I got the call about the train wreck from Josh yesterday. At first I thought he was kidding. I'm reading the blog on herbalizer.com/blog/, but it doesn't describe how much delaying delivery of plastic means and how it upsets the apple cart. The engineering is finally complete and several Herbalizers have been built and successfully beta tested. The focus is, and has been for some time now, on manufacturing which involves planning a large supply chain of parts from many suppliers, assembly processes, and the acquisition of many custom supplies, including the plastic. The target is now the assembly line (actually there are two assembly lines, one for the processor board.) There have been multiple preparatory test runs at the manufacturing plant to test the build processes, QA, and document training instruction for assembly; everything is finally in a ready state.
Josh and Bob, as seasoned engineers, (ref herbalizer.com/about-us/) both weigh in on the conservative side insisting that every detail is addressed where protecting the brand is the top priority. They don't want any returns and they don't want to make promises they can't keep. Josh was reluctant to even post a December delivery date, but I'm more optimistic that shipping product will begin in less than a month from now.
Finally I believe they have achieved the confidence they've been seeking for not only Herbie the product, but also for the production, QA, and delivery. The manufacturer is now ready to completely take over the operations. All this preparation and attention to detail should pay off in the long run, but this delay comes at a great expense when you consider the opportunity cost of the delayed revenue. There's no free lunch for anything made in the USA.
In any event, I hope this provides a satisfactory explanation of what's going on, what to expect, and just to let everyone know, we are all only waiting for the plastics.
Lastly, I had the opportunity of spending time last week with Josh and team at the Champs trade show in Denver. Josh lives in San Diego, but his mom and I live in Denver and this was our first trade show. All the Herbie's were out for display and it was exciting for me to see reactions to the demonstration, similar to what you see on the website video. Sheila and Josh worked tirelessly demonstrating to what seemed to be a non-stop crowd of people. Many were just wide eyed finding Herbie all new and interesting, but then there were some who really got it and couldn't contain their excitement. All of you on this forum fall into the later category and I really appreciate and enjoy all the experience, knowledge, and passion that you share.