Activity

Jesus Maza - November 17 VIEW RECORDING - 14 mins (No highlights): https://fathom.video/share/VsmjfWvN3RqH2M1MjDz-iSN-seDA-Qwz --- 0:05 - Jesus We can hear you, Jesus. Let us know if you need us to do some more testing still. Hello? Hey, can you hear us? 0:19 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yes. 0:20 - Jesus I'm trying to see if I can switch it to the computer speakers because I've got Stacy with me here so we don't have to do multiple computers. Awesome. Yeah. Well, we're here. Take your time. No worries. All right. Now, can you hear me? Yes, we can. We're in business. 0:47 - Nicole Miller Okay. Hold on a second. 0:49 - Jesus It looks like it's still coming through the microphone. Oh, gotcha. Let's see. Okay. How about now? Oh, can hear you. Can you hear us? Oh, there we go. All right. Success. Hi, guys. How are you? 1:12 - Nicole Miller We're doing great. How about yourself? Thanks so much for booking. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice meeting you. 1:20 - Jesus I'm Jesus Mazam, the QA coordinator at the lab. And this is Stacey Freeman-Massi, who's our lead chemist and also does all the ordering. Beautiful. Oh, they keep Stacey busy over there, then. 1:36 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Well, we can do a bit of introductions on our side, too. And then, you know, kind of curious how it is that we can support you both. Okay. So, my name is Raleigh. I've been at UTAK for five years or so on the customer care side and support. With me on the call, I do have Nicole. And Nicole, I'll pass it along to you. Sure. Hi, I'm Nicole Miller. 1:59 - Nicole Miller I've been at UTAK. I've TAC for about 10 years now, so I'm the Director of Engineering currently. oversee product design and also quality assurance. Great. 2:09 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, so I asked Nicole to be on the call, too, because I figured, you know, if we could answer all of your questions, it would be easier in one call versus needing to book multiple ones as well. And I have to admit, too, I was having a bit of a challenge getting your customer ID, too. Do you have that handy? Yes. 2:43 - Jesus Should be 101490. Beautiful. 2:49 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Awesome. Thank you so much. There are two laboratories with the Navy. 2:55 - Jesus One is in Norfolk, and then we have here in San Diego, so I'm not sure. Oh, Well, it comes up with that account number. Yeah, and you all are in San Diego, correct? 3:05 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Okay, perfect. 3:06 - Jesus All right. 3:06 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) So we had to bump to the top of the list here. So we're in business. 3:11 - Jesus Awesome. 3:12 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) What is it that we can help you with or answer any questions on? 3:16 - Jesus Yeah, so you guys were saying that you've got a different process now of how things are going. Maybe it might make it easier for how we do business. Oh, perfect. 3:28 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Okay. Yes. 3:29 - Jesus Yeah. 3:29 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) So we, in terms of how it is, and Nicole, since this is, you know, your realm, please opine if I've omitted anything or properly I'm representing as well, too. So we've received a lot of feedback from our customers in terms of how important and integral to their processes, as well as purchasing, Stacey, as you're well aware, like expiration dates are, too. Oh, okay. And so we've been receiving... A lot of customer feedback on just needing lengthier and more predictable expiration dates across our product boards, our stock product offerings as well, since that does impact a lot of customers who back into their, you know, usage based off of that expiration too. And so we've actually pivoted our manufacturing process to do, so have smaller quantities in terms of on-the-shelf, but more predictable cadences. So we're really ramping up how frequently it is that we do send out or that we do produce new batches of those stock products. So a lot of products that, you know, are very familiar, but what this means is that they do have those lengthier expiration dates too. So for what it's worth, you know, we've been reaching out and wanting to communicate that to our team members too. And I do see, Nicole, that It looks like Jesus and Stacey's team do purchase, like, Cadmium Plus as, like, products, too. Do you know, because I think those would be on our custom line as well. 5:17 - Nicole Miller Correct. 5:18 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) so the good news with the customs that you are purchasing, actually, is that within our manufacturing process, you are actually getting the maximum expiration. I thought so. Is that the same thing? 5:30 - Jesus So that was going to be my question, is whether that was in reference to, like, the lifelized stuff, or was it the stuff in solution? Because I think it's, like, almost a two-year expiration sometimes. So for us, it was never a problem. Oh, perfect. Okay, great. 5:48 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Yeah, we also, part of what we're also looking to in terms of customer feedback is we're actually exploring UTAK getting a bit into 2025, in the 21st century, in terms of... Being able to purchase online, kind of see that order history, you know, eventually we'd be looking to be able to build those custom products online too. Is that something that you all find would be helpful? Because we don't want to also, you know, generate something that wouldn't be helpful to our customers. 6:19 - Jesus Yes, I feel like that would be very helpful because our stuff is pretty much consistent. It doesn't change. So for us to keep the consistency and we'll be able to access our quotes offline, I mean, online, it'll be definitely helpful for us to just create a purchase request and then send it over. Yeah, if we were able to print out the quotes so that then we could submit the purchase order requests online, that would help. And then I like the idea of the history because that would keep us in track of which lot numbers we already ordered and what letters are in service now so we don't get confused. Because... The timing for the urine and the blood, cadmium control plus levels, are not always at the same time, so there's always a little confusion of, was that the urine or was that the blood? Did we get the baseline or was that the finished product already? So that would help as well. Okay. 7:19 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) And in terms of, you know, those baselines, because I do see the Matrix baseline samples too, if we were able to have you submit approval or rejections on the online portal, would that be helpful too? 7:31 - Jesus Very. