[Elecraft] New synthesizer shipping status?

[Phil Wheeler]

This degree of transparency is one thing I really 
appreciate about Elecraft, Eric.

Another thing making me happy is that I ordered 
the new KSYN3AUPG on Day One :-)

73, Phil W7OX

On 4/9/15 5:10 PM, Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft 
wrote:
> Here's the latest KSYN3AUPG Synth Upgrade 
> shipping status:
>
> As of today, we've shipped most of the KSYN3AUPG 
> orders received through Feb 27th. (This was a 
> huge number..)
> There might be a few orders that didn't make it 
> from the 27th, but not many. We about halfway 
> through the total upgrade order backlog, and the 
> new order rate remains high for these going 
> forward. (Thanks everyone!)
>
> We now have short pause in KSYN3AUPG shipments 
> as we have outrun our initial production 
> schedule and initial pull-ins of product as of 
> today. We should resume shipping these in a week 
> and a half, about 4/22, when our next major 
> group of boards are ready.
>
>
> We received an incredible number of orders in 
> the first several weeks, which is why may seem 
> that we may be slowly moving through the order 
> dates as we ship.  There are a very large number 
> of KYSYN3A orders for each day.
>
> When we saw the number of orders coming in that 
> first week (which were well above the large 
> amount we expected and planned for), we 
> immediately and dramatically increased our parts 
> and pcb material orders, and pulled in as much 
> as possible from our existing pipeline of 
> material and assembly orders. We have repeated 
> that process as we have received even more 
> orders above plan. Note that the time from new 
> parts ordering to finished volume deliveries of 
> boards takes between 6-8 weeks for the first 
> finished boards to arrive and be tested. And 
> once the new boards start to arrive, we are also 
> also limited based on what our outside pcb 
> assembly house here in Monterey, CA,, can 
> produce daily.
>
> We also allocate the Synthesizer boards to three 
> distinct areas at the factory. All three of the 
> above areas independently ship based on the 
> order dates for each group.
>
> a) K3 Production: Our first focus is to 
> continually support K3 orders. We do not want to 
> go dry and stop revenue from one of our primary 
> products for an extended time. We have allocated 
> inventory of KSYN3As to keep new K3 orders 
> shipping on a continual basis, even when we run 
> dry in the areas below. (Even with that buffer, 
> its always possible we could have delays in K3 
> shipments of up to a several weeks if new K3 
> order rates exceed our planned KSYN3A inventory.)
>
> b) KSYN3AUPG orders: This group gets by far the 
> overwhelming majority of new synthesizers, 
> dwarfing K3s. These resume on about 4/22 as 
> noted above.
>
> c) We also independently allocated a very small 
> number of new Synthesizers to our K3 repair 
> group.  They handle all repairs and K3 upgrades 
> done at the factory. This is small number of 
> synthesizers and does not significantly impact 
> K3 and KSYN3AUPG shipments. A key goal for us is 
> to always return K3s to customers as quickly as 
> possible to minimize their down-time. I think I 
> counted less than 5 synths available in this 
> group this morning. After those are used we'll 
> have to wait until the deliveries start again 
> 4/21. (Also note that the customer post earlier 
> in this thread that seemed to indicate an out of 
> order upgrade board shipment was actually for 
> boards added to a radio in here for an existing 
> repair and upgrade. It was not for a new 
> KSYN3AUPG individual board order shipment from 
> group B above.)
>
> Lastly, outside of our automated order reply you 
> will not be contacted by us until you receive 
> our shipping notice via UPS, USPS etc., or if we 
> have a problem charging a credit card . There 
> are just too many orders for us to manually 
> contact everyone on backlog with status, and 
> unless your order is close to the head of the 
> queue, its also difficult to accurately predict 
> the exact date it will ship.
>
> The best place to look for current KSYN3AUPG 
> status is our shipping status page at:
> http://www.elecraft.com/elecraft_shipping_status.htm 
>
>
> (We'll update that page with the above info 
> shortly.) As our shipping status changes, we'll 
> update that page.
>
> We are running fast buying KSN3A parts, boards, 
> assembling and testing these as quickly as 
> possible. Thanks again for your great response 
> to this upgrade!
>
> 73,
>
> Eric
> elecraft.com