Mon Apr 12 '21 Announcement
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 08:52:54 AM

First 6500 M1 Caliber Tools

 

• EU shipment (20 foot container) to be sent out first or second week of May for late May/Early June beginning shipments
• US Shipments 2 and 3 (remaining M1 Tools + Accessories) - pending container availability, likely early May
• Canada Less than Container Load Shipment (LCL) - Second week of May (in response to many backers reaching out to us, UPS seemingly causes more headaches and costs with duties so we are working to ship direct to Canada to be fulfilled within the country)
• Australia - Second week of May, quicker transport direct from Factory
• Hong Kong (for rest of world) - Mid-may - much quicker since distance to travel is relatively quick

Support Website

Wed Mar 24 '21 Announcement
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 08:09:51 AM

Hello M1 Backers!

We have exciting news as our first container of more than 6000 M1 Caliber Tools have departed our manufacturer and are bound for the US.  The container should arrive at our US distribution center in late April and shipping will begin immediately and continue through May.  Backers will be sent tracking information once their order has been sent out!

After many challenges and delays, we are incredibly excited to have reached this first milestone. Our production line has matured significantly over the past several weeks and we are outputting hundreds of high quality M1s each day.  While this is a great first step, we are not taking our foot off the gas and are pushing through getting all remaining pre orders made and shipped as soon as possible.  Expect updates when the next several shipments go out (a few more to US, EU, and HK distribution centers) over the month of April.

Please make sure your BackerKit shipping information is accurate and up to date to where you would like your item delivered in the May/June Time frame.  We are using this information to forecast inventory and will be locking down address in the coming weeks.  Please reach out if you have any issues and we would be happy to assist ([email protected]).  Thanks again for everyone's continued support and patience and we are beyond excited to start sending these out! 

Make Forward,

REEKON Tools

Wed Mar 10 '21 Announcement
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 08:07:55 AM

Hello M1 Backers, 

We hope everyone has been staying well and healthy!  While it hasn't been too long since our last update, we wanted to share the good news that production has steadily been increasing and we are on track to send out our initial 6500 units before the end of this month, destined for our US warehouse (late April arrival).  We have several thousand units made and are continuing to increase daily and weekly capacity as we churn through manufacturing tens of thousands of units.  Subsequent container shipments to remaining regions will be much more frequent as we have increased daily output capacity (departing over the course of April, arrival in mid to late May).  

We are excited to share the above news and our foot remains on the pedal as we work to ensure production continues at a rapid pace and we get everyone's order shipped out as soon as possible! Thanks for everyone's continued patience with us and look forward to continuing to update everyone on our progress over the next several weeks.

Make Forward,

REEKON Tools

Wed Feb 24 '21 Announcement
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 09:05:33 AM

Hello M1 Backers,

We are excited to be in the midst of full production.  It has certainly been a challenging road to get here and, despite several hiccups, are excited to continue our ramp up process.  Below we have outlined some of the work we have been doing over the past month as well as what's next on the road to shipping.

Last 4 Weeks

Over the past 4 weeks, we having been ironing out hiccups on our mass production line as we looked to ramp up the total quantity made per week.  Transitioning from making batches of 5-50 units always highlights new issues that appear with scale (ranging from part consistency to compounding tolerances).  Two issues we were faced with revolved around the adherence of one of the over-molded parts along with the locking mechanism of the arm assembly.  Both of these issues, unfortunately, delayed us from being able to ramp up as much as we would have liked over the past 4 weeks.  While both have a clear pathway to ramp up now, this limited the total number of units we made in the high 100s.  While frustrating across the board, we are now satisfied our commitment to delivering a high quality product is met and are comfortable ramping up the daily production quantity.

Next 4 Weeks

The goal of the next 4 weeks is to continue to ramp up from several hundred units total (over the past two weeks) to several hundred units per day while maintaining our strict quality standard.  We have now resolved all issues and have green-lighted increasing the daily quantity manufactured.  We expect this to continue to progress and hit more than 500 units a day by the end of next week and more than 800 the week after.

Shipping

Shipping will proceed according to the following order.  We will provide an update when the first container is sent out which will start the countdown for the below timeframes given.  Until the inventory is on a container, there is still risk of some volatility but we will post here as soon as the first container is sent out. 

