by the person that assembled it.

^this^

yup, was just gonna post this.

does the assembly need a clean-room environment?

Inside the case? Then how would you ever admire or show it off without voiding your warranty?

If there's any signing going on, I suggest that it goes inside the battery compartment. Either on the case under the battery (that way it would be part of the main case), or inside the battery cover.

 

[Vorporeal]

IIRC, and I'm pretty damn sure about this, MWeston said that one Pandora can be assembled in about 7-8 minutes. This was before all the talk of an assembly line, so I'm not sure if that was factoring in the increased productivity from an assembly line or if the number needs to be updated. Either way, that's a useful number to keep in mind.

Assuming it wasn't taking the assembly line into account (and I don't think it was), 8 people could assemble 8 Pandoras in 8 minutes, meaning an average of 1 Pandora assembled every minute. If they spend 6 hours a day on it, that's 480 Pandoras assembled each day. 8 hours a day (standard work day) would be 640 each day. I think we can all agree that assembly shouldn't take more than 2 weeks, assuming that they have all the parts.

EDIT: Because I know this is necessary with you guys (sadly), YES THIS IS AN ASSUMPTION. YES THIS IS ASSUMING THEY HAVE ALL OF THE PARTS. YES IT IS FAIRLY LIKELY IT WON'T BE THIS SIMPLE. I'm just extrapolating the data we have to a slightly-better-than-average case scenario.

 

[Monk]

Short answer: I'm a student

Ah, yes - sorry, either that or having to work for a living would make "nipping up" to Craig's to help build Pandoras a bit, mmm, excessive my bad

Besides - as was pointed out after Craig's like "joke" about letting customers help build Pandoras in Texas, the average Joe simply isn't trained sufficiently to do such work, and we wouldn't want untrained oiks building our Pandoras!

It's going to be cheaper to fly MWeston, Faith, and ED to the UK and transport them to Craigs than it is to pay the existing factory to make them?

The company does want an incredible high amount (about 100USD per unit, AFAIR) just for assembling.
That would be a whopping 400.000 USD!

Safe to say yes.

Doh! I forgot we were still assumign that the costs are based on OpenPandora having nearly 4,000 orders.

There is something wrong with the cost of flight when it's cheaper to fly these guys halfway around the planet (minor exaggeration) before we even look at labour fees than it is to simply pay the people where the parts already reside Or something wrong with that assembly pricing.

I'm still - even now - having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that OpenPandora shipped all the components - including screens and speakers - to a factory in Texas without knowing how much it would cost to have them assembled. It beggars belief IMO. But still, now these people are in charge of assembly directly things should go much smoother. I mean - there can't be a delay, can there? What could possibly go... wrong?

 

[torpor]

I'm still - even now - having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that OpenPandora shipped all the components - including screens and speakers - to a factory in Texas without knowing how much it would cost to have them assembled. It beggars belief IMO.

I think its pretty obvious - after all the delays, the Texas company decided to re-negotiate the fees for assembly based on their own schedule, and they ended up with a price that was typically American: bloated, expensive, and un-competitive. Maybe they've quoted such a high prices as a 'polite' way of saying "we don't want your business, please go away", and thats exactly whats happening ..

Frankly, I always thought it ridiculous that any company in America was being used to do this assembly - would have gotten the same results, probably with better quality, just getting it all done in some ex-Eastern bloc country, where the concept of market competitiveness is not just accepted, but also a culturally ingrained fact. American manufacturing is just too far behind the ball to be worth the effort, imho, in this regard ..

 

[Awakening]

I think its pretty obvious - after all the delays, the Texas company decided to re-negotiate the fees for assembly based on their own schedule, and they ended up with a price that was typically American: bloated, expensive, and un-competitive. Maybe they've quoted such a high prices as a 'polite' way of saying "we don't want your business, please go away", and thats exactly whats happening ..

