Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
If they can explain I would enter my number. If this would maybe speed up my order.
Just to clarify, adding information here will **NOT** speed up anyone's order. This is just an effort in the forum of tracking what is going on.
If Prusa is using it for some reason, more power to them. We should make sure we keep it accurate.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I don't understand why Prusa Support needs to use the tracking spreadsheet to handle order numbers? Don't they have their own systems?
The tracking spreadsheet is supposed to be an objective observer of a process. Orders change status and a statistical sample of that is reflected in the spreadsheet. But if the spreadsheet becomes a part of the process it is no longer objective, and we can no longer really assume that the statistics we can read from it are valid.
An example of what I mean:
Let's say Prusa Support starts telling people that have questions about their orders to enter their data into the spreadsheet. I don't know if they do this, I have no indication that they do, but let's say hypothetically that they start doing this.
Now we have a disproportionate amount of entries in the spreadsheet from people that have contacted prusa support. They probably contacted prusa support because of a reason, and if that reason is "my package is taking too long compared to the schedule posted", the statistics we can read from the spreadsheet suddenly start showing results skewing the data. Suddenly we all think that Prusa is behind schedule, even if they actually are on schedule. All because people with late orders were told to enter their data in the spreadsheet.
Again, I don't think support are doing this. It is just a strawman example to illustrate my point.
Also, I know we already have a lot of this kind of uncertainty in the spreadsheet, skewing the data in all kinds of ways. Maybe people don't go back and edit their entries after they get their shipment? Maybe we have a disproportionate amount of LW orders compared to the other weeks? What I'm arguing here is against introducing yet another skew. We have enough already.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
Any launch day, specifically "very" early orders still waiting?
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I am getting excited. Sept25 orders are due to start shipping on Dec13. Hopefully I get my ship notice this week.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I am getting excited. Sept25 orders are due to start shipping on Dec13. Hopefully I get my ship notice this week.
Thats assuming they are on schedule
"MK3 SHIPPING INFORMATION
The dates are only an estimation and rely on the actual production. We're doing our best but please be aware that it can shift up to one extra week for the lead time. Or we can positively surprise you and ship it a bit sooner :)"
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I am getting excited. Sept25 orders are due to start shipping on Dec13. Hopefully I get my ship notice this week.
Thats assuming they are on schedule
"MK3 SHIPPING INFORMATION
The dates are only an estimation and rely on the actual production. We're doing our best but please be aware that it can shift up to one extra week for the lead time. Or we can positively surprise you and ship it a bit sooner :)"
I work have worked as assembler, final test, field service, production, new product development etc.etc for over 20 years. I know nothing is guaranteed when production first starts because of all kinds of mishaps. I actually prefer not to buy products at the start of production because there is a risk of finding quality issues.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I don't understand why Prusa Support needs to use the tracking spreadsheet to handle order numbers? Don't they have their own systems?
I agree with the sentiment of this post. I think it sends a bad message if Prusa Support really needs our crowd sourced, inevitably inaccurate, spreadsheet to assist in their own order fulfillment.
I would like to believe this is the efforts of a lone staff member, though, who found our spreadsheet and is just trying to be a nice guy helping us out, keeping the chart as accurate as he can. I would like to believe Prusa Support is not using our spreadsheet to aid in their order fulfillment..
Since most rows already have a forums username attached, I don't really think the last 4 of the Order Number will be a huge help, but..
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I don't understand why Prusa Support needs to use the tracking spreadsheet to handle order numbers? Don't they have their own systems?
I agree with the sentiment of this post. I think it sends a bad message if Prusa Support really needs our crowd sourced, inevitably inaccurate, spreadsheet to assist in their own order fulfillment.
I would like to believe this is the efforts of a lone staff member, though, who found our spreadsheet and is just trying to be a nice guy helping us out, keeping the chart as accurate as he can. I would like to believe Prusa Support is not using our spreadsheet to aid in their order fulfillment..
Since most rows already have a forums username attached, I don't really think the last 4 of the Order Number will be a huge help, but..
I would guarantee you that they have their own systems for tracking orders that is way more capable.
But if they do read it, it gives them an idea of what happens after it leaves their warehouse. Its not an authoritative source, but may just give them some "fuzzy" information on how long shipping is taking, who thinks their package should have shipped already, who is actively participating, etc.
