ISO 9001 certified is a joke.

I couldn't agree more, but at the same time couldn't agree less.

Yes it's a joke, in that it makes sure that you have documented processes, and that you follow those documented processes, not necessarily that those documented processes actually make any sense. -but then who will audit whether the process makes sense, you are supposed to know your business, an auditor might audit an aerospace manufacturer one day and a software firm the next. -they can't be experts and analysts in all areas of all industries.

ISO9001 does not mean that you're the best company, it doesn't mean you have the best product, it doesn't mean you have the best process. it means that your output will be either reliably good, or reliably shit. it's about consistency. you can be assured that the level of quality (or lack thereof)  seen in one product or service will be reflected in the next.

The real joke is the firms that was ISO certified suppliers, but then never check out the process documentation. (which is what allows people to use it as just a sales tool, because it's never checked)

of course, the flip side is where your customers do check and approve process, then you can't find a slightly  better more efficient way and change the process, but that's because you allowed a customer to dictate your work process, not because of ISO9001, or you're too scared to go to your supplier and say, we've grown as a company and this is our new process, please check and sign off.

in some ways it's entirely possible that the last step of manufacture could be "beat the crap out of part with a hammer" the It's still a process, it's documented and would pass iso9001, the fact that it's a stupid process isn't the point.

perhaps I should have qualified what I said with, go see a firm who are doing things right and using iso9001.

it can and does work well in lots of places.

doh!

Iso9001 isn't meant to replace common sense. You should use the common sense to write the processes.

It's not a magic fix for crap processes, it's a way of making sure that processes are followed -it's a QA process.

It assures quality by making sure that once you've found the way to churn out a reliable and quality part or service that you write down how you did that and then follow that recipe for success. Churning out the same standard of work each time.

the example I gave before is probably the best example of a process. there are two ways that you can send out replacement parts.
answer query
promise parts
pack parts
ship parts
change stock levels

or
answer query
change stock level
promise parts
pack parts
ship parts.

you might think that the first one is common sense you might not

truthfully it would actually slow down the work flow a little bit. because now, before you can reply to the email or skype conversation to the customer you now need to fire up a different program and adjust stock levels first before you can make promises...
So you might say that this process gets in the way of work and slows productivity.

but with the example I said before, the 30 seconds extra time taken with this process ensures a reliable and consistent service for all, with no broken promises, no failed deadlines, no expectations set that can't be met etc.

Hopefully you offset that 30 seconds of extra time in the process with the now zero time you have to spend responding to complaints about shop status, shipping times broken promises, refunding shipping fees etc...

Following the process will create a quality of service, not following the process would allow a chance that your service will slip to a sub par level.
-then you have to refund express shipping charges, then you're making a loss on that shipping cost.

Basically, the problem with common sense is that it isn't all that common.
Which is why it's often a good idea to write common sense down.

I'm thinking the issue of "out of stock" on the printer sales page is getting extended to the parts.  They don't set it to out of stock on the printers, because the store won't let them charge for a preorder on something listed as Out of Stock.  For parts however they need to use the Out of Stock notice and not take the order.  They don't need to rely on that advance cash flow for parts the way they seem to on printers.  If it is in stock, then there should be a "Ships in X days" notice if the shipping and handling department can't get to it the day after it was ordered.

It's too easy of a fix for them to not know how to do it, there's obviously something else at play here.   Fat people know that if they eat less and move more they'll lose weight.  SD must know that if they keep a more accurate inventory for spare parts they would save themselves some headache, and stop costing themselves business because of the bad reputation.  I'm fairly certain there's something else going on, just as certain as I am that they won't tell us what that is.    Bottom line is if you need something fast find another source, unfortunately.

DePartedPrinter wrote:

elmoret wrote:

Update: They refunded the shipping.

My new j-head from hotends.com was ordered on Friday and shipped the following Tuesday...I think SD needs to pick up the pace just a bit.

We're cranking them out as fast as we can

you're missing the point.

earlier in this thread you promised that if it's listed as stocked then it's in stock ready to be shipped.
Either you lied or you don't know how to work the shop software. or things behind the scenes are just a huge mess

Then you order priority shipping at an increased cost for an item that you can't possibly ship with the deadline that the words "priority shipping" would engender because you don't even have the item, you'd need your supplier to have the item in stock first before you were able to order from them, then they'd need to reach you, then you need to repackage and post.

