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My $1,000,000 Print Farm Business (Full Tour) — Transcript

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0:00Inside the building you see behind me is
0:01result of seven years of work. Building
0:04a 3D printing business from a single
0:05printer in my office to a full-fledged
0:07manufacturing facility where we now ship
0:09products around the world. And I'm going
0:10to share everything that goes on inside
0:12that building from printing to
0:13fulfilling orders to packaging [music]
0:15to how work flows through the space and
0:17even how we manage our inventory. What
0:18we have set up is basically my dream
0:20setup for [music] a 3D print farm. Who
0:22knows? Maybe you can take something from
0:23it and apply it to whatever it is that
0:25you do. It's been quite the adventure
0:27getting here and I'm excited to show you
0:28what we built.
0:35Now, if you randomly stumbled on this
0:37video, first of all, welcome. [music]
0:38This is actually the fifth and final
0:40part of the building a print farm series
0:41here on YouTube and I've got an entire
0:44playlist basically bringing [music] us
0:46to this point. So, if you're interested
0:47in checking that out, go do that. Scan
0:49the QR code or find a link down below.
0:51But, I guess it makes sense that we
0:52start the tour at the entrance of the
0:53building. What you see behind me is a
0:5611,000 sq ft building that I actually
0:57purchased about a year ago that's split
1:00down the center. So, I occupy about
1:025,000 sq ft. The other tenant, which is
1:04a gym, occupies the other 5,000 sq ft.
1:07So, the tour we're going to be doing is
1:08on my half of the building. Also, you
1:10can tell I still don't have an exterior
1:13sign, but one is on order and it's going
1:15to look something like this. So, it
1:17should be a big upgrade over that, but I
1:18wanted to take down the air conditioning
1:20logo because we got people walking in
1:22asking for air conditioning parts, which
1:24we don't do. Now, there hasn't really
1:26been any changes to this outside, but
1:27this glass atrium as you walk in is
1:30where all of our shipping and receiving
1:31actually happens. And I'll explain this
1:33area in a little bit more detail once we
1:35get to the process overflow, but I
1:36wanted to give you a quick rundown of
1:38how the building is laid out. So, the
1:39part that we're in right now is the
1:41entryway of the building. There's a
1:42glass atrium with an exterior door and
1:44an interior door you see behind me. When
1:46you walk in, along the right side are
1:48the offices and the filming studio. Just
1:50outside of those offices is our part
1:52prep area. Just beyond that is sort of
1:54the the area and the kitchen. And then
1:57across from the kitchen, we have our
1:58print farm, which is exciting. And if
2:01you keep continuing walking back towards
2:02the back of the building, there is a
2:04hallway where we have our conditioned
2:05storage. And then you hang a left into
2:08our unconditioned warehouse storage.
2:10Obviously, the difference being one has
2:12air conditioning, one does not. As you
2:14walk back through the space, you enter
2:15sort of our shipping and fulfillment and
2:18final part inventory. This is really
2:20where a lot of the process happens and
2:21where I'll be kind of spending some time
2:23sharing how things work. So, that's the
2:25high-level overview.
2:26Let's go check out inside. So, as you
2:28walk into what I call basically our
2:30entryway, for lack of a better term, you
2:32see this cool mural that I put here on
2:34the wall. And this really serves no
2:35purpose other than to remind me and
2:37hopefully the people that work here that
2:39Shop Nation, which is the brand under
2:40which we sell under, which I'll go into
2:42a little bit more detail later, is just
2:44kind of like one
2:46facet of manufacturing here in the
2:48Dayton, Ohio area. So, Dayton has a ton
2:50of history in manufacturing and I just
2:51wanted to kind of like pay homage to
2:53that a little bit. I mean, the Wright
2:55brothers are from here. There's a ton of
2:56automotive innovation that came out of
2:58here, a ton of aerospace, defense work.
3:01Um and to think that a little 3D
3:03printing business like mine is playing a
3:04part, I think is kind of cool. So,
3:06that's the reason why I put this here.
