Quoted from KSP1138:They built a few Mando premiums at the end of the December too, so here's hoping that small run plus this moved up run meets or exceeds what they planned on building in February and at least gets them through the launch orders.
I'd like to think that once they made the decision to start building Mando after the Rush parts delay that they would just finish out that run rather than stopping it if those parts show up this week.
Agree... changeovers to different SKU's takes some amount of time, so they'd be weighing the pros/cons between "Just finish up these Mando Premiums" and "Add another changeover to get RUSH out closer to release."
With a backlog like Stern has, limiting unnecessary changeovers sounds like the smarter business decision. I don't think they're going to miss out on RUSH orders if they don't get it out quite as quick as previous releases. They want to make more machines so they can send out more invoices, and changeover hours generate no invoices.
EDIT: I say this as objectively as possible, given that I'm a hopeful recipient of one of these Mando Premiums.