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batch: NA-Fork, EU-Vork
Production completed, enroute to warehouse, and will meet set out estimates.
batch: NA-Cap, EU-Dop
Production completes a week later than planned (27th of March). We are still air freighting this over for fastest possible delivery, a more accurate is now shown in the hub.
NA-Fork
EU-Vork
EU-Dop
NA-Cap
batch: NA-Fork, EU-Vork
TL;DR
Last moment hall sensor and switch delivery issues have severely delayed the production ready date to the 10th of March. This has obliterated our time buffers. We are still expediting this to our warehouse with Air freight. Your estimated delivery was updated in the Hub.
This tweet describes it
But that's honestly not the full and accurate story. The day after posting the update video, the partner factory let me know that they ran out of hall sensors (the things that detect the magnet under each key).
The hall sensors
This was strange to me. I do all the IC purchasing and supply them on a regular basis for our production plan. I was certain I didn't make a mistake and they should've had more than enough.
Apparently, sensor were used in advance for a future production (in March) due to how the orders came in at the production manager and not communicating this with me. Creating the shortage.
Thankfully, we were able to quickly supply more hall sensors and it should only set us back by 4 days.
The production was already pushed from the 9th to the 20th of February due to the Wooting two HE ARM chip verification being shortly before Lunar new year. But this push back plus the previous 4 days, would've still been fine for the given estimate delivery time (in the hub).
I didn't want to sound the alarm bells and confuse everybody with arbitrary information.
That is till a few days back when I was informed they're also short on switches 😩
The switches
A month ago I started to scrutinize the Lekker switches based on end-user feedback. My aim was to think about the short-, mid-, and long term development of the Lekker switch. Now that we are consuming increasing quantities, it gives us more negotiation power to expand the switch development and funnel the quality. Lighter switch variant, anybody?
In the process, I became overly critical on the switch and debated minor changes I found in its lifetime. It had created a bit of a situation at the start of February (right after Lunar new year), when looking at making minor changes to the molds. It disrupted the original planned delivery flow of the switches.
But it should've not impacted the production schedule, until earlier this week I found that they were not able to supply sufficient quantities. I am not sure what the exact reason is, nor have I questioned it (yet). I wanted to solve the problem at hand first.
I think it's a combination of the switch scrutiny and material allocation (mirroring the sensor issue) causing last moment changes in deliveries.
What I do know is that it has severely impacted the Wooting two HE production 😭 . Yesterday, I received the update ready date:
10th of March
I'm "balen als een stekker". Meaning, I'm bummed by it. We are hitting all these milestones with the 60HE production and delivering earlier than expected. But then having this happen to the already long awaited Wooting two HE ARM edition, is 😫. I want you to enjoy your keyboard and deliver what we promised!
I have updated the estimates and thank you dearly for your patience 🙏 . If you have any question, issue, or rather cancel your order. You can reach out to customer service and make the request, I completely understand, and you can always cancel for full refund before shipment.
<3
NA-Fork
EU-Vork
We did our best to pull forward our manufacturing schedule by reducing the largest bottleneck, Hall Sensor lead times, by further increasing volume, and expedited treatment. Followed by working close with our manufacturing partner, we were also able to book all our productions earlier than planned.
The result is that batches: NA-Pants/Space/Moon and EU-Broek/Ruimte/Maan will arrive up to 30 days (!) earlier. Below are the changes made to estimates and reflected in the Wooting hub with your new Delivery estimate.
All dates are the moment your can confirm your address to initiate front-door shipment.
Batch: NA-Pants
Batch: NA-Space
Batch: NA-Moon
Batch: EU-Broek
Batch: EU-Ruimte
Batch: EU-Maan
Furthermore, with current prospect, starting NA-Moon we'll have in stock in the USA 🥳 The EU is outperforming itself and is still on track for (end of) April to be in stock available.
NA-Pants
EU-Broek
NA-Space
EU-Ruimte
EU-Maan
Batch: NA-Pants, EU-Broek, NA-Space, EU-Ruimte
Production completed and was picked up on the 11th of February. Air and Sea are on its way and will meet the estimated delivery. When it arrives at the warehouse, your order in the hub will change into "confirm address", and will be ready to ship. We will also send out a notification email to let you know.
Batch: NA-Socks, EU-Sokken
AIR all completed.
SEA:
NA-Socks arrived - you can now confirm your address for shipment. When the warehouse allows it, shipments will then immediately go out.
