They always say that a contractor’s house is never repaired and a cobbler’s kids have holes in their shoes. MakerBot has taken a step to make sure that 3D printer companies don’t earn the same reputation by turning their design and production skills to the creation of a better working environment for themselves. After new lights were installed over the workstations in the section of the factory where the MakerBot Replicator Z18 is made, the workers kept turning them off because they weren’t used to them.
“That’s all it does,” Hraska remarked. “But that’s something you can’t buy – and it works really well.”
That’s exactly what 3D printing is so often called on to do: create obvious solutions to simple design problems – to take them from the ‘I wish we could just’ to the ‘how do we do the next thing?’
Using their own 3D design and production capabilities has helped not only to address the idiosyncratic needs of its particular factory, but also to continue to drive innovation and push production. Rather than spending their time in tedious meetings trying to justify a $10,000 expense (what the custom light fixtures would have cost had they not devised the zip-tie light switch cover) they can work up an idea, test it, and spend a couple of dollars in filament.
Diana Pincus, MakerBot’s plant manager ,detailed an example of the savings:
“To set up production lines for the fifth generation of MakerBot Replicator 3D printers, creating jigs and fixtures on earlier models saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Without the Replicator 2 and 2X, we’d still have been able to start the line, but it would have been more costly, less efficient, and a lot more stress.”
“Once I realized I could make things, the biggest limitation was the size of the printer. And now we have the Z18.”
It looks like there are big things in the future for the MakerBot workplace.
What do you think of these initiatives over at MakerBot? Discuss in the 3D Printed Accessories at MakerBot forum thread at 3DPB.com.