Flavors Cycling Out, More Fulfillment Transparency, and TOURNAMENT ARC BEGINS
Tim here again with another update. Hey, when I said I'd try to do more communication and updates, I meant it. Want to know more than you'd ever thought you'd know about making ramen?
Then you've come to the right place. We're hitting levels of transparent that don't seem physically possible! So I guess like... glass? Really nicely polished glass?
Anyway.
First up: Japanese Curry and Beef Pho have been very popular in the variety packs, but they've now run out, and are being cycled out of our inventory. We've reserved stock for subscribers, and for now, don't foresee any issues with being able to deliver to subscribers until we get restocked.
One of the issues we're contending with for our Beef Pho flavor is that we have to swap suppliers for some of our beef stock. While it was a smaller portion in our recipe, and so shouldn't have many issues in terms of nutrition or taste, it's still something we gotta make minor adjustments for. The old supplier suddenly hugely increased their Minimum Order Quantities(MOQs) to something we very much cannot do, hence the delay. As for how long it'll be gone, we can't say for sure-- That'll depend heavily on what happens with the suppliers.
As for Japanese Curry, it just ended up being more popular than we expected, and while it was already in queue to be produced, it's just going to take a bit more time to get through the rest of the things we're making before we can make more of Japanese Curry. Very happy about how it was received, though, and hoping that this one comes back in a month or two at the latest!
Second: Some Orders Will Have More Delays. I've talked about getting in the facility a lot and buying a ton of machines and stuff. I'm still trying to get everything organized and put together, which is taking longer than I hoped, but it is what it is(tautologies really do be tautological). We've calculated that with certain methodologies in place, we can create massive amounts of efficiencies, and without getting into boring technical operational talk stuff, the tl;dr of it is that with all the new equipment and processes in place, if we throw the entire crew (including myself) into the fulfillment fray... The amount we can pack and fulfill is HUGE, and significantly more efficient than doing smaller day to day. While this is generally not practical in normal operations, we're cranking down on producing and packaging a ton of noodles first, and then doing two huge fulfillment days on Thursday and Friday of next week (Feb 24th and Feb 25th) to hopefully get us way more caught up on things.
I've mentioned it a couple different times, but manually picking out orders from the system is brutally and soul-crushingly inefficient. James and I spent until 1:30AM at one point quietly crying as we just sat there scanning labels to push them through the system before the next workday.
...Actually, it was kind of nostalgic, since that’s the first things we did more than five years ago-- spending until very late at the facility, fixing up problems, ordering from the only 24/7 diner that was open for late night snacks, and developing systems. Kind of nice in its own way, gives perspective on how far we’ve come too.
And finally, speaking of fulfillment, we’re ready to announce the naming of the machine.
The tournament arc begins TODAY. Cast your votes below, and may the best name win!
That’s about it for this bit of news. I guess if I’m going to be doing this more, I should name these updates something huh? Let me know if y’all have suggestions.
Be kind and keep learning! I’ll figure out a signature signout someday.
-Tim, CEO/Founder Vite Kitchens