EU-Sokken - it arrived at port (https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9708784), awaiting customs, and warehouse delivery.
NA-Pants
EU-Broek
EU-Ruimte
NA-Space
EU-Sokken
Batch: NA-Fork, EU-Vork
We have not written or made a video updates regarding the Wooting two HE for quite some while. And I have to start with a hats off for being so patient with us.
The reason the Wooting two HE has such a long delivery time is because we had made 2 decisions:
These two combine well as the downtime required for making all the required firmware and hardware changes to the Wooting two HE takes a span of few months. It's not that the work itself takes incredibly long, it's that all the steps we need to go through to verify and relicense the keyboard does.
I'm happy to report that we've completed the EVT phase, which is the engineering sample, and passed all the FCC/CE licenses. We're receiving the DVT samples (final sample before going to Mass Production) this week for double confirmation. But this step is rather formal than required.
Production is still planned to complete on the 9th of February. There's a slight chance it'll delay by 1-2 weeks due a minor improvement we've made to the plate mold. Afterwards, we're flying in (Air freight) the stock for the fastest possible shipment to you.
Thanks again for the patience and we're now getting close!
NA-Fork
EU-Vork
EU-Sokken, NA-Socks
Productions completes on the 11th of January. Quality control will visit, if no issue, it'll pickup on the 13th of January. Cross ocean has been booked for all destination, except NLD SEA is pending and will conclude tomorrow (5 Jan).
This period of the year can be stressful due to Chinese New Year approaching and everything closing. Due to the current situation in China, a lot of factories are closing pre-mature and government instances are undermanned. I can't tell if this will have any impact on the sailing/flight schedule.
Otherwise, we're looking good and according to schedule.
EU-Sokken
NA-Socks
These batches were completed ahead of schedule by about 2 weeks. Exception to this is EU- Sea freight. Unfortunately, this not only departed late, it also got delayed. Asia -> EU Sea freight is (still) not in a good place.
NA-Cup, NA-Toothpaste
SEA arrived at the warehouse and ready to ship. Confirm your address in the Hub to release the order for shipment. Else wait 1 week.
AIR: All shipped.
EU-Tandpasta, EU-Beker
SEA: Delayed by 4 days, expected shipment date moved from 16 Jan to 20th of Jan. (you can still upgrade to Air freight until the 11th of Jan or until the buffer is empty.) You can track the vessel online with a time delay.
AIR: All shipped.
Production completed and passed QC on the 3rd of Dec! 🥳
Batch: NA-Toothpaste, NA-Cup
It's coming in hot and fast, the expected arrival is 15 Dec at the warehouse. At this moment I don't expect the stock to be available for shipment any sooner than 22 December for shipment due to the season. There's also a chance to it delay in its last mile trucking to the warehouse, just like last time. All that said... that's still faster than what we had estimated! 🤩
By about 2 weeks.
As soon as it arrives at the warehouse, you'll see an update in the estimations.
Batch: NA-Toothpaste, NA-Cup
I had made sure that this freight could catch the earliest vessel possible to ensure we could deliver sooner than the estimation. The vessel departs on the 8th of December. If everything goes according to schedule, this is about 2 weeks behind on the Air freight batch coming in. That means it arrives at the warehouse on the 28th of December. I expect it then to be available for shipment around the 5th of January.
This is nearly 2 weeks ahead of the estimate you see in the hub 😀.
Production completed last week and passed QC on 3rd of Dec! 🥳
Batch: EU-Tandpasta, EU-Beker
We got lucky with the flight schedule and were able to catch the soonest possible flight. This Thursday (8 Dec) your keyboard will arrive at the warehouse. We should be able to start shipments for all orders (for this batch air freight) on the 13th of December 🫢. This means you might still receive your keyboard for Christmas 🎄🎅.
What did your estimate say again? January something? Scratch that. You'll see it update to an earlier date as soon as the goods are confirmed at the warehouse.
Batch: EU-Tandpasta, EU-Beker
Sea freight will arrive at Rotterdam haven by the 12th of January, 2023. This is still in line with our estimate. As soon as the vessel departs or is known to me, then I'll be sharing a vessel tracker for you to follow it!
You can choose to get it shipped much earlier by upgrading to Air freight in the hub.wooting.io. It's limited to the air freight buffer stocks.
Batch: EU-Bliksem, EU-Reus, EU-BIN
We received the goods at the warehouse. Our Netherlands Fulfillment center is relatively fast to make the goods ready for shipment and it should be ship-ready by the 23rd of November.
