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“My role is like a fun, never-ending challenge”

Andrés Riestra

Hardware operations manager

MAKING IMPACT IS TAKING MANY SMALL STEPS, NOT A SINGLE LEAP



“I remember us proudly taking a picture of the first nine devices that were shipped internationally to various places in Europe,” Andrés reminisces. “Now, there are days where thirty or forty Orbis are sent out all over the world.”

As the business grows, so Andrés’ role is changing. “I’ve opened many of our devices and changed countless parts, but now I’m doing less and less manual labor, and the emphasis is more on pointing out what needs to be done. My role is like a fun, never-ending challenge.

I believe in order to impact the future of our world, we need to take as many small steps as possible. You can’t take a single leap towards a sustainable planet. We don’t have the technology and infrastructure it takes just yet, but we should strive towards it.”

These are some of the steps Andrés is taking to improve the Orbi and, in the long run, improve the planet:

RETROFITTING INSTEAD OF REPLACING

“I’m very proud that we’re starting to retrofit replacement parts for the current Orbi model. In the past, if a monitor had a problem, we had to ship the entire device back to the Netherlands and send out a replacement. Now, instead of sending the whole thing across the world, we send just the top part. That’s a package of 70 by 10 by 20 centimeters, instead of a person-sized box filled with mostly air. It doesn’t just reduce the shipping costs, but also vastly improves the CO2 footprint of the repair.”

MORE MODULAR TO MATCH EACH KITCHEN

“We’re developing the hardware for the 2.0 Orbi, which will be more flexible and modular so it better matches our clients’ needs. We tried to make the new unit as adaptable as possible because each kitchen is different. There will be Orbis that can be mounted on the wall or stand on a tabletop, so a shortage of space in the kitchen no longer needs to be an obstacle. We’re also doing projects with cruise lines, but our scales don’t work on a boat that’s rocking back and forth in the waves. So we developed a scaleless Orbi that uses a different technology, though the hardware on the inside stays pretty much the same.”

EASIER TO USE

“The Orbi 2.0 will be easy to set up, almost like an Ikea product. Now we ship Orbis worldwide, we have greater distances, different time zones, different cultures, and different ways of working to deal with. It really helps to have a device that’s as self-explanatory as possible. Our technology isn’t as mature and well known as a fridge. Everyone in the world knows how a fridge works, and maintenance is relatively easy and there’s no knowledge required on how to handle it. Not that the Orbi is difficult to use, but it is a new and innovative technology, so we’re improving it where possible.”

HIGHER QUALITY, LESS SHIPPING

“Making sure all Orbis are in proper working order is an important aspect of my job. Now that we’re international, it’s not as easy as going somewhere an hour away by van and changing some parts. So we’re working on making sure the machines are super stable. We already have international assembly partners lined up, so we can start producing bigger volumes at a high-end level.”

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