Thank you for all your comments and thoughtful feedback from our last update. We enjoy hearing from all of you and know that everyone is very excited to receive their canopies!
With this detailed update we are going to provide to you the clearest understanding of the challenges and the general production environment we are operating in. In addition we will be detailing what steps we have employed to help in mitigating further delays in this very challenging and fluid global environment.
The Good News:
At this point, we are now in the fortunate position where all of our required components for mass production are currently on hand. We took some calculated risks earlier this year by making deposits for the majority of our raw materials with the hope that everyone would be as excited about Aeri as we are. Those risks paid off, as many of these raw materials are currently in high demand and short supply - particularly the IC chips for our air pump and the PVC for the beams.
The polyester fabric was the last raw material that we were waiting on for final production. The fabric procurement process took longer than anticipated due to factories not running at full capacity due to Covid protocols following the late-summer outbreak in Jiangsu.
We thought it would be exciting to share a few photos from our production in process:
Beams (Inflation Testing) - Every beam is tested for a minimum of 24 hours of air retention
Fabric spools waiting to be cut
Air pumps awaiting packaging and packing
Final Production “Golden Sample”:
The Latest Challenge:
At the end of September just prior to the Golden Week holiday, China began to experience power outages and rolling blackouts that have slowed and even closed factories as energy demand from a re-opening economy exceeded available supply. This issue has been exacerbated by rising energy costs as well as efforts to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources. Currently, our factories only have access to electricity 50% of the time, and needless to say this has significantly slowed down production.
This issue is widespread, affecting the manufacturing process everywhere from Crowdfunding campaigns to Fortune 500 companies. We’ve shared a few links below should you wish to learn more about the situation:
Indiegogo Article on Supply Chain Issues
Supply Chain & China Power Crisis
Apple Supply Chain Woes
How Are We Addressing This:
In an effort to mitigate delays caused by these power limitations, our engineering team on the ground has spent the last few weeks working with a secondary source for production. Bringing this factory on-board will enable us to re-capture some of that lost production capacity and minimize excessive delays.
Shipping & Logistics:
We now anticipate Aeri’s to ship from the factory in December. The supply chain situation has been very fluid and changing almost daily, which has made it difficult for us to accurately forecast our delivery estimates. We now feel very confident in this updated production timeline, but please consider that this is subject to change (for better or worse) depending on external factors.
Another challenge we are facing is the unprecedented global shipping surge which is resulting in un-reliable vessel schedules, shipping container shortages, and port delays.
In working with our trusted freight partner of many years, they are advising the following estimates for shipping from origin port to our drop ship warehouse:
- 60 days for ocean transfer and destination port clearance
- 7 days for container recovery and preparation for drop ship
- 3-5 days for final mile delivery to you
Under normal circumstances, all of the above activities would be a 30 day process, but the logistics environment is stressed more than it has ever been. We will be working closely with our forwarder to improve wherever we can.
We are thankful for your patience as we continue to steward Aeri’s production through these global challenges in the supply chain. We will continue to provide you with meaningful updates as we drive Aeri’s production to completion. With that said, we are very sorry that we could not meet our original fulfillment schedule. Our team is fighting hard every day to deliver your canopies as soon as we possibly can.
If you have specific questions regarding your order, you may reach us directly at [email protected]
