MMR Update from Chicago Gaming Company: 1-12-2015
« on: Today at 05:48:35 PM »
Last week, during Stern’s inbound inspection process, finishing issues were identified with four MMR components. We have returned these items to the related vendors and just received confirmation that rework is being expedited and modified components will be received later this week.
I would like to offer my appreciation to the Stern team for bringing this to our attention. Absent any additional issues, production should commence by Monday (1/19/2014). I hope to soon be able to report an exact date the first units will come off the line.
Report to moderator Logged
Doug Duba
Chicago Gaming Company

Wonderful! That's some great news.

Guys...they are doing this right - we're going to have a gem when these things start shipping! So excited!

Or maybe monday will be the next update for a new delay. I've been in since day one but now am past the point of excitement and just ready to get my game. Thats already well past the due date.

It looks like Stern has higher quality control standards than those that are bringing them parts. Good to have a true veteran outfit assembling these things.

Does anyone know if MMr will have Stern's new Spike platform?

No.

MMre will have it's own. A little searching will net you pictures and information.

LTG : )™

Grateful for the update. It's good to know what is happening.

We will ultimately get a great game, but I'm sorry these repeated delays are amateur. They've had over 6 months from the transformer delay to iron out the bugs. By this point, they should be paranoid about what could go wrong and be verifying the quality of parts on in-coming inspection and on assembly testing. CG is obviously in over their head and Stern is helping to pull it together.

Ul testing should have been done long before the announcement.

Hang in there.. Getting close, Chicago Gaming talking for the first time..all good stuff.

Thank God cg is not assembling these games, can you imagine?

Just curious, this is a first time for all the companies right? Not that stern hasn't made pins (obviously) but this is a new venture and not the norm. My point is that this was likely bound to have a few issues. You guys that have invested have a legitimate right to gripe. You are basically like the first explorers. if they continue to rerelease older titles and possibly other ventures, you guys helped make it happen. I'm hoping one day you'll be able to look back and remember fondly those early days when it was a bit of a pain in the ass and when there was only two pinball companies and a handful of boutiques.

Hope you get your machines soon (also hope we hear of more machines after the first ones arrive at customers doors)

Umm, CG is in charge of final inspection and quality control. It's beginning to seem like it would have been better to let Stern do it.

Interesting....now the masses are pleased Stern is involved? Their quality control always in question but now it's "Thank God CGC isn't doing assembly"?

Pinsiders you are a finicky bunch!

Well somebody has to make sure all these reproduction parts coming from different vendors all fit together and work. Have you ever tried to hammer a square peg into a round hole?

Stern's involvement has generally been viewed as a positive the whole time.

Which is great actually, because usually Stern's build quality is sub-par.

Stern is probably happy that they can assemble these and won't have to deal with any warrantee problems or any other issues that arise.

Never had a problem with any Stern in my collection. Can't say they same about any if the others. I know the Sterns are newer and HUO but just saying I have never had a problem.

i had several problems with a Stern NIB pin.
but...
they immediately sent someone out and repaired the problems.

these last two pages have been fun.. did you not see my post 2 days ago on this very irony?

Just knowing that Stern is involved with this project makes me rest assured we are going to get an excellent quality pin.

I'm still wondering how anyone blames CGC on this, they had the items and shipped them over where stern tests them before installation, sounds about normal. Glad they caught the problems but why would CGC get the blame? Stuff happens at every company, that's why you check it before installing. I agree that stern looks good here but about as good as they should be. Applauding them for checking product before installing is like me applauding my mechanic when he shows me a dirty oil filter. That's sort of his job. Now if the games show up without issues in customers hands then I'd be praising stern more.

Bad comparison. If you bring a mechanic your own parts to install, he will tell you he is not responsible if they fail later on. Applaud that!

But you get the idea. You always check parts before starting up a project. which is good they did, but it feels more like this type of response is overblown for what Stern did. (Then again I'm sure things getting overblown is common as this is the internet)

I got an email from my distributor saying if my color was being made first I am in the first batch to be shipped. We are getting closer!! BTW I am Stainless so I think I am waiting.

Gold is supposedly first. I forget whether black or stainless is next.

I always did. And the only time I ever called a customer that brought me his own parts is if they didn't fit.
Nobody applauded me for that.

