CPC Move Updates (2 Viewers)

[CPC_Mike]

I thought I’d start a new thread to cover updates on the move of CPC to Woodinville, WA. I’ll keep bumping this thread when there is something new to update. Please understand that I’m quite swamped until this move is complete so my responding to questions here is limited.

Quick updates:

- We’re still working through the massive amount of pre-April 27 orders. Most of the factory move cannot take place until these orders are complete so we’re going full on to get them done. If you’ve got one of these I appreciate your patience.

- We’re pausing taking ALL new orders- custom chips, samples and stock designs until the move is complete. We hope to start taking new orders September/October.

- The PCF/CPC Design Contest will still happen. Having it in June would have just needlessly gotten in the way as we’re not ready to produce new chips yet anyway. All the basic parameters of the contest that were discussed earlier still exist: It will be done through PCF, the winner will have their set be the first produced at the new factory, etc. I’m still pondering exactly how it will be judged and have taken all of your input into consideration.

- We have a lease on our new building in Woodinville, WA and have begun the preliminaries of setting up the electrical and plumbing. We’ve also started to get new equipment (boiler) delivered and set up.

- Next up will be to ship a ton (or 10) of the equipment that is currently not being used to Woodinville. If anyone has any connections to the shipping industry - especially one that has a heavy discount - please send me a PM.


Just to give a vague sense of the undertaking, we need to move this:

To this:

 

[Machine]

Thanks for the update Mike!

 

[Pippa]

Question to you Mike
When we will order the chips can we come to pick up directly to the factory?
Thanks

 

[RocAFella1]

@Gorbash

 

[Saoliver]

@Gorbash

Literally his backyard. But he only likes leaded.

 

[davislane]

Literally his backyard. But he only likes leaded.

maybe a secret leaded formula for chippers can be developed?

 

[parazyd]

That's awesome to see! Good luck with everything.

 

[maxim_666666]

Good luck with the move Mike!
Judging by the photo this is just one of several production departments.

What kind of psycho ordered 5000 green chips???

 

[FedorOfSpades]

Good luck with the move - thanks for the update and keeping us in the loop.

 

[JMC9389]

Thanks for the update. A couple of things struck me based on the wording used.

Are some pre April 27th orders going to be manufactured in the new facility? The Maine factory has been putting out only A mold, HHR, and CSQ mold chips since the beginning of the year. CSQ mold is still in production as far as I understand.

I'm simply perplexed about how all of the pre April 27th orders are going to be fulfilled before September/October when you say the move is taking place and you're taking new orders?

 

[dennis63]

Wow! Looking at the photos. My back hurts just thinking about moving all that stuff!

 

[suchj0sh]

Thanks for the update. A couple of things struck me based on the wording used.

Are some pre April 27th orders going to be manufactured in the new facility? The Maine factory has been putting out only A mold, HHR, and CSQ mold chips since the beginning of the year. CSQ mold is still in production as far as I understand.

I'm simply perplexed about how all of the pre April 27th orders are going to be fulfilled before September/October when you say the move is taking place and you're taking new orders?

This is my thought as well. Does this mean you expect all deadline orders to be filled by September/october?

 

[ChipMonster]

Good luck with the move! I hate moving houses so couldn’t imagine how big a pain it is to move equipment like this across country!

 

[davesilver88]

Awesome! Thanks for the info.

 

[buzzmonkey]

It's going to be weird driving by and not having it there. Good luck with the move! I wish I knew someone with shipping ties. Just make sure to go with a reputable company. My neighbors moved away several years ago and lost all their stuff.

 

[CPC_Mike]

Thanks for the update. A couple of things struck me based on the wording used.

Are some pre April 27th orders going to be manufactured in the new facility? The Maine factory has been putting out only A mold, HHR, and CSQ mold chips since the beginning of the year. CSQ mold is still in production as far as I understand.

I'm simply perplexed about how all of the pre April 27th orders are going to be fulfilled before September/October when you say the move is taking place and you're taking new orders?