3:07We've also got a plant to bring some
3:09life into this place and a drink station
3:11for all of our delivery drivers cuz we
3:13get deliveries and push out deliveries
3:15every single day. It's a small token of
3:16our appreciation for them and they can
3:18come in and help themselves. And then as
3:20you continue walking in, it does not
3:21take long to encounter your first 3D
3:23printers of the space. This rack here
3:25has got three printers. We got a couple
3:27AMSs set up and this is really for
3:28printing anything experimental. Could be
3:31prototyping, could be like small
3:32production runs to test something out,
3:34but also just printing stuff that we
3:36need and use here on the farm and I'll
3:38show you a bunch of examples of that as
3:40we continue. And as much as these tools
3:41are for this business and helping us run
3:43more efficiently, they're also a service
3:45I offer to my employees. If they want to
3:47print projects they have or whatever
3:49they're doing, they're more than welcome
3:50to use the printers. And then along that
3:52right hand corner as you walk in are the
3:54offices. Now we've got my office here,
3:56we got an employees office, a storage
3:57room, and then we got the YouTube
3:58studio, which I'll show here in a sec.
4:01We'll start with my office. And I'll be
4:02honest, this is probably the least put
4:03together area of this entire place. So,
4:05it's pretty bare-bones as it sits right
4:07now. I've got sort of big plans. I want
4:09to build some custom stuff back here,
4:11probably do something with this desk,
4:12but for now, it works. I've got my
4:14computer on a sit-stand desk. I've got a
4:17little table back here with a 3D printer
4:19and some places to put things, including
4:21the 3D printed model of this entire
4:23building that we used during the
4:24renovation process. And that's basically
4:26an office. I also have this giant dry
4:28erase board to put all of my ideas and
4:30things that I am falling desperately
4:32behind on on here to remind myself.
4:35Um and yeah, we've still got a lot of
4:36work to do, but this is office number
4:38one. Office number two is right next
4:41door, and it's actually the YouTube
4:42studio. And retrofitting all this stuff
4:44in here was actually one of the last
4:45places to get complete because this was
4:47a repository of all the junk that had
4:49kind of accumulated during the
4:50renovation process, but I'm really
4:52excited to now have all the lights and
4:54the backdrop and everything set up so
4:56that I can shoot juicy studio footage.
4:59Now, this setup here is not needed for a
5:013D printing business of any kind, but
5:04part of what I like to do here on
5:05YouTube is teach about 3D printing, talk
5:08about some of the struggles and things
5:10that we do in this business, and having
5:11a set like this where I can just come
5:12film where the light is dialed in and
5:14everything looks great is helpful. So,
5:17this is the new studio,
5:19and this is what the old studio looked
5:21like. Uh
5:22bittersweet.
5:24Last time I'm using the studio, or last
5:26time you'll see this studio at least.
5:29About to pack it up to move to the new
5:30place, so
5:31I'll see you there.
5:33So, you can kind of see behind the
5:34scenes of what this looks like. One of
5:37the cool thing about this is because all
5:38the lights are the same brand, I can
5:39actually control them all with an app.
5:42So, one click on, one click off. All
5:45right, so that's the studio. Right next
5:46door is our print farm technician's
5:49office. And right off the bat, check
5:51that out. 3D printed filament light
5:54thing.
5:55Kind of cool. Now, there's not a ton to
5:57say in here. They've got quite a bit of
5:59cleaning up to do, but I want them to
6:00have their own space to work on things
6:02and projects that we're doing that don't
6:04involve the day-to-day print farm stuff.
6:05One of those projects is potentially
6:07automating a giant poop conveyor belt
6:09for the entire print farm.