They don't "need" any of it, but if its already out there why not read it?
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I would guarantee you that they have their own systems for tracking orders that is way more capable.
But if they do read it, it gives them an idea of what happens after it leaves their warehouse. Its not an authoritative source, but may just give them some "fuzzy" information on how long shipping is taking, who thinks their package should have shipped already, who is actively participating, etc.
They don't "need" any of it, but if its already out there why not read it?
Sure, but they're taking a step further than we did and are now asking for order numbers. It's going beyond simply reading our chart and is becoming participating. As Zaz already stated, we reach a point where they are influencing our charts and we can no longer trust our information is "the average" experience.
They are using UPS to ship. UPS provides worldwide tracking. Why aren't they just looking up their own tracking numbers, instead of relying on a user sourced chart?
Why do they need our order numbers? If they see someone had a 9/24 order, but it hasn't been shipped, shouldn't they just look up that order in their own system to see if it's even a real order? It shouldn't be that hard for them to lookup unfulfilled orders from a certain date range. We have no idea the level of vandalism the chart has already reached, why would Prusa use this for anything? They should have their own internal fulfillment system which has full metrics and is capable of detecting skipped orders.
Even if you argue that by adding our order numbers Prusa can "verify" the order - there is no way they're going through the chart every day and looking up every row to verify it hasn't been vandalized. The spreadsheet is of minimal use to Prusa since they have all the ACTUAL metrics and information, and we're just guessing the metrics with crowd sourced information.
The fact that Prusa Support is now participating in the spreadsheet, asking for order numbers which have no use to anyone except for support, implies Prusa Support is getting some kind of benefit from utilizing the charts, but they shouldn't because everything we "know" they already have access to. If they are getting some kind of benefit from the spreadsheet, it may imply their system is lacking some capability that a handful of random people threw together into a Google Sheet...
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
Why do they need our order numbers? If they see someone had a 9/24 order, but it hasn't been shipped, shouldn't they just look up that order in their own system to see if it's even a real order?
Does there really have to be some serious reason? Maybe it makes people feel better to see progress and participate through a community tracking , see others getting printers while elevating their own excitement in anticipation of receiving theirs. If so, maybe Prusa guys are just participating in the community effort helping that along. 😀
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I am getting excited. Sept25 orders are due to start shipping on Dec13. Hopefully I get my ship notice this week.
Thats assuming they are on schedule
"MK3 SHIPPING INFORMATION
The dates are only an estimation and rely on the actual production. We're doing our best but please be aware that it can shift up to one extra week for the lead time. Or we can positively surprise you and ship it a bit sooner :)"
I work have worked as assembler, final test, field service, production, new product development etc.etc for over 20 years. I know nothing is guaranteed when production first starts because of all kinds of mishaps. I actually prefer not to buy products at the start of production because there is a risk of finding quality issues.
Though with that said, I do share your first sentiment as I'm in the same week as you 🙂
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
I was wondering why in the world the Prusa folks might be using a set of 12 side dice to roll and use the result to decide who to ship MK3's to?
It doesn't make any sense to me!
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
The fact that Prusa Support is now participating in the spreadsheet, asking for order numbers which have no use to anyone except for support, implies Prusa Support is getting some kind of benefit from utilizing the charts, but they shouldn't because everything we "know" they already have access to. If they are getting some kind of benefit from the spreadsheet, it may imply their system is lacking some capability that a handful of random people threw together into a Google Sheet...
But..... Maybe their interest is for the purpose of watching and ensuring that the chart is not vandalized as someone else suggested. It would seem to me that as much as the chart is growing and as much interest as it has garnered, Prusa has an interest in watching and maybe correcting so that their reputation is not harmed by a childish vandal???
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
But..... Maybe their interest is for the purpose of watching and ensuring that the chart is not vandalized as someone else suggested. It would seem to me that as much as the chart is growing and as much interest as it has garnered, Prusa has an interest in watching and maybe correcting so that their reputation is not harmed by a childish vandal???
That's fair, and I'm not particularly alarmed that they're participating, mostly just playing devil's advocate.
