Feb Update - inventory challenges

February Update

Normally at this time of the year in Montana we’d be dealing with frigid temperatures and lots of snow, but that’s not been the case this year as we’ve had warm temperatures and not much snow; while I appreciate not having to shovel all the snow, a lot of our local economy depends on skiing and so far it’s been a pretty poor year. The good news is we have fresh snow now and the skiing is getting better!

For Byte Arts it’s been a good year so far and I’m really grateful for the great reception the Strum Fix 4 has had! The orders have exceeded my expectations, which leads to the next topic below…

Strum Fix 4 Inventory Issues

With any new product (like the Strum Fix Plus 4) there’s always uncertainty about what the demand will be, and as a small business I have to try to match expected demand with inventory and ordering parts and keep a eye on cash flow. This has been especially challenging lately because almost every parts order I’ve placed recently has run into some sort of delay because of weather or holidays. Part orders that used to take 2-3 days are often now taking a week or more.

The good news I’m able to scale up the 3D printing of parts pretty easily (just run the printers more each day), and am building up an inventory of the other parts so that we can hopefully keep a good supply on the shelf.

Even if we do run out of stock, we always have more in progress so any backorders should not have to wait very long.

Fret Fix Inventory

While not a new product, the demand for the Fret Fix has been very unpredictable! Luckily we got a fresh order of PCBs recently, and have more parts to finish them coming in each week, so if they go out of stock it the wait for more should only be a few days.