6:11All 3D printed. You think we should do
6:12that? Let me know. But, one thing that
6:14was really purpose-built for this room
6:16is that it is their office, but it's
6:17also where we break down and work on
6:20printers. I wanted a place where this
6:22happens, and not just a random
6:24horizontal surface out in the main area,
6:26because those have very specific
6:27purposes. So, this is the workbench they
6:30work on. We have You can see we've got
6:31kind of projects around here uh at
6:33varying levels of being taken apart or
6:36being put back together, depending how
6:37you look at it. But, this is kind of
6:39where they come and relax, and we'll
6:41keep moving. Now, the fourth and final
6:43office is this one here, and it, for
6:45lack of a better term, is our junk
6:47drawer. No matter who you are, how
6:49organized you think you are, or what
6:51level of
6:52>> [snorts]
6:52>> efficiency you think you operate at,
6:53there's just going to be stuff that has
6:56to live somewhere, and that's what this
6:57room is, unfortunately. So, we've got
7:00this whole rack here that I've tried my
7:01best to keep organized. You can see
7:03we've got a bunch of filament. We've got
7:05all these different boxes dedicated to
7:06different things to help us find stuff
7:08when we need it. Um but, more or less,
7:10this is just where we kind of put stuff
7:11away that we don't necessarily want to
7:13look at. But, it does have some useful
7:14things as well. We've got our toolbox
7:17here that's got a lot of our spare parts
7:19and things that we constantly need for
7:21the printers or around the print farm.
7:23You can see it's beautifully organized
7:25with Gridfinity, which oh, just makes me
7:27happy. We've got a soldering station
7:29here for putting in some of our heat-set
7:30inserts on some of the products that we
7:32still make. And then we've got a little
7:34uh resin printer hiding over here that
7:36doesn't get much use, but hopefully will
7:38shortly. All right, so those are the
7:40offices, the studio, and everything
7:42else. This stuff you hear in the center,
7:44we're going to come back to. This is the
7:45part prep area, and I'll show you that
7:47in much more detail here in a second.
7:49Now, as we continue this way, we kind of
7:51enter the what I call the common area
7:52and the kitchen.
7:53And sitting about 10 ft off the ground,
7:56yes, is a T-Rex skull. Well,
7:59technically half of a T-Rex skull. You
8:02see, we hung the top and lower jaw one
8:04day. It took quite an ordeal to get that
8:07up there. I hung some steel cable from
8:10the ceiling.
8:11Um had to kind of fabricobble some
8:13things to grab this 45-lb, you know, PLA
8:16printed head.
8:18I put on the lower jaw. It looked
8:19awesome. And then I came in a couple
8:21days later and
8:24found this.
8:25>> Oh, no.
8:31Oh, man.
8:35My glue joint.
8:38Crap.
8:39>> I actually tried to repair it again
8:41yesterday ahead of shooting this video
8:42cuz I really wanted the full effect of
8:44the skull up on the ceiling.
8:46Um but it broke again as soon as I put
8:48it up there. So, we will overcome. I got
8:50to figure out how to reinforce this
8:51thing. The problem is is that this was
8:53designed to be this big, and I printed
8:55it out
8:56this big. And so, when you flex this
8:58lower jaw, all these joints that are
9:00glued together are stressed, and that's
9:02where it breaks. So, we'll figure it
9:04out, but on to the next thing. Now, this
9:06corner here underneath the giant T-Rex
9:08skull is, to be quite honest, um feels
9:11like a waste of space right now. And I'm
9:12not entirely sure what we're going to do
9:14with it. Originally, I thought making
9:16kind of a cool lounge area, which is why
9:17you could see the TV mounted up on the
9:18wall.
9:19But the more I thought about it, and the
9:21more we're getting into projects and
9:22sort of building things for ourself, for
9:25YouTube, and possibly for others in the
9:27future, I think I might make this sort
9:29of like a little maker space assembly
9:32area type thing. Um we're not going to
9:34have like woodworking tools or anything
9:36in here, obviously, but we're going to
9:37have like digital fabrication stuff,
9:39like big areas where we can lay out and
9:41do projects. I think that might be the
9:43best use um of this space. Who knows, in
9:45the future maybe we have to add another
9:46office or something here. But for now,
9:49it's just kind of a I don't know. And
9:52then right next to that, which you've
9:53already seen in some of the shots, is
9:54our kitchen. Obviously, we use this to
9:56eat food, lunch usually. Um we're
9:58currently eating on a Kreg workbench,
10:01which is not the best table in the
10:02world. I have an idea for a really cool
10:05like 10-ft long big slab table to put
10:08here that we can not only eat at, but
10:09also, you know, if we have to sit around
10:11and talk about something, it'd be a good
10:13place to do that. If only I had a
10:15woodworking friend who could do this for
10:18me and I could pay them.
