Mini Ecig

17/12/2020

We have some news. I guess you already noticed that 2020 was a tough year for many people and for many companies. It was also a crazy year for MiniEcig. Let's make it quick and clear. The PayPal account is locked since we cannot ship the orders. So currently we cannot make refunds any longer till the situation gets better. The factory is working, it's alive, and has many orders, but the amount of loans and other mandatory payments, like wages, is more than the factory can pay.
We try to get into a program for support for businesses impacted by covid and now run the negotiations about this.
Let me explain what is going on since basically all we can do is to stay open and clear.
The factory was closed several times due to covid restrictions and for quite some time we had t work in late-night shifts since no more than 30% of workers could attend the factory at once.
Obviously, the factory makes no money when it's closed, but the problem is that the loans for CNC machines work day and night and they are not restricted by covid. Too bad for the factory.
Another interesting fact about the Israeli industry is a common practice related to payments. Normally, the factory gets paid only when the product reaches the end customer which actually pays for it. For example, if the factory produces screws and nuts which are later used in a car suspension then the factory will get paid only when the car is actually built, shipped to another side of the country, found the actual family who wants this exact car and was finally bought by that family. Then the payment reaches all the companies which participated in the production. Normally, the factory gets the payment in 6 months after the order was completed but for large orders. It's quite usual to get paid in a year. As you can see, the factory can be fully loaded and have no money at the same time which works more or less well since all the factories in the chain do not pay each other till they all get the payment from the end customer. Now let's add monthly mandatory payments on top and we'll see that starting a new factory should be a nightmare since the factory should work for free, getting no payments, for half of a year. Another big problem comes when the factory is forced to stop, like what happened this year, and then the loans are still in place, but the chain of payments gets stuck. Even if the factory had an agreement for payments in 6 months with its customers, they are also hit by covid and according to the common practice, they just delay the payment. That's how the whole industry is impacted.
There is a special national program for business support in Israel which is dedicated specially for companies hit by covid. We now try to get into this program. The chances are quite good. We don't even need real support. All we need is the loans to be prolonged and that will just reduce the mandatory monthly payments. We'll see what will happen.
Thanks to all of you for waiting and let us apologize for this situation. We still hope that the next year will be easier.
Have a nice day and take care. All in all, health and life are way more important than factories.

23/10/2020

Hi all! The production takes way much longer than any of us could expect. We would like to apologize for this. These are the tough times and we will remember 2020 as a Covid year. For some types of businesses it’s easier: switch to remote work and that’s all. For the factory, it’s impossible. Plus regulators put restrictions on the number of workers which can be present at the factory at once. For a couple of months the factory was totally closed because of the regulations. Then Israel regulators allowed only 1/3rd of workers to be present at the factory for the whole summer. This also means that the CNC machines can be utilized also only for 1/3rd.
This situation allows to postpone the ex*****on of contracts but does not cancel them, so the factory is busy trying to catch up on the delayed contracts. And again it’s much harder in comparison, for example, with IT companies. The restrictions are lighter but still remain. It’s impossible to work just harder or faster. If a CNC machine needs 10 minutes for an operation, there is no way to speed it up. With or without restrictions, this will be still 10 minutes.
One of the CNC machines is busier than others, because it can do more complicated operations. And we are totally stuck waiting for it.
Before the CNC machine can start working on a new part, it requires adjustments and checks. So changing the program is not a simple and short operation. If anything goes wrong, then the metal part will be simply damaged while it already passed several operations. So to make the part we need, the CNC machine should be allocated for several days (and then couple of days to switch it to the original or another part it was doing).
The factory is making the XvoSticks in background. The main part of its orders are very large, tens of thousands of identical pieces. In other words, switching to an XvoStick’s part and back will take at least one week while the CNC machine is fully allocated for the large order with identical parts. I’m sorry but we cannot switch it to XvoSticks shortly.
There are no much news: we are still waiting for the CNC machine. The Covid impacted the factory badly and now we also have the second wave which can make the situation only more complicated.
Currently the CNC machine is fully occupied till the middle of December. If there will be any possibility of switching it to XvoSticks we will do it immediately. If there will be any news, we will post them.
Thanks for all support words which we received in private messages; thanks for the long waiting.

Take care and stay healthy,
MiniEcig team

01/06/2020

Good news! Our electronics expert is back to work. Though he belongs to Covid19 risk group, we negotiated the convenient and safe working conditions for him. He started with assembling of chips and fire buttons.
Stay safe and healthy.

13/05/2020

Hello everyone!
Several days ago Israel reduced the quarantine restrictions. Now most of the shops are finally open. The factory starts working in a normal way though it’s not easy. Several high-priority orders blocked during the quarantine are now executed and the XvoSticks are queued to be done next. The main risk for now is that our best engineer responsible for the electronics and assembling belongs to the covid-19 risk group. The restrictions are reduced so the factory can resume its operations but this guy cannot. We are looking for the possible solution: either find another expert or create special safe conditions for that guy. It’s all solvable though takes time and efforts. We will keep you updated. Stay safe and healthy.

25/03/2020

Finally, we got the mods back from anodizing.

The factory is located in Israel which now suffers from corona virus. Starting from today, Israel introduces hard limitations on movement: stay in no more than 100 meters from home, no public transport, only vital industrial activity is allowed and no more than 30% of personnel working at once.

We postpone the production for now hoping that the limits will be removed soon.

Stay safe, all the best to you and your families,
MiniEcig team

27/02/2020

We have news from the factory. Anodizing has been finished and we are waiting for the bodies to be delivered.
DNA60 chips has been received and soldering has been started.

30/01/2020

Hello everybody,
we are happy to say that production is resumed and milling of the bodies is finished. We have enough bodies to fulfill all orders. This week the bodies will be sent for anodizing and DNA60 chips will be ordered.
Thank you for your support and patience. We will do our best to finish XvoSticks as soon as possible and in 1.5-2 months you will test our mods finally.

31/12/2019

Happy New Year 2020!

01/12/2019

01/12/2019

Hello everybody,
The production of XvoSticks is still ongoing, we are planning to start anodizing in 2 weeks. Now it’s clear that we won’t make it before Christmas and we apologize for this. To speed up things we've ordered a new CNC machine to run operations for XvoSticks and the medical implants in parallel. We were really hoping for it but now we got yet another notification that the CNC machine is delayed and we will get it in one week. As soon as we get it we will proceed with the last operation on XvoSticks before we can send them for the anodizing.
We know that some of you were expecting to get this as a Christmas present so you still have time to get ready and we can make a full refund if you would prefer this option. We are still here and we try to speed up things. Thanks for all your patience and kindness. We feel your support and your trust. This is important for us and we hope that we will be unblocked soon. We will post the news as soon as we get updates.

16/10/2019

News from XvoSticks production. The bend is cut now and the bottoms of the body are completed as well.
Several items left, you can order one here:
http://mini-ecig.com/XvoStick

13/09/2019

The latest photo fro production. More bodies are ready.
Soon we will start with the bottom side.