All pre-April 27th orders (which at this point is ALL current orders) will be fulfilled in Maine. All other timelines are fluid. There's a lot of machinery that it is currently in need of repair and not being used that will be shipped out while the rest is used to fulfill orders. I don't like saying too much in a very, very fluid situation as it just leads to more questions that I don't have the time to answer at the moment.

 

[bigblind]

Good luck with move

 

[JMC9389]

Is everything ok at the factory @David Spragg @CPC_Mike ? Saw videos of nasty storms in the area this afternoon.

 

[Sprouty]

Thanks for the update. A couple of things struck me based on the wording used.

Are some pre April 27th orders going to be manufactured in the new facility? The Maine factory has been putting out only A mold, HHR, and CSQ mold chips since the beginning of the year. CSQ mold is still in production as far as I understand.

I'm simply perplexed about how all of the pre April 27th orders are going to be fulfilled before September/October when you say the move is taking place and you're taking new orders?

My HHR add on order that I placed in December just got bumped to the new facility.

 

[JMC9389]

My HHR add on order that I placed in December just got bumped to the new facility.

Has anyone asked about a mold schedule from now until the move? I'm sure it's been asked since yesterday but didn't want to add to the abundance of emails asking the same thing.

 

[TheBigTater]

My HHR add on order that I placed in December just got bumped to the new facility.

I got the same email......

This news is very bothersome to me. We were promised that all orders placed before the April deadline would be manufactured in the original facility using the same time tested methods, equipment, staff, etc.... before the manufacturing floor changes. This was the reason I got my order in before the deadline. Not that I don't think Mike will do great things with the new company going forward but the learning curve is pretty steep for making this product and I don't want to have my chips being the guinea pigs for a new setup/producer (ie: ASM/Vegas).

This was not what was promised.

I am really having a tough time with this decision and weighing whether I want to kick out of my HHR order.

 

[CPC_Mike]

As most of you have probably heard now through the PCF grapevine, we’ve had to have a bit of a course correction. I visited the Maine factory last week and talked a lot with David and the only way we could come up with to make this work was to go back on my promise of “all pre-April 27th” orders being fulfilled in Maine. It got to the point where it was simply impossible to make that happen. That’s on me. I own that.

We decided that the simplest way to cutoff what is being made in Maine vs Woodinville was by mold type. A Mold, CSQ (most orders), Large and Small Crow, Ewing and FDL will be in Maine and all other molds in Woodinville. The timeframe on this cutoff should be around the end October at which point we can complete the factory move. If you got the email from me two days ago then you have one of the orders that will not be manufactured in Maine. I realize that this is upsetting to a lot of you. I realize that these are not the conditions of the order that you placed. I understand that and I fully understand why you’re upset/irate/want-to-eat-my-children. If you’re one of those customers with an order and are adamant that it is manufactured in Maine all I can do is apologize and offer a refund. We just simply cannot fulfill all of these orders in Maine. The Maine factory is not in good condition. The infrastructure (electrical, hydraulic, plumbing) is crumbling with leaks everywhere. Key pieces of machinery will not pass mandatory inspections. The lease is expiring. For those of you who have visited it you’ll know that summer time temperatures in the factory routinely reach triple digits. It’s literally a sweatshop. I pray every day that I don’t get the 2am phone call that such and such has broken and we’re down for weeks. There’s little to no redundancy.

As a slight aside, for those of you who don’t know, our order queue is not a FIFO (first in, first out). Your order timeframe greatly depends on which mold your chips are designed with and when that mold is scheduled to go into production.

I know some of you will be extremely upset no matter I say. I get it. It’s personal. Chip design is personal to you. It’s an art to a lot of you and creating art is emotional and personal and you put part of yourself into your design. I want us to manufacture our chips with that same level or dedication and craftsmanship. I want my company to care as much about making your chips as you do about designing them. We just can’t live up to those ideals in Maine.

What will this due to the timeline? If you’ve got a current order that will now be made in Woodinville and was scheduled for the next few months then this will add 2-4 weeks to your order. If your order is not within that window then this shouldn’t change the schedule much.