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, could, if we could submit the results of the baseline study and then say yay or nay, that would, I think, make it easier and faster for you guys, so I'm not having to do it by hand, then scan it in as a PDF, then having to send it in, you know, it's a little more steps, but it's not that much of a hassle, it's just a few more steps that we have to do. Yeah. 7:55 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Well, you're very kind in framing it as less of a hassle for us, because it would be less of a hassle. So thank you for being so gentle about it. 8:05 - Nicole Miller Awesome, beautiful. 8:06 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Okay, well, I'm happy to hear that, you know, we're on the right path in terms of how we're, you know, uplifting a digital transformation, too. Is there anything, like, that we could be doing better from the service standpoint? Any other feedback, since we have you on the call now, that you're able to share? 8:25 - Jesus You know, the only thing that comes to mind is, I know because ours are custom standards, or custom requests, the third-party testing seems to be what holds us up a lot of the times. And for us, we would, I think, would make it easier to just purchase something that's already been tested, and it already says, these are the targets, here are the ranges. I know, and you guys aren't the only ones, Biorad does the same thing, where they say, it is up to each lab, once they receive it, to determine their own acceptable limits. Which I can understand because everybody's instrumentation might be different or whatever. But if we at least had a determined or a defined target value that's already been tested and approved so that we go by that and not having to then request someone else to then test it, see if we're similar to them, are we on the same track, that takes up a lot more time. 9:27 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Nicole, did you have, you know, any thoughts or workarounds that we could potentially have for them? 9:35 - Nicole Miller The verification, unfortunately, is what takes the most amount of time for the custom product manufacturing. We can get it through as quick as possible, but we can't really control outside lab testing. We do have stock products that have metals in them, so we have serum, blood, and urine. I don't have the actual analytes pulled up in front of me, so I'm not sure how it compares to what targets you're looking for. But I think that description of kind of the, like, we've already tested it, it's ready to go, that's more what the stock products are. So then that's the question of, like, would those off-the-shelf products that have already been verified, do those actually match the results you're kind of looking for, target concentrations you're looking for? If they don't, then the absence of that is we have to send it out at the time of manufacturing. So unfortunately with the customs, there's not a whole lot we can do to speed along that timeframe, but the stocks is kind of the intention with that of many customers do have that need of needing a verified result they want to go off of. 10:27 - Jesus So we have looked at the, to the ones that are already pre-made. Unfortunately, what we find is that for the metals that are in that solution, for example, it might work for the blood, but not the urine, or it might work for the lead, but not the cadmium. And so then to avoid us buying a bunch of stuff for each individual metal, and sometimes the levels are so low that for us wouldn't make sense. So that's why we've stuck to the custom ones. So we have... Have a look, because we did think about that, and we did realize those were already ready to go. It's just, unfortunately, the levels we're looking at are not close enough for everything to work out. Okay, but, you know, as long as, because so far, like I said, it's been smooth for the most part. It's just not as quick as we would like it to be, which is, you know, it is what it is. But other than that, I can't, can you think of anything else? Oh, how are we would, having a contract with you guys where, instead of individual purchase orders or purchase requests per, if we had, like, a contract where we said, within a year, we would require this many of these type, and then all we would have to do is ask you for the next lot number without having to go into the whole purchase order situation. ACTION ITEM: Email Raleigh standing order details (products, qty, need-by); then Raleigh sets up standing order - WATCH: https://fathom.video/share/VsmjfWvN3RqH2M1MjDz-iSN-seDA-Qwz?timestamp=706.9999 Do you guys do contracts like that? Yeah, absolutely. 12:01 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) So, and Nicole, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what Jesus and Stacey are referring to would be more on our standing order side. 12:09 - Jesus And we find that that's a lot easier even in terms of friction. 12:13 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) We're also able to, you know, when you give us a ballpark of when you would need X denomination or quantity, we can trigger that upstream so that, let's say, verification is that drag time. We can get the order moving ahead of that so that your need by date, we can be certain that we can hit. So, yeah, absolutely. And that's something we're quite familiar with and have had a lot of success with and are glad to support on. So, you know, if you just wanted to send to my email those details, we can get moving on that for you. And if we have any follow-up questions, we'll ask them through email. 12:48 - Jesus Oh, that sounds great. Okay. Okay. Okay. That would be for you, Riley? Yes, correct. Okay. All right. Great. Awesome. Hey, well, perfect. Oh, sorry. What was that? I said we appreciate that you guys have that available. that's good. Oh, good. Good. Yeah. I'll let the team know. 13:18 - Raleigh Gallina (UTAK Laboratories) Awesome. Hey, well, it's so nice to meet you both. Sounds like we'll have an exchange to get that standing order set up for you. Okay. But you always have, you have our contact information. If you need to book another call, you're more than welcome to. Okay. 13:32 - Jesus Yeah, that sounds good. Awesome. Well, have a great week. All right. You too. Thank you so much. Thanks. Bye. Bye.