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Blackland Era Not Impressed

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
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Notes from today's shave: never-stop-learning's Quest for Knowledge - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/never-stop-learnings-quest-for-knowledge.611194/post-11666447
 
Customer service is top notch. R&D also. It’s a huge pity that quality control seems to be non existent. It’s so easy to fix.

“Non-existent” is a ridiculous statement. We have a single-digit percentage fail rate on QC for a production method that nobody has ever used for a product like this. This issue never occurred during test production so it wasn’t a QC focal point. Now it is.

QC is an evolving process. For this razor, we have thousands of parts produced every month. Every single part faces a number of inspections and is measured by hand and optical scanners at two checkpoints during production. Those measurements are logged and tracked in a closed-loop system to ensure that parts are improving over time. Plus several visual inspections. That measurement process is tedious and time-consuming so you measure primarily what you know to be a likely area of concern. This issue wasn’t one, but now it is.

I spent a full day last week at our manufacturer doing a deep-dive into qc to better understand how this specific issue happened. I went through every single step. It’s actually a mind-blowingly complex system. The most important part of the system is that it is self-improving. Every month we’ll get better and better parts, tightening the QC belt as we go to keep moving in the right direction.

No novel technology or application of technology is without hiccups. That doesn’t mean the process is broken or that the tech won’t work. It means only that it’s new and that it will improve substantially over time.
 
Definitely contact them. You are now third on here with this problem. I didn't report on this because Shane is taking care of it, but I have been monitoring the forum for other people with the same problem. It sounds like this is more common than he had thought.

+1! This ^ Bet they will make things right.
 

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
FWIW, I have the ERA with Level 4 SB and Level 5 SB plates.

Everything fits perfectly. Blade loads easily. Blade gaps are even on both sides. Razor shaves great with either plate.

In my opinion, a single digit QC failure rate on the initial release of a $75 razor that is a new design and uses a brand new manufacturing process isn't too shabby at all.

Again, just my opinion. :)
 
Shaved with my era today, after a week of mixing it up with an assortment of other razors. and I really do enjoy the shave that the era gives me.. I also shaved my elderly fathers beard today without a glitch with the # 4 SB base plate. That was roughly a 2 week old beard.

Like never stop learning, my ERA is flawless, and I will likely pick up a few more base plates..
 

Chan Eil Whiskers

Fumbling about.
“Non-existent” is a ridiculous statement. We have a single-digit percentage fail rate on QC for a production method that nobody has ever used for a product like this. This issue never occurred during test production so it wasn’t a QC focal point. Now it is.

QC is an evolving process. For this razor, we have thousands of parts produced every month. Every single part faces a number of inspections and is measured by hand and optical scanners at two checkpoints during production. Those measurements are logged and tracked in a closed-loop system to ensure that parts are improving over time. Plus several visual inspections. That measurement process is tedious and time-consuming so you measure primarily what you know to be a likely area of concern. This issue wasn’t one, but now it is.

I spent a full day last week at our manufacturer doing a deep-dive into qc to better understand how this specific issue happened. I went through every single step. It’s actually a mind-blowingly complex system. The most important part of the system is that it is self-improving. Every month we’ll get better and better parts, tightening the QC belt as we go to keep moving in the right direction.

No novel technology or application of technology is without hiccups. That doesn’t mean the process is broken or that the tech won’t work. It means only that it’s new and that it will improve substantially over time.


I've not been very interested in this razor, at least not yet, and don't have one, but here we have exactly the kind of manufacturer's response I believe ideal when a problem surfaces.

In my experience with the company's products - I have the Blackbird and the Dart, both purchased on the BST - Blackland gets it right. In my experience with Shane (here on the forum) he's shown himself to be a good person.

I tend to believe I should glance at my razor's blade alignment before shaving just to make sure things look right, but that's just me.

Happy shaves,

Jim
 
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