You used to be able to check your order status on MINI's site. Is that feature still active?
Yes, checked but not yet shipped.
Here is a quote from their FB page:
Hi all! The production takes way much longer than any of us could expect. We would like to apologize for this. These are the tough times and we will remember 2020 as a Covid year. For some types of businesses it’s easier: switch to remote work and that’s all. For the factory, it’s impossible. Plus regulators put restrictions on the number of workers which can be present at the factory at once. For a couple of months the factory was totally closed because of the regulations. Then Israel regulators allowed only 1/3rd of workers to be present at the factory for the whole summer. This also means that the CNC machines can be utilized also only for 1/3rd.
This situation allows to postpone the execution of contracts but does not cancel them, so the factory is busy trying to catch up on the delayed contracts. And again it’s much harder in comparison, for example, with IT companies. The restrictions are lighter but still remain. It’s impossible to work just harder or faster. If a CNC machine needs 10 minutes for an operation, there is no way to speed it up. With or without restrictions, this will be still 10 minutes.
One of the CNC machines is busier than others, because it can do more complicated operations. And we are totally stuck waiting for it.
Before the CNC machine can start working on a new part, it requires adjustments and checks. So changing the program is not a simple and short operation. If anything goes wrong, then the metal part will be simply damaged while it already passed several operations. So to make the part we need, the CNC machine should be allocated for several days (and then couple of days to switch it to the original or another part it was doing).
The factory is making the XvoSticks in background. The main part of its orders are very large, tens of thousands of identical pieces. In other words, switching to an XvoStick’s part and back will take at least one week while the CNC machine is fully allocated for the large order with identical parts. I’m sorry but we cannot switch it to XvoSticks shortly.
There are no much news: we are still waiting for the CNC machine. The Covid impacted the factory badly and now we also have the second wave which can make the situation only more complicated.
Currently the CNC machine is fully occupied till the middle of December. If there will be any possibility of switching it to XvoSticks we will do it immediately. If there will be any news, we will post them.
Thanks for all support words which we received in private messages; thanks for the long waiting.
Take care and stay healthy,
MiniEcig team
