A HECTIC WEEK IN THE OFFICE!

The 3D Group head office feels like it’s gone into over-drive in the last few weeks. We have so much happening at once in various departments that the office is a bustling hive of development.

To give you a taste of some of the exciting, if not a little stressful developments happening here at 3D Group HQ, myself along with the other directors are going to try and submit weekly blog posts for you to read. Our aim for this blog is to give our customers a little insight into the inner workings of the company and to keep you up to date with industry news and developments.

Due to a number of reasons which we felt were impacting on our International customers’ experience when purchasing from us, we have chosen to ‘consciously uncouple’ 3D Group from our original courier TNT. We have chosen FedEx as our new international courier service as they seemed to offer services and more importantly prices that we felt would suit our customers’ needs better. I took the opportunity over the quiet bank holiday weekend to integrate the new FedEx system with our trade website. This has now been completed and International customers should be able to view live quotations for their orders in checkout.

We have been in the process of redeveloping our own version of the aftermarket Vauxhall/Opel remote cases (VXRC4 & VXRC5). We were unable to control the build quality on the previous versions and to rectify this we have decided to manufacture our own. We are at the point in the production process where we have received samples and we have instructed a slight amendment to the mould in order to create a stronger seal when the two halves of the case are clicked together. These will then be ready to go into mass production and will be available to purchase soon.

Several weeks ago we used our Facebook andTwitter accounts to get our customer’s opinions on the black Ford blade horseshoes. We have always been a little miffed as to why Ford have never produced a blue version to match the remote, so we got onto our product team and 4 weeks ago we approved a blue horseshoe blade sample to go into mass production.

We were as excited as kids at Christmas when the first batch of 3000 arrived at our head office this week only to be bitterly disappointed when they failed our quality control tests and after a little investigation it seems that they are different to the confirmed samples! Back to the factory they go and in order to fast track delivery of the first batch we have asked our manufacturer of the black versionFOB3C to change the colour and quickly produce 1000 blue ones which should be delivered in 10 days’ time. I can hear you questioning why I didn’t just use this manufacturer in the first place, the simple reason is we have so many products already in development with this factory that they can’t possibly accept any more orders from us. In order to speed up the manufacturing process we were hoping to split it across two factories. Luckily they are able to help us out with a smaller quantity for now.

Another new product to add to our ever expanding catalogue is the Super OBD SKP-900 key programmer. Having tested this machine ourselves we believe that this is an ideal machine for new start-ups or perhaps as a secondary machine for an established auto locksmith. Having received our delivery of the SKP-900 we felt that the supporting documentation and information was not clear enough due some minor translation issues so our marketing and GeeKey advice team has got together and re-written the supporting information and application lists which will be free to download from our websiteonce the machine is available for general sale. For more information about the SKP-900 take a look at our website here.

We moved into our current warehouse and offices a little over 2 years ago and with all of these new products that we are developing we are quickly outgrowing the space we have! Our chief director David Sanderson has an eagle eye for a good bit of real estate and has the ability to see past a dilapidated shell so last month he completed the purchase of the neighbouring property with a view to knock through and extend our current warehouse and office space. Plans for redeveloping this run down property are already underway so watch this space (or the space next door to be precise!)

I suppose business expansion and increasing workforce go hand in hand and new employees are becoming a regular thing at 3D Group. This week, along with our warehouse supervisor Richard, I’ve had couple of mornings full of interviews in order to increase our warehouse staff numbers. We’ve had 70 applicants and the candidates have been varied but there have been some promising hopefuls, the next step is to get a select few in for a trial day and see how they cope. I’ll update you when we have found ‘the one’!

I could also tell you about confirmed meetings with the lovely people at Renaults’ head office in France, the development of the new 3D Group trade website and our preparations for the upcoming ALEX exhibition in addition to the new products, new premises, and new staff that have occurred this week but I’m conscious that this is turning into War and Peace so I’ll have to save these little nuggets of information for the next instalment. Right now I think I need to go and have a calming cup of tea before my next meeting!