10:20Anyway, that'd be cool. Um but the
10:22kitchen's great. This was definitely
10:23something that we added and was a
10:25luxury, uh to put it bluntly, when
10:28renovating the space, but I'm really
10:29glad we did because it just makes things
10:31super convenient. And even though the
10:32guys pretty much just microwave mac and
10:34cheese here, um it's pretty well
10:35equipped. We've got pull-out trash cans,
10:37which we always forget about. We also
10:39have what I think is the best addition,
10:41is a dishwasher. Yet, I still come in
10:43and I find stuff in the sink. Like, I
10:45bought you guys a robot to do the
10:47dishes. Put it in the robot.
10:50I mean,
10:51you lead a horse to water. You guys want
10:53to see what's in the fridge?
10:55A Chipotle meal that I'm pretty sure is
10:573 weeks old,
10:58uh various energy drinks, half-opened
11:01Girl Scout cookies, and some soda. Can
11:04you tell a bunch of guys work here?
11:06So, my entire 3D printing business is
11:08based online. Customers go to my
11:09website, which is shopnationstore.com,
11:11and place an order. But there's actually
11:13a better domain extension for this, and
11:16it's called dot store. So, as of a
11:18couple weeks ago, I now own
11:19shopnation.store,
11:21which honestly just [music] kind of
11:22sounds better and immediately tells the
11:24customer what it is that the website is
11:26doing. It's a store. Something with dot
11:29com, dot org, dot co, dot whatever,
11:32could be anything. But if it says .store
11:34at the end of the website, it very
11:35clearly is probably a store that you go
11:37to buy something. And that clarity is
11:39what drives more clicks and sales to
11:41your website. [music] Chances are that
11:42your brand or tagline or whatever it is
11:44that you want to do is available as a
11:46.store domain. And .store isn't new
11:48either. It's used all over the world by
11:50people like Mr. Beast, Emirates, Lando
11:52Norris, even Rihanna. So if you're
11:53thinking of building an online store,
11:54maybe to start a 3D [music] printing
11:56business like this, you should at least
11:58consider a .store domain. It's
12:00memorable. It tells your customers
12:01exactly what it is that [music] you do
12:03and you can start for only 99 cents for
12:05your first year. Use code printfarm or
12:07use the link down in the video
12:08description. Give yourself an edge over
12:10the competition and sell more with
12:12[music] .store. All right. So everything
12:13I've shown you so far is more or less
12:15just the creature comforts of the space.
12:17Really has nothing to do with
12:18manufacturing 3D printing stuff, which
12:20is what we do here. So now I'm going to
12:21take you through the parts of the
12:23building that do. And I want to focus on
12:25workflow. Workflow is something I
12:26focused really, really heavily on in
12:29both the design and the eventual layout
12:31and placement of where things are in the
12:33space. So it's all very intentional and
12:35I'll kind of explain it along the way so
12:37that you can maybe use it to improve
12:39your setup whether you run a 3D print
12:41farm or something else. But we're going
12:43to start
12:44in the print farm. Now before we go in
12:46here, the last video in this series was
12:48basically how I set this thing up and a
12:50lot of the
12:51decisions I made along the way for
12:53efficiency, for material handling with
12:55the filament and all that kind of stuff.
12:56So I'm not going to go too in-depth with
12:58that. You can go check out that video
12:59for all of those details. But I will
13:01talk about some things that I missed in
13:02that video and just kind of give you a
13:04look around.
13:06All right. So let's be honest. This is
13:07probably what most of you wanted to see,
13:09at least the majority of which who
13:10clicked on this video. And that is the
13:12print farm, the 3D printers working. And
13:14god, that's making a horrible sound.