Mostly, I just think it would have been nice if they had said something here first. Everyone else participated in a conversation either here or on Google Docs before making large changes such as adding new columns. I'm not upset though :P. Although to be clear, any time new rows or columns are added they are messing with things such as conditional formatting. It's not too big of a deal to fix, but it is certainly nice to get a heads up so we can fix it ASAP.
If they are particularly worried about their reputation, they should publish the actual numbers, then there would be no question. I feel we have been more than clear that the charts are for fun only, and should be considered highly unreliable. We have no idea how many orders we are missing, or what their statuses are, so we are simply guessing. If they wanted to, they could publish exact numbers for total orders and orders fulfilled per week, then there would be no question to their capability. I'm not suggesting that they should, but I'm also saying they shouldn't be too concerned with our little chart, and nobody should be taking it too seriously. I understand that not everyone is going to understand how unreliable the chart may be, but again, if PR is that afraid of our little chart they should just publish some solid numbers and stop any doubters dead in their tracks.
Don't get me wrong though, I appreciate them helping out where they can <3. I myself have had to roll back what I can only assume is accidental vandalism (cells which had been filled for days, suddenly being replaced with gibberish like "000000000" or "asdhaduh", etc). Any help we can get is highly appreciated, but please do take care not to accidentally cause vandalism yourselves :).
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
Almost 7am in the Czech Republic so they should be having their morning Budweiser Lager (Czech has their own Budweiser, totally not American Budweiser) and Kolach for breakfast and start packing MK3's for people who ordered on Sept 25 (Me me me) and sending out their ship notifications (Me me me again).
Good fun waiting and checking the boards with everyone else.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
Almost 7am in the Czech Republic so they should be having their morning Budweiser Lager (Czech has their own Budweiser, totally not American Budweiser) and Kolach for breakfast and start packing MK3's for people who ordered on Sept 25 (Me me me) and sending out their ship notifications (Me me me again).
Good fun waiting and checking the boards with everyone else.
I am joining you in the same boat, with the same amount of anticipation and excitement (ordered early hours of 9/25).
I was in Prague two years ago and became quite fond of Bitburger beer. It's german, but available all over europe. The Svíčková na smetaně was quite nice too! Funny thing is that I stayed in a hotel a block away from the old Prusa warehouse. But at the time, I was not even aware of Prusa Research.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
But if they do read it, it gives them an idea of what happens after it leaves their warehouse. Its not an authoritative source, but may just give them some "fuzzy" information on how long shipping is taking, who thinks their package should have shipped already, who is actively participating, etc.
Orders listed in the ship date spreadsheet get an extra bag of Haribos in the kit for being active fingernail-biting-while-waiting members 😆
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
Thanks for adding the Total Order Volume sheet, but can we talk about it for a second? In Column C you're counting how many orders we have for each day. I assume then Column B is tracking how many orders were placed each day. Why then, do so many days sequentially have the same number of orders? For example, the last 10 days all say 208. Were there really 208 orders placed on every one of those days in a row, or are these being grouped in some way? If, for example, 10-14 to 10-21 was 256 orders total instead of 256 orders each day, then the capture rate is 27/256 for that whole period instead of 2~5 out of 256 each day (27/2048 for the period). That's about a 10% capture rate instead of <2%.
Either way, it's good to know our capture % is truly very low.
Edit: Seems this was actually from an unofficial source :(.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
The total order volume is my doing, and it is certainly not anything reliable or official.
I was just curious about the order numbers, assumed they were sequential, cleaned the data a bit, and ran with it.
The script is here, if anyone is curious https://gist.github.com/Zazcallabah/c3acab69da099b00e6e25a74c8b431b2
Basically, it goes row-by-row and finds the highest order number for each day. It then assigns a "starting" order number and extrapolates how many orders have passed up until each day, using the previous days data to figure out an order/day metric. If a series of days are missing order numbers (many do), it just divides the number of orders on the next day that actually has a number between that day and all the skipped orderless days. That is why a lot of days has exactly the same number of orders, it is just one single metric divided among several days.
Re: Ship Date Tracking Spreadsheet
The total order volume is my doing, and it is certainly not anything reliable or official.
Ah, thanks for clarifying this! Very interesting method, thanks for sharing :).