Editor’s note: This is Part I of a blog series written by Sarah Browning, Team O2’s vice president of operations and service. In the series, she revisits her experience during O2’s first (and hopefully last) inventory emergency.
HIGHLIGHTS
So, to begin the tale: we start planning to make more cans of O2 about three months before your favorite flavor runs out.
And, about two weeks before it’s time to make the liquid, we confirm the exact production start date - to ensure nothing can get in our way. In this case, we planned to start production the first week of September, 2023.
Enter Murphy’s Law, which, if you’ve forgotten: no matter your plans, there are times when anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
We confirmed all the pieces were in place on Tuesday to start our production run in New York on the following Friday, so I booked a hotel, arranged for childcare, packed a bag, and was getting ready to hop in the car for a five-hour drive from my home in Maryland to the facility, when all of a sudden ...
I got a call from our production team: “Don’t come! We have an issue.”
This, to put it lightly, sucked big time. Big time - because we were thiiiis close to getting restocked without any of you experiencing any delays.
One of our team’s machines broke, and the part needed to be shipped from … way far away. Slovenia, I think. It would take about a week to arrive, and some time to get it installed.
BUT, I still had hope! It would be a squeaker, with cans flying off the shelves, but we planned for things like this. After all, it wasn’t the first time we’ve dealt with Murphy and his shenanigans.
Sure enough, I got word from our production team after about a week - the part had arrived, the machine was fixed, and I was back on my way to New York, with hardly a minute to spare before we went out of stock.
And then, as I’m on my way to New York on a beautiful Friday morning, my phone rings …
Keep an eye on your email for Part II, coming soon! In the meantime, feel free to grab your favorite O2 flavors (now fully restocked) this month and you’ll get a $20 gift voucher to Born Primitive, while supplies last.
Look for the voucher above in your box of O2!