You will receive an email on the 23rd of Nov. to double-confirm your shipping address in the Wooting Hub. Afterwards your order is sent to fulfillment and will ship within 1-2 business days. Please give it 3-4 business days to receive a tracking number email.
Batch: EU-Boter
The sea freight will arrive by the end of this week, we can start shipments on the 29th of November. No change in the expected dates.
Batch: EU-Bliksem, EU-Reus, EU-BIN
Even though we had the production done at an early date, the forwarder wasn't able to get us an earlier vessel than the 22nd of November. And this is already a week earlier than they originally planned, due to my complaint.
The vessel is expected to arrive on the 16th of December. I'm setting the expected shipment date to the 28th of December for customs, delivery to warehouse, and check-in inventory.
The China - Europe route is full of congestion, so in addition to above, I would brace yourself for the vessel to either wait at port for a while or its departure getting delayed.
On a positive note, you can track the boat/vessel, and keep a close eye on its progress.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9869162
If you had Christmas plans, there's still a chance. We always ship buffer stocks with air freight to capture the unexpected, backup, and replacement. The latest air freight buffer is available starting the 1st of December. Next week (29 Nov) we're making a tally on what we can spare on the buffers and will make the airfreight upgrade available in the Wooting Hub (starting 1st of Dec.) as long as the buffer stock lasts. When you make the upgrade, it can ship immediately.
This week we're publishing a 60HE update video. It won't go into as much details as these batch updates. Please refer anybody asking to the batch updates. This is a big one.
Batches: NA-Thunder, NA-Behemoth, NA-Curtain
The 3 different batches were split in 2 air freight batches to our warehouse. We are going to start shipments on 1 of the 2 batches that arrived at the warehouse. This means we can't fulfill everything at once. The rest will need to wait for the 2/2 batch to come in. It's estimated to arrive this Wednesday 23 Nov. More on this in *Shipment plan.
All 3 batches (Thunder, Behemoth, Curtain) were supposed to arrive at the same time through the 2 air freight batches. However, 1/2 batches got delayed while the other was delivered at the warehouse.
We use a 3PL for order fulfillment, we don't pick/pack/ship ourselves (anymore). Besides the fact that none of us live in the United States, we automated most of the process, and outsourced fulfillment to make it scale faster. The flipside is that we can't put in extra hours to make things move faster or meet deadlines we set. We are also not in a position to tell the 3PL to prioritize us over all others, though I do tell them to hurry up.
When our 3PL receives the goods, they'll confirm the contents, and let us know if everything arrived. But it's not immediately available for shipment. I can honestly not tell why that's the case and do not know anything about their internal processes. But from what I've been able to observe, they're moving our inventory between their different warehouses (load balancing) to close the gap between warehouse and final destination.
Usually it takes them 3-5 business days to make the inventory available for shipment and sometimes even 2 business days. However, now it's peak season and it's all taking longer. They have recently (20 days ago) given a guideline that'll take 5-7 business days during peak season from the day it arrived at the warehouse. I know, that's pretty insane, but I hadn't experienced it until recently.
The previous batch (NA-Haze), it took the fulfillment center 6 business days to make the first amount (roughly 35%) available for shipment. Then over the course of 3 business days the rest came in. This means it took 9 business days before the entire batch was completed.
Not great and not sure what to expect now.
I'm sharing all this to give more clarity on the current status and share all the information I have.
So, what to expect for the shipments now that we know that we have 1/2 batch and the other one is coming in this Wednesday (23rd), but there's a big ?? fulfillment center.
For clarity, when I mention that we will confirm an order for shipment, ship an order, or mention shipment date: this means that I've sent instructions to the fulfillment to pick, pack, and ship your order. You'd need to give it 1-2 business days to receive a tracking email. Your estimated delivery date includes last mile shipping and does not display the shipment date.
We use a 3rd party fulfillment center (3PL) to pick, pack, and ship orders. At this time they're at peak season and we're facing a lot of slow movement (see headline warehouse above) and I expect this to equally impact the sea freight orders. Therefore, we're updating the estimates as followed.
Batch: NA-Haze
The sea freight batch is expected to arrive midst air freight order shipments causing an even longer pipeline to fulfillment in addition to the above. Therefore we're moving the shipment date to the 1st of December.
