This morning I contacted our textile waste supplier to check how long we have to wait for our order that I have already placed with them. In my head I had a guesstimate of around 2 -3 weeks as they only process 32 tons per month of this type and I am taking all of this. Normally this is exported and whilst waiting for the sample to arrive they exported the batch they had in stock. It is what it is and we will just have to wait as the factory has already started bailing my order so they must have around 7-8 tons ready.
Financially it is not viable to collect such a small amount as we would be paying for the transport. On the 32 ton order transport delivery is already included in the price so on a small order the cost per kilogram would balloon out by another 50%. My family now understand what I am saying and need to be patient until the order is delivered.
We just need to start the cycle by receiving the first order and then we will always have enough supply for whatever the demands may be. There is an order due for next week which thankfully is small being roughly 200 punch bags ad not by choice will have to use the other material I was initially going to dump.
We have 5 tons of offcuts from the PPE mask material factory that will have to suffice in the meantime. The problem with this material is it is so light and is more volumetric as it holds no weight. Just one of these bags weighs between 45 ad 50kg's and now I have to condense this through compacting which is labor intensive.
Instead of processing 12 punch bags per hour which is my minimum target I will be lucky enough to see 2 or 3 so the labor costs rise significantly. If we compare the difference between this material and the material on order I would estimate that we would process anywhere between 12 and 15 bags per hour compared to possibly 3. The scrap textile material we used on the last order only averaged 6-7 bags per hour and those numbers need to rise. I envisage that once we are organised and running smoothly we could comfortably process 150 punch bags per day. If the market requires more then we simply add extra staff and can achieve any number with no pressure.
In my view the best business decision would be to place this all on hold once this order of 200 has been completed because then we only have around 2 weeks before the new order arrives. The time would not be wasted as we could continue filling the sand tubes in preparation for new orders that will no doubt arrive.
The positive from all of this is we have the textile waste on order and any new punch bag orders will be processed very quickly obtaining a higher quality product than what the market has seen before.