meta_noscript_image

Update after Hamre Forge Kimber and HF Spegel releases

by | Jul 8, 2024

A few things forced our hand and obligated us to release the HF Spegel stocks very shortly after the Kimber K6s and K6xs stocks. Normally I would prefer a little more of a build up to let everyone know instead of springing it so close together.

But, we were actually expecting to release the Kimber stocks back in February of this year, and issues with production threw quite a monkey wrench into those plans.

At this time the orders are absolutely flowing in, which is a huge blessing, and we couldn’t be more thankful. On the other hand, this has come with a very steep learning curve for us. We’ve been moving over all our processes from the filament based 3d printing, over to a quite advanced form of additive manufacturing called “Selective Laser Sintering”. I wrote about it here, back in February – https://hamreforge.com/manufacturing-upgrade/

Migrating our processes over to this new manufacturing method has been exciting and challenging. In some ways, we weren’t ready, but in other ways, if we waited until we were ready, I’m not sure we’d ever be able to release a product.

Right now, due to the demand for these new grips, we’ve generated quite the queue of orders. We’ve been steadily knocking out 10-20 orders every day that the post office is open, but the orders keep coming in. Meanwhile, we’re still trying to fine tune our processes internally that would allow us to get up to full production capacity. We’re only able to run at about 20% of our full production capacity, and it has slowed down our ability to catch up on orders as quickly as we ought to be able to if we were running at full capacity.

I’ve mulled over a few options.

  1. Stop taking orders
  2. Mark everything to pre-order
  3. Keep taking orders as is

In consulting with multiple trusted advisors, I’ve come to the conclusion that the best route to take for customers and the business is option 3.

It seems best for the business and the customer. Multiple customers have also stated as much.

The lag we’re experiencing today in getting orders out isn’t the desired state of the business. We’ve been investing heavily in time and money to close the gap between order received and order shipped. It seems we’re in a season with the business where playing catchup has been the name of the game.

Please be patient as we work through this ramp up in orders, as well as fine tuning processes internally to enable us to get the products you want in a timely manner. Don’t hesitate to reach out with comments or questions.

Regards,

Ryan Hamre