This isn't growing pains any more, you've been having these "growing pains" for nearly a year now and the exact same issue of right hand saying one thing whilst the left hand is busy proverbial slapping the customers in the face.

cranking them out as fast as you can is great.
but how hard would it be to have stock levels accurately listed in the shop?
it's not like I'm saying you need a billion dollar automated robotic system. but maybe just having someone accurately updating the stock levels for stock.

This is how you should quickly and easily ensure that there are no more issues like this.

you will need 1 cardboard box for each item that you sell in the shop, large enough to contain 10 of these items, (so the box containing rails will necessarily be bigger than the box containing thermistors!
additionally you will need a shelf to put these boxes on.

take ten of each item off the shop floor now and put them in a box an d up on a shelf.
then list the stock level as ten for each item.
as you re-stock your shop stock pile then you can update the values in the shop software.

it seems at the moment that you're working from one big bucket of parts that the internet shop and shop floor are sharing. it can't work like that because you don't know what your stock levels are.

run the internet shop "like" it was a separate business, let it have it's own stock piles and it's own stock level counters, treat the shop floor like it is a supplier to the internet shop business, and visa versa.

that way, nobody from the shop floor should be looking at the internet shops stock pile thinking I'll just borrow that hot end to complete my machine. and likewise, a run on products in the internet shop won't leave your factory staff on the shop floor without parts to build machines.

Now a single person can accurately keep stock levels and probably do all the wrapping/packing and shipping for the internet/spare parts shop

This isn't difficult.
it's common sense.

If you don't keep an accurate stock count of what is available for sale in the shop you're going to be destined to keep disappointing customers.

Where you have a customer who has received a broken machine and needs a new widget went out.
remember, you can take a part from the internet shop's stock boxes, but you must decrement the stock level in the online shop before you take this part out.

consider this.
10am you get an email saying an extruder broke in shipping.
10:05 you go and grab the last extruder in the internet shop stock pile
10:10 someone orders an extruder, with priority shipping
10:15 you go to decrement the stock list but can't because it's already at zero.

now you've got a customer that's unhappy because he received a broken machine, and a customer that's unhappy because you won't ship his parts for ages.
you'll have to deal with 2x unhappy customers, and 2x complaints, and again have to refund the priority shipping charges because you couldn't meet that promise.

Alternatively
consider this.
10am you get an email saying an extruder broke in shipping.
10:05 you go to decrement the stock list so that it reads zero.
10:10 you go and grab the last extruder in the internet shop stock pile
10:10 someone wants to order an extruder, with priority shipping, but they are told at the point of purchase that it's a back order.

Now you still have to deal with the guy who received a broken machine, but the other guy is happy because he at least knows where he stands, you haven't made promises that you'll end up breaking.

it's easy to say that it's not your fault that the promises get broken, it's just unlucky that the guy wanted to order before the stock counters were updated, it was only minutes or seconds. but that's bull.
if you don't keep accurate stock levels, if you don't make your stock levels reflect reality, then it's your fault.

(and after you promised the new extruder to the customer who got a broken one the stock level IS zero. it doesn't matter that the physical part is still in the stock pile, it's been promised to another person).

To be honest, the best thing that I can recommend you guys do is go look at how an ISO 9001 certified company operates.

I said earlier that this was common sense, maybe it's not common sense.

I'm not saying go and get certified, I'm saying take a leaf from the books of those companies.
have a written and documented procedure for how things work.
when things go wrong, it's normally because you are doing it wrong. you need to then go back and look at your procedures, where can they be improved etc.

DePartedPrinter wrote:

elmoret wrote:

Update: They refunded the shipping.

My new j-head from hotends.com was ordered on Friday and shipped the following Tuesday...I think SD needs to pick up the pace just a bit.

We're cranking them out as fast as we can

I would have ordered one from you guys but the down time was a real deal breaker.

elmoret wrote:

elmoret wrote:

Updates:

The hotends I ordered took 2 weeks to ship.
I was charged $14 for Priority Mail shipping, they shipped via first class mail.

Not happy.

Update: They refunded the shipping.

My new j-head from hotends.com was ordered on Friday and shipped the following Tuesday...I think SD needs to pick up the pace just a bit.

We're cranking them out as fast as we can

elmoret wrote:

Updates:

The hotends I ordered took 2 weeks to ship.
I was charged $14 for Priority Mail shipping, they shipped via first class mail.

Not happy.

Update: They refunded the shipping.

My new j-head from hotends.com was ordered on Friday and shipped the following Tuesday...I think SD needs to pick up the pace just a bit.

Updates:

The hotends I ordered took 2 weeks to ship.
I was charged $14 for Priority Mail shipping, they shipped via first class mail.

Not happy.

Update: They refunded the shipping.