If not that exactly then something like that. I don't know about wages and taxes in US but here in Sweden $100 would probably cover two factory workers for an hour, not counting equipment, electricity and floor space costs. And I seriously doubt it's going to take two man-hours to assemble a single Pandora.

 

[Monk]

I think its pretty obvious

My only problem with that is that a lot of pretty obvious things have proven, in the long run, not to be so

after all the delays, the Texas company decided to re-negotiate the fees for assembly based on their own schedule, and they ended up with a price that was typically American: bloated, expensive, and un-competitive. Maybe they've quoted such a high prices as a 'polite' way of saying "we don't want your business, please go away", and thats exactly whats happening ..

Could be, could be. {snip unhelpful and unninteresting alternatives}

Frankly, I always thought it ridiculous that any company in America was being used to do this assembly - would have gotten the same results, probably with better quality, just getting it all done in some ex-Eastern bloc country, where the concept of market competitiveness is not just accepted, but also a culturally ingrained fact. American manufacturing is just too far behind the ball to be worth the effort, imho, in this regard ..

Yeessss... wlel, they kinda went that way with the case manufacturing and look at how that turned out (or will turn out. Soon, we hope). They even made a fairly big thing about this device being made in America fairly early on, how they were going "quality American manufacture" rather than the usual route of having it made in "The East". Proudly boasting, in fact.

I wonder if OP have been being billed for storage of all those parts all this time - and if they haven't, whether the Texas company will get around to doing so. I've a feeling they have already, but can't pin my finger on why I think this. but Britain? BRITAIN, home of the term "lazy workshy GIT" is going to be where these things are built at a better value?

Most of all, I'm chuckling like a loon at this latest episode. But then - I have always been a fan of Peter Cook, John cleese, and Monty Python, so this is largely just "more of the same" to me, as long as I don't take it seriously.

 

[traylorpark]

The very idea of team Pandora assembling these things in an old village hall in England is just about the most awesome thing I have heard all year.

so so so agree

 

[carlgeorge]

but Britain? BRITAIN, home of the term "lazy workshy GIT"

I would like to defend the British as not being workshy, but it's true. The amount of people too lazy to work and living off benefits must be some of the highest (as a percentage) in the world. Most Brits that aren't workshy (like myself) have already left.

It only takes one part not to arrive in time and the manufacturing plan goes tits, so double/triple check that everything is definitely there for that date. What date do you have in mind?

 

[fraseyboy]

The very idea of team Pandora assembling these things in an old village hall in England is just about the most awesome thing I have heard all year.

Cooler still is the idea of a 24/7 webcam streaming the whole process.

 

[Klarth]

Even being nice the idea of the Pandoras being assembled by the dev team, it kinda bothers me that they only have one assembly factory's budget, or at least that I know of.

 

[moxie]

The very idea of team Pandora assembling these things in an old village hall in England is just about the most awesome thing I have heard all year.

so so so agree

Indeed!

This is great fun, actually. Anyone for T-shirts with "Craig built my Pandora"? (Or ED, or Fatih, or whomever you'd like displayed all 'cross your chest)

 

[tsh]

Depends when it occurs, I might be able to contribute a weekend. Although if most people are also unlikely to be able to help out for more than a few days, it might be worth trying to find a couple of experienced rework/assembly engineers and pay them - just to get consistency and quality. Is there any electronics industry in Craig's locality?

 

[mcobit]

If ED would have assembled the Pandoras for his shop in Germany I could have helped. But no flight to England for me.
Only thing that sucks is that it means, that preorderers outside Britain get their Pandoras later...

 

[Bosbeetle]

+1 for the webcam idea

 

[Awakening]

I really don't think it's a good idea for anyone to just step in for a weekend, unless there some really basic simple things they can do. It takes time to learn something new and someone have to teach all the new people. There's also a higher risk of inconsistencies and mistakes the more new people you have. You also want responsible, fast learning and hard working people, some might show up just for the fun or just take up more time then they earn you. There are all kinds of people in this world.