13:16What's wrong? Sorry about that. Life of
13:18a print farmer, always something going
13:20on. So as you can see, we've got a
13:23variety of machines in here. Mostly just
13:24the Bambu Lab P1S and the P2S. I like
13:27the Bambu Lab ecosystem. Use whatever
13:29you want. But sitting on top of each
13:31machine is a Infinity Flow S1 Plus,
13:33which is an automatic kind of reloader.
13:36You load two filament spools. It allows
13:38you to kind of seamlessly, or with an
13:40infinite flow,
13:42feed filament to the machines.
13:44They've been good. Um there are a lot of
13:46little bugs and things that we're trying
13:48to work through. I wouldn't say they're
13:49perfect, but I think with a little a
13:51couple tweaks, they could be really
13:53really good. But so far we're pretty
13:54happy with them. Room is laid out into
13:56basically two aisles. So we have a
13:57center rack that's back to front um in
13:59the middle of the room, and then a rack
14:01along each wall on the side. And, you
14:03know, when I specked out this room, when
14:05we drew it out on paper, I sized it
14:07specifically to hold this number of 3D
14:09printers, or the eventual number of 3D
14:12printers that obviously we have the
14:13shelf space for. So this side is almost
14:15identical to this side, which again has
14:17the P2S's here, P1S's here. And as you
14:20can hear, everything is running um and
14:22purring away, which is music to my ears.
14:24So,
14:25this is where basically production
14:27happens. As you know, you clicked on a
14:283D printing video, so you probably know
14:30what 3D printers do. They extrude
14:32plastic, create a plastic part. These
14:34parts go into products that we sell
14:36under the brand name Shop Nation. If you
14:39didn't know, I have two YouTube
14:40channels. One is called Shop Nation, one
14:41is called Print Farm Academy. Shop
14:43Nation is where I started, um and it's
14:46sort of a DIY woodworking type channel.
14:48And the products that we manufacture are
14:51improved dust collection for miter saws
14:52specifically. So super niche, super
14:55narrow, but it's one thing that I always
14:56teach in the course um when starting a
14:583D printing business is that the riches
15:00really are in the niches. So, all of
15:03these products you see behind me, all
15:04these printers that are running are
15:06producing miter saw dust collection
15:08parts that we will then finish um and
15:10produce into a final product that we
15:12ship around the world. Now this corner
15:14here kind of has all of my favorite
15:15features of the room. We've got a
15:17dedicated computer station here to run
15:20basically the software that runs our
15:21print farm. We use a piece of software
15:22called Flow Queue, which I've really
15:24come to like. Um and it's constantly
15:26evolving and getting better over time.
15:28In this corner up here is our server and
15:31uh it is constantly expanding and
15:33evolving. Now we've got two mini PCs,
15:35well, one mini PC, one Mac mini, and we
15:38kind of 3D printed a custom enclosure
15:39for that. We added some cooling to it
15:41cuz it was getting quite warm. Um and
15:43we're constantly kind of understanding
15:45and unlocking more functionality that
15:47this is uh allowing us to do. Now this
15:50runs obviously the network of this
15:51entire building, which I installed
15:53myself. Um it's all UniFi equipment,
15:55super easy to use.
15:56Um we've got virtual networks for the
15:58print farm, for our IoT devices, for the
16:01office network. All that to say, it's
16:03complicated. I've learned it along the
16:04way, but it's working great for us. Um
16:06and then the final thing that I like is
16:08this workstation right here. I'm big on
16:11organization, if you haven't caught on
16:12to that by now. But we've got drawers
16:15with yet more good finity and
16:17organization.
16:18Um we've got every spare part we could
16:20ever want for any of the printers that
16:22we have here, so we can stay up uh as
16:24much as possible. We've got the tools we
16:26need. We basically have everything
16:27needed to run and maintain the print
16:30farm. So, this is where everything
16:32starts and it moves outside here. But
16:35before I show you where the parts go
16:37after they're taken out of the print
16:38farm, let me show you where we keep our
16:40filament so you understand the kind of
16:41process flow there. So, this hallway you
16:43see behind me right next to the kitchen
16:45is what we call our conditioned storage.
