This week at Wandertec:
-I completed setting up the Wandertec CELLO bike case’s new streamlined accounting.
-Brian and I started putting insulation into our new location’s workshop.
-I had a shipment of 10 Burley Cargo Trailers delivered to the wrong address.
-I came up with a promising design for a product I’ve been working on: a fabric liner/bag for the BOB trailer.
With the new accounting setup, we are ready to order more materials and restart the manufacturing process for the year ahead. Inventory levels are decent, and our new accounting will really improve our accuracy in forecasting and preparing to have just the right amount of products on hand to fulfill orders.
Our new location’s workshop came without heat or insulation. When we complete the workshop’s expansion, a furnace will be installed. For the time being, we are staying warm with a propane construction heater. All the heat is going straight through the buildings metal roof. So now we are in the process of sweeping out the rafters and stapling up some insulation.
This weeks biggest adventure was having a pallet of our pre-season order of Burley Cargo Trailers arrive across town at the wrong address. Both Burley and FedEx didn’t want to accept the blame for the mishap so I begrudgingly drove across town and packed all of the trailers inside of my Honda Element. In the process I managed to dislodge my rear view mirror, which I ended up having to take to the dealer to have reinstalled. It was definitely one of those days.
I had a burst of inspiration in my work on a design of a liner for the BOB Trailer. This product is a fabric cover shaped to fit in the bottom of the BOB trailer. It is very useful for using the BOB for commuter and local use as you can simply toss items in the trailer. We are designing the product (Wandertec Sax) to work together nicely with the Wandertec Cargo Net. The Wandertec Cargo Net works great to keep your items from bouncing out of the Sax. The new inspiration was to make the liner out of our heavy duty ballistic nylon used on the Wandertec CELLO. I realized how to keep the design very simple yet very effective. A big part of this will be to use a bungee cord with a ball end to hold the liner along the rails of the BOB trailer. This devise will allow for a very smooth profile of the liner that will have a secure yet easy way to mount it in place.