All I can say is a shedule is wonderful - if all the other players stick to it too (by other players I mean materials suppliers and my health). Generally all of the small bits are out of necessity these days made in batches - ie:
by hand, 20-40 units at a time, and then on to the next batch of the next item. It's the only feasible way of doing things, and they take TIME to make. Every little piece takes time. Every cut, every hole, every weld and every little bit of polish. I have taken the time to outline this and the fact that we are not an 'off the shelf' business on our 'policies' page - but of course no-one ever takes the time to read these things... <_< so perhaps have a different perception of what we are/how many of us there are.
Overall we are well aware that there is room for improvement & would love to be able to give more accurate timetables and much more communication, but at this stage there are just two of us and it's just not possible until we streamline things further - and to do that I need to get the queue out of the way. To do that I need to streamline things............ It's an evil little circle believe me.
There is a new website that I have been building from scratch during the wee small hours, due for 'beta' release in few weeks that should streamline things drastically - (hopefully including a work timetable) - which in turn should free Amanda up a bit for quicker/more accurate communication. She tries to give as accurate as possible a timeframe, but to put it simply, sometimes I get it wrong and have to re-work which throws everything out. I'm only human. I also do a bit of custom fabrication work, which is very hard to put a timeframe on when I don't know how long it's going to take. The custom work is now starting to get turned down, as it is getting too time consuming - which is a shame as it's why I started this business.
ANYWAY - in terms of current orders outstanding - I am completing a special brewery for dispatch to a very patient bloke over the next couple of days, and then all remaining orders for fabricated gear should be leaving in quick succession from the end of this week/over the next week. This should cover most orders as far as I am aware up until a couple of weeks ago, not including full breweries...(but definitely including all hopscreens). From that point hopefully things should be under control again.
Be warned though - I'm taking a month off next february to ride around Australia on the Trumpy, so if you want something before then you'd better get your order in now....
Wayne