16:47So, this is obviously within the
16:48envelope of the air conditioning so
16:50everything in here is temperature and
16:51humidity controlled. And along this wall
16:54is where we keep all of our filament.
16:56Now, as you can see, we've got a bunch
16:57of empty space here because we actually
16:59need to reorder, but typically these
17:01would be full of these big boxes.
17:03We use 3D Fuel um Pro PCTG. We've
17:07recently transitioned to this stuff and
17:09it's been phenomenal. Um we're really
17:11happy with it. It's a little bit
17:13stronger than the PETG we were using. Uh
17:15printability is about the same. It
17:16actually absorbs moisture at a lower
17:18rate, uh which improves print quality.
17:21Um but as you can see, we've got a
17:22variety of different types and colors
17:23and stuff here that's all organized by
17:25shelf. And they've all got these tags.
17:28And one of the most important features
17:29of our system, which I'll talk more
17:31about, are these
17:34Kanban cards. Now, every single product
17:37that we stock, in this case filament, a
17:40raw material, has a card. Now, this card
17:43serves a very important purpose. It
17:45tells us, first of all, what the
17:47material is. It also tells us our
17:49reorder point and how much we reorder.
17:51And we use these in a very simple analog
17:53system, um to basically tell us when
17:56we're out of something and when to
17:57reorder it. That way, we never actually
17:59run out. We pull the card and reorder
18:00when we're at a minimum point. And I'll
18:02go more into detail with that. But, I
18:04just wanted to show you kind of where
18:05the filament lives. It's literally right
18:07next door to the print farm room, so we
18:09can take spools from here, load the
18:11machines, bring the empties out, and put
18:13them out in that storage. Now, let me go
18:14show you where the, I guess, unfinished
18:16printed parts go. Print farm is here.
18:18What we do is we unload parts, typically
18:20on a small cart like this, and then we
18:22head over here to our part prep area.
18:25Now, the part prep area has basically
18:27three parts.
18:28We have our raw storage. So, parts that
18:31come right off the printers, so they've
18:32got supports, they've got rafts, they
18:34have anything that comes with the
18:36printed part from the printer,
18:38they get stored here. So, if we are not
18:41immediately going to clean the parts,
18:42this is where they come. Next to that,
18:44we have a blank prep station, which this
18:46is more or less just kind of extra
18:48space.
18:50But, the part that really is where all
18:51the magic happens is right here. And
18:53that is these amazing sit-stand part
18:56prep stations. Now, these are brand new.
18:58We just put these in place, and they are
19:00sitting on top of actually a sit-stand
19:02desk made by FlexiSpot. And for whatever
19:05reason, because I make YouTube videos, I
19:07get offered a lot of standing desks.
19:09Like, how many standing desks could I
19:10possibly need? But, that means that I've
19:11actually got to try several brands
19:13throughout the years, and what I've
19:14quickly found out is that there is a
19:16range, a spectrum, of quality when it
19:19comes to standing desks. Other brands
19:20are kind of janky, and you move them and
19:22they kind of shake and wobble, which is
19:24maybe okay for some things, but every
19:27FlexiSpot desk that I own, which I think
19:29this makes four of them just in this
19:30building, are all super sturdy. And
19:32that's what I really like about them.
19:33Even just the two-legged standard desks
19:35are far more sturdy than the other
19:38counterpart or options out there. So,
19:40when I went to build these workstations,
19:42I specifically wanted FlexiSpot four
19:44post. Now, these are the E6Q models, and
19:46it's a big 78-in by 30-in work surface.
19:49Assembly was super easy, and they come
19:51in several boxes. You lay out all the
19:53parts, you put it together. They have a
19:55static weight capacity of over 500 lb.
