Why The Remote Delay Ordeal??

supply and demand i reckon. It keeps it a little more unique and more wanted i suppose

It's simply not that easy to 'ramp up production' to supply the initial demand and later on ramp down again.
Production facilities, skilled workmanship, cash flow all have to be taken into account.

My guess is that they would do so if they could or if it would beneficial. Think about it. There are apparently thousands of guitarists lined up begging to spend $600 on a controller. The research and development to bring it to market is now a sunk cost. The costs to make them are the overhead costs of production and the per-unit costs. The profitability per unit of sale goes up the more units sold, of course. So why wouldn't they if they could? They'd make everyone happy and make a lot of money as well.

Ramping up production would mean perhaps a different contract, perhaps with a different manufacturer. The current manufacturer perhaps cannot keep up with the CURRENT demand for this product, given the availability of materials need or any bottleneck in the size and capacity of their factory. Perhaps Kemper is in a contract with the manufacturer as well. In any case, the large demand for this product has an ending. The CURRENT demand will go down to a fraction of the size once they are caught up, even if they sell a lot more Kemper amps in the future.

Suppose 50% of Kemper owners not only want a remote, but will follow through any buy. That means Kemper is trying to satisfy the 50% of all the Kemper owners who have purchased the amp since its release a few years ago. Once all of them have gotten the remote, the only new customers will be new kemper amp owners. At that point, they will only be selling remotes to people that have recently bought the Kemper, or those buying them together as a package. Even if the Kemper were to hypothetically triple the number of profilers sold in a year, they wouldn't need to make as many remotes as they currently do, because at the moment they are trying to sell remotes to all the customers who have bought their amp in the last three years!

If they hypothetically sold 10,000 amps a year, that's 30,000 amps in three years. 50% is 15,000 remotes needed to catch up. Suppose they catch up in 6 months. If in December when caught up lets say, at the hypothetical 10,000 amps sold a year rate, that's 833 amps sold in one month. (10,000/12). 50% of that is 416. That means the factory would only mean to make 416 remotes to keep up with demand at that point. However, they've been trying to meet demand since the release in February. For them to be caught up now, they would need to have already made 15,000 remotes which is 3750 remotes a month! Which is ten times the amount needed to be made in the future going forward. Remember too, that a number of people were waiting until the remote came out before buying the amp. All those folks are adding to the demand. Thus even if Kemper were to triple the number a customers buying the amp in the future (and 50% buy remotes too) that's only 1,000 remotes needed a month, which is still less than a third of the current production needs.

Quote from Ingolf

It's simply not that easy to 'ramp up production' to supply the initial demand and later on ramp down again.
Production facilities, skilled workmanship, cash flow all have to be taken into account.

I think you are right here Ingolf We must also remember that Kemper is not a big a company like say Roland, Ibanez etc so their capital that they probably have to spend on production of the Kemper/Remote is not as great as companies which are very big and established. I prefer to deal with small companies though they seem to have better customer service

Well, I´ve said enough on another thread about the meaning of ISO 9001:2008 and meeting customer expectations... I think medium term Kemper should consider just what Sventvkg is complaining about. I like their product, understand their dilemma, but they have to get bigger to hold sway over market opinion and the occasional frustration disappointment...

S-J

You don't have to wait a year, actually never had to. Lots of solutions have been available for a long time as you problably, being a full time professional, know. Liquid foot comes to my mind.
If a Kemper Remote is what you want let me tell you that I had to wait about two months after I'd ordered it. That of course is the downside of being full time pro...you just don't get the information on forums like this when there actually is the chance of becoming an early bird. Well, that seems to me to be an ordeal.

Quote from Sventvkg

I don't want to shell out $600 in advance to wait 6 months when I could use that cash for other things.

then do so because you don't have to pay in advance. do you really think we're that sad? btw, it is approx. 3 month right now.
gs

Quote from G String

then do so because you don't have to pay in advance. do you really think we're that sad? btw, it is approx. 3 month right now.
gs

At at this point I think your ordering site is sad, since I can never get an order through. I've had several e-mail conversations with Marc on this. This is what's sad!

You're a "Pro" but you've never ordered a guitar? I ordered an Ernie Ball back in my teens and that took 12 months. I hate the wait as much as you do, but I would rather the product I buy be built correctly and not quickly assembled.

There is a very fine line between quality and quantity, Ibanez comes to mind. Back in the 80's when they were still a small company they put out very high quality guitars. An old RG550 plays better than any artist series you can buy these days. Anyways, when you ramp up productions, quality usually suffers. I worked for a German company here in the states, and they take a lot of pride in quality control.

My quarrel is with Guitar Center who told me if I ordered a specific model that it would be in stock and shipped the following week, now I'm being told august. You'd think they could at least give me like a $10 off coupon or something lol.

Anyways, be patient. Sounds like you have a way of controlling it live, I won't even have my amp till late august and I'm already making payments.
From what I've seen/heard it's well worth the wait.

