[amayausers] Re: Your Opinion Please

Jack,

 You should be in sales..  Very well written.

 

Thom,

 You must know that to be a successful embroiderer, regardless of what machine you choose,  one must get a good handle on the three areas of embroidery.  Proper machine function, operator knowledge, and digitizing.  For beginners, you must make sure you know a technician if necessary, a good digitizer to shop out designs to, and most importantly, proper and plenty of training whenever and where ever you can get it for you and all your employees.  As for the business side, it sounds like you'll do fine with your present involvment of sales and marketing. 

 

I just can't help but notice a great deal of new embroiderers attempt to compete with the big dogs with little to no training.  I'm not only a Melco tech/trainer but I also do service work for Barudan in addition to having worked on Tajima machines and also most recently the Renissance machine from Great Notions (I still don't know whether to laugh or cry). 

 

All the embroiderers I've met have had issues with their machines at some point in time whether it be due to a fluke in the manufacturing process or a direct result of operator error - if not damage occuring during shipping.  My point being that there isn't a machine or embroidery company without issues.  I believe it all boils down to system features and customer service - oh and of course, price.  However, if you consider it a business expense, the prices really won't be that big of a factor as your first machine, whom ever you choose, will start off in the high teens (of thousands) with all the necessary software, and associated equipment and supplies such as PC, thread, tools, furniture, etc...    Melco has addressed the price issue with the modularity factor in that the second machine, and subsiquent machines, will only cost you the base price for the machine as the software and other equipment necessary to run, h ave already been acquired with the first machine.  This is of course depending on which software you purchased up front as there are a few levels to choose from. 

 

Back to the systems features and customer service,...  as for features, the Amaya system has all the bells and whistles you will use and even some features you won't -at least not for a while until you get up to speed.  As for ease of use, after a couple of days experience, you should be very comfortable with the most common buttons.  However you will make mistakes and plenty of them as we all have but that is only what makes us better.  Mistakes like sewing a collar to the inside of a left chest design or forgetting to lower your presser foot resulting in consistent thread breaks.  The first mistake could happen on any machine and the second mistake will happen only with an Amaya until you make it a habit to check presserfoot height before you sew which requires only a glance in the right direction.  I personally haven't made either of these mistakes in years simply due to the routine I've set up for myself when I sew.

 

There are a lot of areas to learn about sewing and embroidery in general.  So be prepared to go back to school, in a sense, to learn a new trade.  Learning the Amaya system is simply one of the classes in that school.

Why I like my Amayas:

Features we use on a daily basis (in no particular order):  Laser beam- centering the design is a breeze, virtually not having to trace every design because you see it on the screen within it's hoop, configurability - independent from the other machines, higher sewing speeds, working through a PC and not an interface or automat with a display that leaves you guessing, one man can move a multi head machine and doesn't require renting a forklift.  Okay, I don't move my machines on a daily basis buy I have had to move them three times in four years.  I don't have to worry about building my shop around the machines like needing a garage door access just to get the machines into a room.

 

Know that with all new systems, Melco is still trying to invent a better mouse trap therefore new features are always a consideration with every years machines.  Melco makes a great attempt to offer upward compatability on new features to older machines by making upgrade packages available for a price.  With this in mind, there can sometimes be bugs with all new things released however I only see the overall system getting better and I haven't seen a bug that Melco hasn't addressed.

 

As for customer service,  I have had an opportunity to meet a good number of folks at Melco and I genuinely feel that they have the customer's interest at heart.  As an independant tech, for every bad comment I've heard from customers about Melco, I've heard the same amount about Tajima and Barudan.  So I guess it's as they say, "the grass is always greener,..."

 

I don't think you'll go wrong with the Amayas.  No matter what machine you buy, just don't underestimate the power of training.  Think of it as a class where they give away all the secrets to success.

Good luck to ya'.