Yeah I've worked with a lot of companies in manufacturing and production and this is fairly typical. plus it was stated that the four parts were sent back to vendors for modification. I don't really see how this is a CGC versus Stern issue. To me it's a "building pinballs ain't easy" issue. Which is to say, typical issues found in manufacruing and production. Thank god this isn't something being directly influenced by production or manufacturing in China. With Chinese New Years around the corner theres a whole other series of problems that happen (over there)

Yeah, hate to think those parts that were sent back came from there.

Not so much coming from there, in China its customary for workers to travel home for several weeks to visit family. Once there, they can then make a decision if they'll return to their job or get a new job (which is common) turnover after Chinese new year often leads to delays in production as well as poor quality as new employees are trained.

CNY.jpg

The first 250 are gold. Got word today

Hopefully my Black Trim will be in the next batch.

Except you forgot cgc was your original mechanic... And he was working on your car for 8 months... And has those parts in his hands for a long time... And only after you pointed out the problem did they realize "oh yeah, that's the wrong part". Oh and during that time they lost your car two or three times.

The game was supposedly production ready for months according to cgc and they were only waiting for the ul issue to be resolved. So did they do the inspection of parts needed as they received them? Apparently not... Since they sent what they thought were good parts to stern only to find the qualified people rejected them. And there is the situation where they tried to send all the parts to stern only to find multiple times parts were missing from what was supposed to be sent.

And all the while cgc obviously had no ability to project plan this properly so they were giving unqualified estimates all long of what would be needed to get through the milestones.

It's amateur hour , meets Groundhog Day

No one is blaming stern for checking the parts (it's the right way). They are blaming cgc for failing to do so for all the time they sat on the parts all while cgc was supposed to build it themselves (and be qualified to do so). Point being... Those were errors that could have and should have been fixed long ago ... Before they were shipped to your contractor who rejected them

"finishing issues were identified with four MMR components. We have returned these items to the related vendors and just received confirmation that rework is being expedited and modified components will be received later this week."

Hmmmm, as far as I can tell the only descriptor being used in the announcement was "finishing issues" which could be anything really. If these items sat for any period of time those issues could have arisen in situ. The term modified components could suggest they reworked the items to ensure this doesn't happen again. At any rate, I wouldn't be too quick to grab torches and storm the castle just yet. Let's just be glad it's been identified and hope they carry this lesson onto the next set of machines

My guess is that Stern took the parts that were given and found that they could not assemble it. I don't think they would have been very concerned if the parts had all fit together. After all they are only being paid to assemble these machines.

Nice selective reading.. and all the updates prior to that update? What about those? Enough problems to get to the point where even Rick lost his cool over the handling of it?

You don't even need to be following since 2013 to get the vibe.. just look at the updates since Nov till now and see if that really sounds like someone organized and competent to run this production. Luckily they realized that themselves and opt'd to contract out the actual assembly before they dug themselves even further.

I seriously doubt anyone sat on parts for months while the UL approval was ongoing. They probably selected the parts and vendors, but didn't actually place the order until last minute. No company wants to tie money down for period of time

Yea they are way smarter than us preorder guys

Wouldn't the MMr parts be coming from PPS? And why are they not up to Williams standard ?

Another possibility is that the playfields were drilled wrong. I have watched a video where Chris Hutchins had to modify a replacement MM playfield to make it work in an existing game.
So instead of replacing all the playfields maybe they decided to modify the parts that wouldn't fit.

That must be it

Actually I did read through all the posts I could (both here and on their site) at no time did I see any real issues aside from what is normal for this type of manufacturing process. If anything the updates from June last year and August show typical procedures and that lasts were in as of August. But it was nice to spend a bit of time and read through it again. It makes me appreciate the amount of work going into this project. And for the record I doubt CGC ever intended to manufacture the whole game themselves, just read their Q & A in regards to it.

I know people are getting antsy for the game but this is literally a brand new process happening right now. They'll be out soon and once that happens people will be able to appreciate it more. Seriosuly if you haven't been apart of a manufacturing process you have no clue. If anything I found the updates very informative...

Let's just make sure that noone thinks Odin posts are irrelevant. Because that wouldn't be very positive.

That was an ipb playfield, not Mirco's. Mirco's is near spot on. At least it was in my experience when I swapped one into an original MM.

So this will be a Mirco, not an IPB, CGC, PPS, or Williams. Thanks for clearing that up. Didn't Mirco use two different shades of purple?

CGC is using Mirco's art work.

LTG : )™