SpectraPure
05/19/2005, 05:08 PM
Some additional background might help our customers understand why we have had such a long delay in delivering the “new†LiterMeters. Basically, in 2004 we were experiencing increasingly greater and greater problems with our pump supplier and their worsening on-time delivery, all while the price they charged continued to go up. By 3rd quarter 2004, we made the decision to cease production of the LiterMeter until we could secure a more reliable pump supplier. At the time the decision was made, we estimated a 4-month development time for pre production development of a new pump. We thought we had adequate reserves of the old pump to carry us over until we had the new pump up and running. We were wrong. Way wrong. It took the better part of 9 months to develop our own pump and run exhaustive failure analysis to make sure we had a superior product.
However, this pain wasn’t without some significant gain. For example, our new pump is more powerful, reliable and efficient than anything we looked at as a possible replacement for the pump we were using. The maintenance has been virtually eliminated, a major problem common to every peristaltic pump we evaluated as a potential replacement. Tubing life is also increased under worse case conditions by at least a factor of five. So, while it has taken longer than we ever thought it would take, we are finally entering production after a grueling 9 months of development and testing.
The new LiterMeters have just begun coming off the production line as we begin our production ramp up to capacity. Thus, we are now shipping our first several units this week. We expect to ramp up to full production capacity by the end of July barring any further supplier issues (we have very high quality expectations from our suppliers - all in the U.S.A. - which has required a lengthy quality control development process to prevent problems like those we experienced with the previous vendor).
Thus, we are fulfilling orders in the order they have come in. Given that we are ramping up to our target production capacity over the next 6-8 weeks, we expect to have same day order fulfillment in place once the backlog is taken care of (probably by early August), as there are quite a few people in line currently.
Additionally, for those with the old pump, we will be offering an upgrade of your old pump to the new pump in late June at a reasonable cost. So thanks for bearing with us. We are confident the wait will be worth your while.
Bruce Huling
Vice-President
SpectraPure, Inc.
However, this pain wasn’t without some significant gain. For example, our new pump is more powerful, reliable and efficient than anything we looked at as a possible replacement for the pump we were using. The maintenance has been virtually eliminated, a major problem common to every peristaltic pump we evaluated as a potential replacement. Tubing life is also increased under worse case conditions by at least a factor of five. So, while it has taken longer than we ever thought it would take, we are finally entering production after a grueling 9 months of development and testing.
The new LiterMeters have just begun coming off the production line as we begin our production ramp up to capacity. Thus, we are now shipping our first several units this week. We expect to ramp up to full production capacity by the end of July barring any further supplier issues (we have very high quality expectations from our suppliers - all in the U.S.A. - which has required a lengthy quality control development process to prevent problems like those we experienced with the previous vendor).
Thus, we are fulfilling orders in the order they have come in. Given that we are ramping up to our target production capacity over the next 6-8 weeks, we expect to have same day order fulfillment in place once the backlog is taken care of (probably by early August), as there are quite a few people in line currently.
Additionally, for those with the old pump, we will be offering an upgrade of your old pump to the new pump in late June at a reasonable cost. So thanks for bearing with us. We are confident the wait will be worth your while.
Bruce Huling
Vice-President
SpectraPure, Inc.