Batches: NA-Thunder, NA-Behemoth, NA-Curtain
To reflect all the above, we decided to add another week to the estimate, moving our expected shipment date to the 8th of December
(EU-Reus, EU-Bliksem, EU-BIN)
AIR: Warehouse Delivery is expected on the 17th of November. This is 3-4 days later than expected. When it arrives it often required 2 business days before it's available for shipment. Unfortunately, there's a weekend in between, costing 2 additional days. In total I've delayed the expected delivery dates by about 6 days.
Sea: I am awaiting feedback from the forwarder. They haven't updated the backend for unknown reason but the goods were already picked up. When I have an estimate and if necessary, I'll update the expected delivery date and write another update here.
EU-Boter
Air: We shipped all address confirmed orders (see previous update) with the exception of UK orders using DPD due to pending DPD issues.
DPD had started to send shipments back to us with reason that the noted EORI isn’t correct. This however isn’t the case, as all our EORI numbers are verified, and we have shipped without any issues hundreds of orders to the UK using DPD in the last few month.
Since it is not solved yet by our fulfillment. I have taken over the case myself (again) to push this to a solution. I’m confident to get results this week.
Sea: Still on schedule.
NA-Haze
Air: For unknown reason the inventory was received but not finalized. This went unnoticed last week, as there’s no apparent status change, and usually it’s immediately available. After addressing this, they have now prioritized the issue at hand. In the meanwhile hundreds of orders will ship today.
Sea: My goal is to ship before Thanksgiving and the peak Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Even if I have to tap into buffers to get things moving. This will hopefully lower the risk of having any type of shipping misery.
(EU-Boter, NA-Haze)
We sent out an email to double-confirm your shipping address (9 Nov), after confirmation, your order will initiate shipment! If you don't confirm the order, it'll automatically go out for shipment on the 17th of November. We do not send reminder emails in the meanwhile.
Please make sure to double-check your address information, we already caught a few that didn't have a complete address but they confirmed it already(!).
Note: We're having an issue with exporting to the United Kingdom again. (I spent a significant amount of time and effort to iron out all kinks with DPD on this 3 months back). A few order from last week came back to us, twice, and we have no clear feedback from DPD on the reason. Not sure what changed. We want to make sure it's in the clear before sending the lot. Apologies, and I hate to say it, but more post brexit pains.
Mass production completed on the 2nd of November (yeeah!). I had 3rd party quality control visit and double check based on previous issue (see previous update). The QC report was all OK. Since the quantity of this production was much larger, they required 2 days and this pushed the pickup dates of all goods to: 6 November for NA- batches and 7 November for EU- batches.
This has no impact on the delivery estimate and was already taken into consideration.
With this mass production we also completed the Wooting Double-shot PBT (Just Black) keycaps:
The batches are going into transit from factory to warehouse phase and you should see an updated status on your end.
NA-Haze AIR is now in the USA, but local transport and check-in warehouse takes a bit longer during this season. I expect it at the warehouse on the 4th of November, and ship-ready around the 10th of November. We're still on schedule and your expected delivery date is accurate.
NA-Haze SEA is by now using our faster shipping route. I expect it to be ship-ready on the 21st of November, but the chances of delay are higher with sea freight. Especially during this period. For now it looks like we're on schedule.
I expect EU-Boter AIR will arrive at the warehouse on the 7th of November and we can start shipments on the 9th of November. This means we're on schedule and your expected delivery date is accurate.
EU-Boter SEA is on the boat and expectations are still the same. It should be ready to ship out on the 29th of November, but the chances of delay are higher with sea freight.
We near-completed the production of EU-Boter and NA-Haze and as usual had a QC team visit the factory to make sure everything was according to specifications. We found that there was one issue during the production... that will not impact the estimated delivery date.
On a number of keyboards ,one of the thread inserts that is embedded into the plastic standoff was not flush installed. It stuck out a bit, and in some cases, a terrible bit. When the keyboard is completely assembled it isn't immediately apparent, as it does not affect the function. But, it'll wear out faster and easily separate from the standoff.
Here is one of the extreme examples:
We have had a number of cases in the past where the nut separated from the standoff during (rough!) shipment and in the worse case shift all that pulling force to the USB-C port to the extent that the port snaps. This was also what started our internal investigation into the root-cause and narrowed it down the thread insert not doing its job adequately. In communication with the factory, we had pushed through 2 production improvements that'd be implemented starting EU-Boter and NA-Haze:
I had specifically instructed the QC team to inspect this issue over a number of keyboards as a double-check. It would seem that there was some type of miscommunication at the factory's side and the SOP wasn't properly monitored.