US + Canada Orders (In full container in 3-4 weeks) (Late April Delivery)

• Once in container, 42 days (approximately) ocean freight to US Warehouse followed by 14 days (total) for fulfillment once at warehouse (about 11,000 orders have to get sent out so we will do about 1000 per day starting with first backer number)

Europe and Near By Counties (In Container in 4-5 weeks) (May Delivery)

• In smaller container (about 20% of our total orders) as soon as US container sent out.
• Once in container, 42 days (approximately) ocean freight to Ireland followed by 10-14 days (total) for fulfillment once at warehouse (also depends on country)

Rest of World (In Container in 5-6 weeks) (May Delivery)

• 2-3 week trip to HK warehouse (quicker transit time)
• Shipping time varies wildly based on customer location

We appreciate everyone's continued patience.   It is clear we missed the mark on shipping predictions and a combination of COVID-19 delays (raw materials, global IC shortages, etc) combined with some engineering challenges we faced along the way cascaded to causing shipping delays.   

While we fully understand everyone is eager to receive their tool unit, we have not compromised on our quality standards of delivering a useful product to ship slightly sooner. Shipping as soon as possible is always our goal and, rest assured, there are team members working around the clock and over the weekends to accomplish this.  However, shipping quicker is not an excuse to compromise on these high standards we have set and the expectations of backers who supported our campaign.  We have certainly faced challenges and bumps along the way but hopefully, as illustrated from our updates and photos, we are continuing to make progress and are very excited to have all of these units sent out! 

Make Forward,

REEKON Tools

Tue Jan 26 '21 Announcement
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 08:46:24 AM

Hello M1 Backers,

We hope everyone's week is off to a great start!  We are excited to share that we have given the green light for production and will be ramping up Mass Production of the M1 Caliber beginning next week.  This is a very exciting milestone that is the conclusion of extensive work we have been conducting over the past several months with our manufacturing partner.  This milestone means we have validated that both our design is performing to our standards, our manufacturer can repeatability assemble and calibrate our devices to that standard, and we are confident in their ability to ramp up production to several thousand per week.

While the exact ramp plan is still being worked out and will depend on successfully maintaining expected yield numbers over the next few days, we are looking to begin with a 100 unit build by the end of this week to exercise the assembly line followed by a gradual ramp-up period to 2,500-3,000 units per week by mid to late February.  

Starting Mass Production is certainly an exciting milestone; however, the question, undoubtedly, on everyone's mind is "when will I receive my unit?" This is particularly tricky to navigate based on COVID-19 still causing large volatility and unprecedented global shipping delays (check out some great articles here or here if you are interested in learning more). We are competing with companies such as Apple, Ikea, and other major corporations for limited cargo space so hopefully, everyone can appreciate the difficulty of the situation.

Regardless of the difficulty, we still have a plan in place to move inventory to each region's respective warehouses and get products delivered as soon as possible.  Below we have illustrated the steps of how we get there:

Phase I - Moving Inventory from Warehouse to Regional Distribution Centers

This will begin the moment we start accumulating inventory and will begin to move it to warehouses in early February which will continue until all orders are on the sea to their destination.  Travel time will take anywhere from 30-50 days from leaving the factory.

• Inventory departs from Malaysia Factory, across Border, to Singapore port
• Inventory is shipped, via sea freight, to one of three distribution warehouses (US, HK, EU) 

Phase II - Ship to Customers as soon as the Inventory Arrives (per region)

Fulfillment may take up to 14 days after arriving at the warehouse to ship out (as there are thousands of orders to process).  

• Orders begin to ship to customers in Mid-March and continue throughout March and into April
• We will post updates as soon as units arrive at a regions warehouse so people know to be on the lookout
• We are not able to exactly predict when a specific, individual order will be sent.  We will send tracking details as soon as they leave the warehouse.

Phase III - Once all Kickstarter/Indiegogo orders are fulfilled in that region, we will be beginning general sales through conventional sales channels 

No general sales channels will begin (Amazon, etc) until all pre-orders have been sent out, by region.

Please be patient as we work through the above shipping plan; we understand everyone's eagerness to receive their M1 Caliber. Rest assured, we are working with the best team possible to get these delivered as soon as possible but will undoubtedly have to deal with some unexpected challenges.  Please make sure your shipping information is accurate as there is very limited time to change it after next week.

We appreciate everyone's support during this time and are working on building out many support tutorials, videos, demonstrations, and application examples to make sure we have you covered for all of your project needs once you get your M1 Caliber!

Make Forward

REEKON Tools