I know CPC seems like hobby to a lot of you but it’s a real business. We have real employees that depend on their jobs to pay their bills and take care of their families. As an owner I’m also putting in all of my own money into the company. I’m not wealthy. I have responsibilities to my employees, their families and my family as well as to our customers.

Lastly, while I want to keep everyone updated on things please understand that when I send out any kind of update I’ll get 50 responses back that I have to reply to. 5 of those will be from folks taking their Zapruder-like detective skills and parsing every word and image and trying to decode whether “42” really is the answer to “life, the universe, and everything”. 5 more will want to tell me that it’s “not acceptable” and the other 40 will say, “great, when am I going to get my order?”

Mike

 

[Mudfever]

Following….

Mud

 

[JMC9389]

Thank you for the update on everything. I was the one to express concern given the number of orders that came in before the April deadline that I didn't see a way that they would all get done in Maine.

My main concern about the move, and I'm sure others are in the same boat, is about add on orders to existing sets. I have an add on order already paid for on the Jockey mold to my set that was made a year and a half ago. My concern is that if there is a difference in terms of equipment used (you said yourself some things are going to need to be replaced/refurbished) between the Maine and Washington factories, that the new chips would come out looking completely different from the previous ones made a couple of years prior. Different shades of colors, slight composition/weight variances, that kind of thing.

The money has already been spent. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best, though I understand how this may be a dealbreaker for some and would be nervous.

 

[JeepologyOffroad]

Will Ewing be available post-move as well?

 

[Eriks]

A Mold, CSQ (most orders), Ewing and FDL will be in Maine and all other molds in Woodinville. The timeframe on this cutoff should be around the end October at which point we can complete the factory move. If you got the email from me two days ago then you have one of the orders that will not be manufactured in Maine. If you have an order in and didn’t get the email then your order will be fulfilled in Maine.

So, if one has an order in but didn’t receive an email two days ago, it means production will be in Maine even though it’s on one of the Woodinville molds mentioned above (scrown)?

 

[Mudfever]

When I ordered 1000+ elephant and crown’s in December, and once since then, I was estimated/quoted an August/September production. You say that this is a 2 to 4 weeks extension. Yet if you’re producing/then moving in October and I’m not being made in the old facility, where does that put me? The math, in my opinion, is exceedingly off.

I am in business, and I understand there’s a lot behind the curtain. But I think you’ll get a better buy in with a more transparent answer. For example, the Maine factory can produce X number of chips per month. We had XXX amount of chips ordered before the deadline. We expect the production in the new plant to take one to two months to set up and get running. Followed by X amount of chips carried over from Maine, put our estimates in a realistic timeframe of Y. Now, maybe you don’t want to disclose that because you feel that would be more obvious that we might be waiting months, if not a year plus (beyond original estimate). At which point you might have a bank run.

Mud

 

[CPC_Mike]

So, if one has an order in but didn’t receive an email two days ago, it means production will be in Maine even though it’s on one of the Woodinville molds mentioned above (scrown)?

Small Crown will be in Maine. You replied before I edited the message.

 

[CPC_Mike]

Will Ewing be available post-move as well?

Yes, all the same molds are going to be available post move.

 

[CPC_Mike]

When I ordered 1000+ elephant and crown’s in December, and once since then, I was estimated/quoted an August/September production. You say that this is a 2 to 4 weeks extension. Yet if you’re producing/then moving in October and I’m not being made in the old facility, where does that put me? The math, in my opinion, is exceedingly off.

I am in business, and I understand there’s a lot behind the curtain. But I think you’ll get a better buy in with a more transparent answer. For example, the Maine factory can produce X number of chips per month. We had XXX amount of chips ordered before the deadline. We expect the production in the new plant to take one to two months to set up and get running. Followed by X amount of chips carried over from Maine, put our estimates in a realistic timeframe of Y. Now, maybe you don’t want to disclose that because you feel that would be more obvious that we might be waiting months, if not a year plus (beyond original estimate). At which point you might have a bank run.

Mud

My 2-4 week extension is from where peoples orders are in the queue right now, not from estimates from last December.