Quote from Slippery-Jim

Well, I´ve said enough on another thread about the meaning of ISO 9001:2008 and meeting customer expectations... I think medium term Kemper should consider just what Sventvkg is complaining about. I like their product, understand their dilemma, but they have to get bigger to hold sway over market opinion and the occasional frustration disappointment...

S-J

Well, this whole statement and the ISO mentioning is totally off regarding the OP's concerns. '
Also, 'getting bigger' doesn't solve any of the 'problems' regarding availability.

Having been involved in Product launch in the Medical Device industry for 30 years, I feel obligated to comment.
Whenever a new product is planned or nearing production (Post R&D), a forecast for product usage for a minimum of two years is given to production by marketing. This allows production ample time to invest in resources (people and processes) which bring the product to market in a timely fashion. As the remote was "Technically" on backorder form Day 1, my opinion is that this never occurred. With a current B/O of 90 days this far past launch, it's obvious two things may have occurred:

1) The process has not yet been ramped up to production level, whereas parts are still being made one at a time.
2) Kemper has not invested in expanding manufacturing capabilities to keep pace with demand.

My hope is that Kemper is having or has plans to have the boards manufactured by a production vendor with final assembly and testing done in house at Kemper. If not, get used to waiting.
Best
Ron

Quote from Ingolf

Well, this whole statement and the ISO mentioning is totally off regarding the OP's concerns. '
Also, 'getting bigger' doesn't solve any of the 'problems' regarding availability.

I disagree with your statement on ISO Ingolf. ISO9001:2008 is about customer relations. Good customer relations and an ability to predict trends are part and parcel of company stability medium to long term. Getting bigger isn´t about size - it´s about greatness, vision, leadership and an ability to steer a vessel though variable economic waters. Perhaps I should have made that more clear to a non native English speaking forum public. Please excuse me for that. BTW and FWIW ISO is just a useful focal point for getting that sort of thing right. In other words, QUALITY, which extends to much more than just product quality...

S-J

@Slippery-Jim: Thanks for making your point more clear, and that by 'bigger' you don't simply mean 'growing'.
Also I agree about constantly improving customer relations and re-evaluating work and communication processes within a corporation.
I have been running a very successful medical practice for 15 years and in the medical sector we had (by official regulations) to implement a quality management system for several years now, so I know what I'm talking about.
As for quality: Concerning the several certification systems though the sad truth about them is: They often have helped to establish standards WHICH ARE LOWER than the standards that were established before, and I have seen this in more fields than medical. When I see a certification sign nowadays it certainly doesn't build confidence on my side.

Quote from Ingolf

@Slippery-Jim: Thanks for making your point more clear, and that by 'bigger' you don't simply mean 'growing'.
Also I agree about constantly improving customer relations and re-evaluating work and communication processes within a corporation.
I have been running a very successful medical practice for 15 years and in the medical sector we had (by official regulations) to implement a quality management system for several years now, so I know what I'm talking about.
As for quality: Concerning the several certification systems though the sad truth about them is: They often have helped to establish standards WHICH ARE LOWER than the standards that were established before, and I have seen this in more fields than medical. When I see a certification sign nowadays it certainly doesn't build confidence on my side.

Ingolf. Agreed, where there is no heart for a QMS you get no quality service and/or product. Where however, the motives are not just for profit, a QMS really does what it says it does. QMS are really good when they act as a guide to really better things. My experience is that when the CEO/board are committed, the QMS eventually works and company and customers all benefit. This is independent of whatever the quality management standard applies. Now I feel we have gone of topic enough...

Quote from Sventvkg

This is a sincere question. Why couldn't you just ramp up enough manufacturing so we could all just get the remote without having to wait 1/2 a year or more? Its kind of absurd and frustrating.

I've had around 30 years of experience designing and performing manufacturing engineering on equipment somewhat like the Kemper pedal, and there are several reasons that deliveries could be delayed, many have already been mentioned. It is possible that the present pedals are being assembled in a facility with limited production capabilities while that or other facilities are being readied for higher volume production. And it could be that the preproduction run did not anticipate the volume of sales that actually happened, so another batch is being built, and that takes time. It is not unusual for a company to have 6-8 week lead times from the manufacturer, and delays in delivery can increase from there.

It is also possible that some of the parts used in the pedal are on backorder, this is somewhat out of Kemper's control. That delivery time may get tacked onto the 6-8 weeks, if it is a critical part then the build cannot happen until the parts arrive.

The fit and finish of the Kemper gear I have seen is as good as anything I have ever seen anywhere, all the way down to the detail of the labeling on the chassis. My toaster is basically perfect, the only weak issue is the print on the serial number label. It is not easy to find a shop that can make and finish metal parts to such a precise standard, especially in small quantities. So that could be another bottleneck.

I am sure in time the footswitch will have its manufacturing delays ironed out and the supply will stabilize. But until then we can expect some intermittent delays. Perhaps the Kemper profiler had these same issues, but it took a while for it to catch on in the market, so the delays may not have been as noticeable.

I can guarantee you that the folks most concerned about the delivery delays are the Kemper people themselves. Someone is probably get a good chewing out right now if they have so many customers wanting product and it isn't available to sell.