Day 1-2, 9/6-9/7:
Left Portland this morning and are on a plane headed to Tokyo Narita International Airport in Japan. After a quick plane change, we headed for China.
20 hours later we were there. An hour long cab ride through the border and another hour long drive to the hotel. Managed to crawl into bed at 1am local time.
Day 3, 9/8:
Up and at 'em early; it's 11pm back home and we're just starting our day. Inspected the D9H and found a few issues to address. Worked with the model maker to change some assembly line processes that could potentially cause problems. Left today to give them time to make changes and will come back toward the end of the trip.
Day 4, 9/9:
At another model maker today. We inspected the 666 and it was pretty close to perfect. We made a couple adjustments in the processes on the assembly line to ensure top quality and also learned a few things about assembly that will allow for better models down the road.
Day 5, 9/10:
Inspected the 666 models and found everything was done so well that our plan to have a full day at the factory ended up being only 30 minutes. The models will be individually inspected by a third-party quality control (QC) agency prior to packaging. Shipping on 9/25 from China, should land in the US no later than the week of 10/18.
Had lunch at a local restaurant. That’s Rob eating chicken feet. I wasn't up for that – could barely take the photos without gagging.
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| OSHA approved? |
Day 6, 9/11:
First night in Shenzhen. A gorgeous city – very similar to Portland with the amount of greenery. If you look at a map it's in a tropical latitude and I can confirm with 90 degree temps and 90% humidity that the maps are not wrong. In China they call it “The Garden City”. Our hotel here is 100 times better than the hotels in rural China. Speaking English with the front desk clerk may seem like a minor thing back home but its music to your ears when you’re in China.
Day 7, 9/12:
Spent the morning at a trade show in Shenzhen. Not a huge show but interesting to see products that won't make it to US stores for several months. We also met some new people who could be helpful in manufacturing in the future.
Day 8, 9/13:
Sunday here: our first real day off. Went to the local shopping center and found lots of well known name brands. Glad to see there wasn't any Caterpillar product in the mix.
Day 9, 9/14:
Back to the D9 manufacturer. Most changes are perfect but still had to do some fine tuning. Fried rice for lunch at the factory - it's hard to get these guys on board with the idea that we're here for work, not two hour lunches. After a quick lunch, back to the assembly line where we spent time illustrating that perfect parts make for perfect paint and that making a perfect model isn't in the assembly but rather the whole process. Not a complex concept, but hard to get through language and cultural barriers to make it clear that only perfect is perfect. A few delays because of the raised expectations for this model but they will land in November.
Day 10, 9/15:
Met with another factory working on a ‘secret’ project. Secret meaning we won’t announce it until we have a better idea of delivery dates, etc.
Side note on this one: We are well aware of and feel the pain first when the delivery dates for a model keep moving back. Our efforts to streamline both development and production procedures will help improve our performance in this arena but with that said, it is important that everyone understand we will always choose quality over on-time deliveries.
Additionally, if you ever have something you want to share, you can always e-mail or call us. We pride ourselves on our customer service as much as our model making and will always take the time to answer and explain to you why we are doing what we are doing.
Day 11-12, 9/16-17:
Out of China and off to Hong Kong. Only 2 layers of security to leave China and 2 more to get into Hong Kong. I wonder what would happen if we left China and Hong Kong decided not to let us in. It’s basically no-man’s land isn’t it? Would we be stuck there indefinitely? If you work for Homeland security drop us a line and let us know…but be prepared for us to give you more ribbing about other TSA procedures.
We will be updating the blog on a weekly basis. Our goal is to allow you to see a lot more of what happens behind the scenes at CCM and gain a better understanding of how we work. We just ask you to remember that we are only human if we happen to slip or stumble.