Mistakes can be made. This is why it's important to double check these things and have a QC team check on your manufacturing partner. Just as much as the manufacturing partner checks us on mistakes that we make.
As a result, EU-Boter and NA-Haze had to go through a rework. This means they need to undo some of the assembly steps, or even unpack the entire keyboard to amend the issue. This happens with a lot of care and with clear procedures to ensure the integrity of the product.
The obvious solution to fixing this was to heat up the nut and push in further inside the case. However, the factory found that it had a chance to fail and that the rework would less the binding strength to the stand-off. Therefore, it was decided to instead of reworking the bottom case, to replace the entire bottom case including thread inserts.
We want to make sure you get the best quality. And hats off for the factory taking responsibility and swiftly cooperating working towards the best solution for the customer's wishes (that's us in this case).
Today I inspected the new quality control report, and we're all good to go.
The production ready date was on the 17th of October, this moved to the 21st of October. Now that I was able to sign off on the QC report, we can proceed with shipment. It's heading out a week later, but we had already taken a buffer into account when it came to the estimates. This soaked up that buffer and your estimated delivery date still stands.
When it comes to all the other batches. This hiccup impacted the 28th of October ready date, now it's the 2nd of November. That said, the buffer also soaks this up and the estimate delivery dates still stand.
With the level of details here, I think I accidentally wrote the (video)update text that's coming this week. Lol.
<3
There is now a new order tracking system! You can head over to the Wooting hub and now see an estimated delivery date, tailored per order. It's all dynamic and based on changes we make internally. No need to figure things out anymore. It is of course an estimate, but we're confident that it's as close as we can get it with the information we have.
Below a status update
EU-Boter
(Air and Sea freight)
Production still on track to complete on the 17th of October. QC team was arranged and will check on the 17th. Forwarder for the cross ocean shipment is standing by for my approval (based on QC results).
We decided to still split this shipment according to Air and Sea freight, as the earlier ready date does positively impact sea freight as well. You can still upgrade to Air freight to get earlier delivery. The closing date for this option is linked to the amount of additional buffers we added to the Air freight shipment. Air freight will save you 3-4 weeks in EU/International.
EU-Bliksem, EU-Reus, EU-BIN
(Air and Sea freight)
Production still on track to complete on the 28th of October.
EU-batches (EU/International) sea freight will arrive start of December, a tricky time. I haven't heard any cautious news from our fulfillment concerning this period, but just be prepared that there's peak shipping and it might or might not make Christmas. Air freight will be ahead of it, the time savings (3-4 weeks)with Air freight for EU-batches is extremely beneficial.
EU-Tandpasta, NA-Toothpaste are bonus productions for the Wooting 60HE. The production for these batches completes on the 2nd of December, after which it still needs to freight to our warehouses.
Due to this being so close to the Christmas holidays, we decided to move all shipment estimates to January. Your estimated delivery date in the order tracker should reflect this decision.
There’s only in the EU/International (EU-Tandpasta) a slim chance that Air freight orders will still be able to ship within December.
We completed all the shipments for EU-Pi and NA-Rho.
If you are still in this batch but it wasn't shipped yet. Please contact customer service.
There is now a new order tracking system! You can head over to the Wooting hub and now see an estimated delivery date, tailored per order. It's all dynamic and based on changes we make internally. No need to figure things out anymore. It is of course an estimate, but we're confident that it's as close as we can get it with the information we have.
Below a status update
NA-Haze
(Air and Sea freight)
Production still on track to complete on the 17th of October. QC team was arranged and will check on the 17th. Forwarder for the cross ocean shipment is standing by for my approval (based on QC results).
We decided to still split this shipment according to Air and Sea freight, as the earlier ready date does positively impact sea freight as well. You can still upgrade to Air freight to get earlier delivery. The closing date for this option is linked to the amount of additional buffers we added to the Air freight shipment. 2-3 weeks in the USA.
NA-Thunder, NA-Behemoth, NA-Curtain
(Air and Sea freight)
Production still on track to complete on the 28th of October. I am trying to get the NA-batches (USA) shipment ready a tad earlier so that sea freight can still meet a faster shipping schedule deadline. If it works out, it'll easily save 1-2 weeks, arrive, and ship before Christmas crazy shipment mania starts. Fingers crossed. If you're in Air freight, you'll be ahead of this.