 

Ed

-------------- Original message from "Jack Fuller" <Jack@xxxxxxxx>: --------------

Thom

If you go back into the archives of this group you will find that in the early days, three or 4 years ago, the Amaya had serious flaws. It had a reputation of being a problem machine. It is relatively new technology, that is, it pushes thread rather than pulls it. So it is fundamentally different than traditional machines such as Tajima, SWF and Barudan. And it requires different techniques to make it run well. This teething period generated a lot of bad feelings among some early adopters. But, within the last two years, most of the early machines appear to have been upgraded with the new parts and I think owners now agree the AMAYA is the slickest thing afloat. More people have learned how to make it run correctly. Recent software changes add better functionality. The quality of the embroidery on my Amaya is head and shoulders above the quality of the machines owned by guy who do es my larger jobs. He has older conventional equipment. He sews at 600- 700 spm and I sew at 1100 or 1200 spm and as high as 1300 spm on certain designs. When one of his multi-head machines has a thread break ALL of his machines stop until it is fixed. On a multi-head AMAYA all the others keep on producing. Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but you can produce more work with fewer AMAYAs than you can with any of the conventional machines.

 

A single head AMAYA is about $12,000 plus software. A single head Tajima or Barudan is thousands more. Three single head AMAYAs will cost about $35K or so plus Flex software of $1500 or so. The three AMAYAs will sew 3600 stitches a minute. A four head conventional bridge machine will set you back $45-$50K and sew 2800 spm. The AMAYA will do more work with fewer machines for less money and do a better job. (The quality is my opinion, but I can defend it.) There are some things that cause me some concern however. The AMAYA has plastic gears. The others (Barudan and Tajima) do not, according to what I hear. The people I know who have Barudans, for example, swear by the quality of their machines and I have no reason to doubt them. I was going to buy a Barudan at one time. I still would give it strong consideration if I was going to open a high volume production shop running two shifts 6 or 7 days a week. In my opinion, AMAYA is THE commercial machine. It has no peers. But as an industrial machine I have doubts. By commercial I mean a small shop doing production work one shift a day several days a week. It is the typical mom and pop store front shop. Industrial work is 16 hour days 6 or 7 days a week. The difference is the comfort factor. A small shop has less of a risk because the jobs are usually smaller and margins are greater. If your machine stops it is no big deal to take the job to a competitor friend to finish for you. And you can still make some money on the deal. That is harder to do on a multi hundred or thousand order where there is likely no one else around to help you out. Such would be a large contract shop. Of course there are exceptions everywhere and on both ends of the spectrum. If you have three AMAYAs and one goes down you still have two putting out as much work as the four head.

 

You may hear some say that the newest conventionals sew at 1000 spm which is almost as fast the AMAYA. But most run their machines at 700 or 800 spm. It is also true that the AMAYA runs at 1500 spm but most run them at 1100 or 1200 spm. But the real test is how many net stitches per minute a machine puts out. Figuring an 80% uptime on both still gives AMAYA the edge given that it is usually only one head at time that suffers a thread break or problem. On a flex AMAYA the others keep on sewing. On the conventional all heads stop. And that is each and every time any of heads has a thread break, which is about every 8000 to 10000 stitches. Do the math. Just remember that a large contract shop quite often only charge 40 or 50 cents per 1000 stitches. Mom and pops do much smaller jobs and for $1.00 a 1000. Somewhere in the middle is the right answer for your application.  

 

 

Jack Fuller

 

From: amayausers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:amayausers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Thomas Roman
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 18:20
To: Amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [amayausers] Your Opinion Please

 

Hi

I?m looking at various embroidery machines to buy. I have been in the ASI industry for 12 years and farm out a fair amount of embroidery.

I would be interested in what you think of the Amayas and if you have used other machines prior to or now (Tajima, Baradan etc) their dependability, functionality on caps vs. flats and your general pro and con feedback. I know of no contract embroiderer who uses Amayas.

Thanks Much

Thom

 

The Quantum Group
Thomas Roman
Sales & Marketing
troman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
26745 Queen Court
Murrieta, CA 92563
tel: 951-698-4970
fax: 951-696-7040
www.thequantumgroup.net

 

 

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