Though many of you may be winding down for the holidays, Shapeways production is in full force. We’re all working really hard to ensure that your holiday orders get to you on time. Within the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of orders at both of our production facilities in Eindhoven and LIC. Here’s a little glimpse into our day to day…
Eindhoven swimming in boxes, flooded with holiday orders.
We also hit a new team record for items shipped yesterday at our LIC facility. Naturally, a team chant ensued… go team go!
But we did take a little holiday break….
Congratulations on getting through the orders, my only concern is in the picture it looks like the boxes have been tossed carelessly into bags, it looks a mess. I know from experience you guys do pack the models well, I just wonder if a bit of order would help reduce breakages?
Vijay- Thank you! I can see your concern, as the photo looks as if boxes are in a bit of a disarray but as you know, we pack each box with bubble wrap and a lot of care. We’re taking extra quality measures as of late and this photo isn’t very telling of how organized the entire process is. Regardless, as we continue to grow and receive more orders we’ll be constantly reevaluating our practices and really encourage customer feedback. 🙂
Ever thought about how the mail services handle packages?
Having worked in a manufacturer and shipping warehouse myself, I know that this picture is disgraceful and unprofessional to show to the customer, regardless of how much packaging is involved. Where I worked this picture would be put on the “Wall of Shame” in the work area to promote better work practices.
Stuff can still be broken even if it’s densely wrapped in bubblewrap. And since breakages from handling are possible; since so many models are more intricate than glassware, I expected that the boxes would have been labelled with “Fragile” or “Handle with care”.
Aww come on, this must be just the packaging used to quickly load the parcels into the
UPS truck that carries them to the nearest distribution center, where they will be separated
anyway. Neatly stacking them (on a pallet for additional weight ??) would only take more
time and require a forklift for handling.
The way shapeways fills their parcels with bubble wrap, our models would probably survive
getting kicked by Eindhoven’s premier league soccer team right to our doorstep.
Yeah I understand it’s quicker and cheaper, as a designer and customer who reads on the forum about breakages during the handling process, the picture doesn’t fill me with confidence. I’m sure with a bit more time and care the boxes can at least leave Shapeways in a better state without costing much more. It’s about setting high standards at the beginning of the chain and showing a good example to everyone involved, especially your customers.
Vijay
I am quite certain that most breakages occur during cleaning, and at least for WSF the last chance for breakage is probably when the model is pushed into the plastic envelope. Also remember that on the forums you will typically read about the few cases where something went wrong, not the many uneventful shipments. I have ordered something like 30 models
in the past 6 months, most of them filigree sponge-like objects, and have not seen damage
attributable to packaging.