Tomorrow Is Already Yesterday

Friday Location:  Seven  |  Studio  |  Seven     ||     7:45 am – tbd

• Product Design:  Lowmount dropout 2.0 for Seven Cycles.  We’re dragging this project back into the 21st century.  Stef has been managing the SolidWorks portion of the work.  It’s a slow project because everything about the low mount is a series of compromises.
• Graphic Design:  Seven Cycles jersey design is back on the front burner.  Planning on wrapping it up next week.  We’re having some trouble with it’s design relative to the Team Kit.  We want it to allude to the Team but not be mistaken for the Team Kit.  People like the Team Kit too much – that’s the problem of the moment.  The Seven Kit keeps migrating back toward the Team Kit.  There are worse problems to have.
• Seven poster designs.

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Rocket Espresso Cup – 3D Printed – Shapeways

Thursday Location:  Seven     ||     7:40 am – 7:40 pm

• Process improvement:  Worked through a lot of bike orders today to dig into root causes for why we sometime miss estimated ship dates – once a we’ve confirmed a design and are ready to build.  I believe our on-time shipping record is very good from a benchmarking standpoint – although I don’t much care for benchmarking.  We’re working on getting our on-time delivery to 100%.  It’s not particularly difficult but, as always, we have a lot of moving parts when each new order is different from the previous.  Focus on the right few metrics, work to takt time, and communicate.
• Graphic Design:  We’ve finally completed the white jersey project for the Ride Studio Cafe Racers.  Astounding that today is the day when the order goes to Verge and they’re going to start dying and cutting fabric.  They’ve been super patience.  We’ve been moving so slow in this project that we discussed holding off until next season.  But, I think it’s going to be a long hot summer and I know the team will like them once they have them.

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Mount Washington Climbing Bike 2012

Wednesday Location:  Seven  |  Studio     ||     9:40 am – 5:40 pm

• Time Marker:  Fourth of July is a holiday?
• Project:  Production Process tracking and improvement at Seven Cycles.  I’ve been working on some tracking tools to help Matt O. and the framebuilders keep an easier eye on how we’re doing relative to the past.  It’s a big project because every frameset is different so every frame takes a different amount of time to complete.  And, we’re always increasing complexity of our offerings – the 622 and custom racks are two examples that might come to mind.  So, standard times are non-existent.  How does one measure improvement on endlessly shifting sands?  Stay tuned.
• Product Design:  CFG Bike:  I’ve been dragging out this project for way too long.  The company really wants to make this happen and we’ve agreed to the basic premise, design, and pricing.  The hard part is now working out every single detail of the two designs.  It’s the tedious work of specification and clarification of every angle, tube wall, bend, and aesthetic of the frames.

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Seven Cycles Summer Cycling Chapeau

Tuesday Location:  Seven  |  Studio  |  Seven     ||     7:35 am – 9:50 pm

• Graphic Design:  Summer Cap for Seven Cycles is finally up on the site.
• Product Design:  Mount Washington bike:  We’ve made a few final adjustments to the bike:  compact crank, positional adjustments, removed the rear brake.  Right now the bike is weighing in at 14 lbs 2 ounces.  Once the proper wheels are on the bike I think we’re looking at about 13 lbs 10 ounces for the climbing weight.  I think this is cool because were not suing anything unusual – no “lightweight” parts on the bike.  If we pushed on special parts we could easily get to sub-12 lbs.
• Graphic Design:  Mountain landing page.  Skunk just posted it.  Interesting that we’ve never had a mountain landing before.

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Monday Location:  Seven     ||     8:35 am – 11:05 pm

• Interview:  Met with two gentlemen – Aaron and Ash – from Resilient Communities who are writing an article about localized manufacturing and how companies can successfully make the shift from selling locally to selling internationally.  The focus for their piece seems to be about:
  •  How Germany’s Mittelstand – middle sized companies – is credited for maintaining Germany’s impressive ~5.3 unemployment rate.  Aaron feels that Seven is kind of like a Mittelstand company.  I’m flattered by this analogy.
  • The future of manufacturing in the US does not look very good at the moment.  I think I feel more strongly about that than they do.  And what can companies do about it.  We discussed some of the ways in which Seven is hoping to contribute to the future of manufacturing in the united states.  One of my premises is about helping our employees become entrepreneurial and do what Seven does for the future.
  • Aaron talked about Maker Spaces as being a solution for future entrepreneurship.  I see some of that but not as much future hope as some.  What I see is that the DIY world is in many ways the opposite of entrepreneurship.  Not always opposite but more often that people seem to intuit.  Entrepreneurship is about starting something and building it into a profitable business that continuously grows – yes I’m oversimplifying.  DIY is about being more independent and more self reliant.  While in some ways these seem very similar I think they are more opposite than similar.  Yes, maker spaces can be business incubators but that’s not their fundamental purpose, and those spaces don’t, in general, draw entrepreneurs as much as they draw individualists.  I think maker spacers are super important as learning spaces but that’s different than a business incubator.  More on this later.
  • Too much manufacturing in the US is a race to the bottom.  So many manufacturing businesses I know are focusing more on competing with China rather than making a better product that may have a slightly higher price tag.  You only have two options for your business strategy.

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Sunday Location:  Seven  |  Studio     ||     5:45 am – 7:30 pm

Cupcakes for the Crazy 88 ride | by Keyks Bakery

• Ride:  Crazy 88:  Ride Studio Cafe managed the ride today.  More than 100 cyclists joined the event.  Most did the century and a good number did the 88-miler, too.  It was a toasty warm day.  Sounds like most people had a great time.
• Product Design:  Matt Roy’s Super Rando:  He and I talked about generator light wiring, fork design, tail light, and gps battery integration.  We’re meeting next week to finalize the design and begin the build.  SRAM is helping, too.
• Time Marker:  “177”  Busiest day to date at Ride Studio Cafe.

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Saturday Location:  Seven  |  Studio     ||     6:10 am – 10:10 pm

• Bike Project:  Mount Washington Seven Cycles project bike.  John Bayley and I are working on a climbing bike for him – specifically for two upcoming races.  We talked about which bike might be most appropriate for the Washington climb.  We decided on the Axiom SLX because it is Seven’s true climbing bike.  We also looked at the 622 but felt, for a few reasons, the Axiom SLX would be better.  We’re spec’ing a SRAM Red 2012 kit because it’s the lightest kit on the market.  John will be riding Zipp 202 tubular wheels – for obvious reasons.  This is going to be a great “Speed” project.
• Time Marker:  Party at RSC:  Susi Ecker photo opening.  Patria L. managed the Studio’s participation in it.  Great time; I was pretty tired from getting the ride together for Sunday morning .
• Very short on typing time right now.

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