19:58You can put 500 lb on this thing, and
20:00it's not going to break. You can lift
20:02over 400 lb. So, while it's traveling up
20:04and down, you can actually put a giant
20:07person on here and lift them up and
20:08down. I don't know what why you'd want
20:09to do that. And I really appreciate that
20:11FlexiSpot offers such a variety of sizes
20:14and capabilities. So, the desk that's in
20:15my office is a similar setup. It's a
20:17four post. Right now, it's just holding
20:19up a monitor. So,
20:21slightly underused. The shipping station
20:22desk over there is also a FlexiSpot.
20:24That's a two-post model. But these are
20:26super beefy, super sturdy, and are
20:28already doing a great job as a
20:30workstation that we use in our part prep
20:32area. And since these are obviously
20:34sit-stand desks, you can raise and lower
20:36the height, depending on whatever's
20:37comfortable for you, which is very cool.
20:39But
20:40on top of the massive surface area, we
20:42have these, which I am so pumped about.
20:45Now, maybe my engineer is showing
20:47through a little too hard right here,
20:48but obviously these sit on top of the
20:50workstations and are a way to organize
20:52all of the things that we need when
20:54working in the part prep area. So, we've
20:56got all of the spare parts, we've got
20:57these uh thumb screws, we have threaded
20:59inserts, we have other screws, we have
21:02magnets, things that we use to basically
21:05take our raw printed parts and turn them
21:07into finished goods is all right here,
21:09including all of the necessary tools and
21:11other supplies you might need. Now,
21:13we've gone through so many iterations of
21:14this over the years from just having
21:16these sitting on the table, which isn't
21:19super cool because then it takes up a
21:20lot of room,
21:22um to having, you know, everything in a
21:23bin which gets lost and misplaced, but
21:25now having everything kind of where it
21:26needs to be, completely visible, you
21:28know, if you need a tool, it's right
21:30here.
21:31Easy to get. This is an idea that I
21:32actually put together in CAD first to
21:34demonstrate my idea. And then I used my
21:37Thunder Laser at home, my CO2 laser,
21:39which I don't get to use very often, but
21:41I'm always reminded how freaking cool it
21:43is. I actually cut out the acrylic
21:45templates that are for these side
21:47panels, cut them out of MDF, painted
21:49everything, and then assembled using a
21:51bunch of 3D printed parts that basically
21:53connect these work surfaces to the
21:55supports. So, it's a mixture of
21:57technology. We got laser cutting, we
21:59have 3D printing, we have woodworking,
22:00CAD, we have, you know, Gridfinity. I
22:02mean, obviously this is just a mock-up
22:04of a placeholder, really. Um, ideally
22:06we're going to have a lot of specialty
22:08stuff that is custom fitted for whatever
22:10we're using this environment, but I
22:12wanted to use Gridfinity here because
22:13it's it's a way to change and adapt over
22:16time
22:17because that's usually what happens.
22:18Things change, things evolve. But, I
22:20love how this is set up. It has
22:22everything organized and sort of in your
22:23face, and it allows us to prep parts
22:26even faster. So, the idea for this area
22:28is that all of these bins, which are
22:30nicely labeled based on model of product
22:32that we produce, are all full of parts
22:34that have yet to be cleaned. And this is
22:36going to act as a buffer between our
22:38fulfillment, which is the station over
22:40here, and the print farm itself. That's
22:42going to allow us to run our print farm
22:43much more efficiently and smoothly, and
22:45when one of these bins runs out, we know
22:47exactly what we need to print and when.
22:49So, when we're ready to prep the parts,
22:51we can take a bin over to the prep
22:53station, begin doing what we do, and
22:55then we move the parts to our prepped
22:58area, which is down here. And And I
23:00talked about workflow, right? So, so far
23:02we've come from the print farm to this
23:04area and now we're going back here. So,
23:06we're kind of in this like flowy line
23:08going back to this area, which is where
23:09we store all of the fully prepped parts
23:12that are ready for assembly into kits
23:14that we sell. So, you can see this part
23:16is cleaned up. We've got the hardware
23:17installed. This is basically a unit
23:20that's ready to go into our packaging
23:22station, which is just around the
23:24corner. And this again creates another
23:25buffer layer between the part prep area,
23:28the finished part area, and our
23:30fulfillment area. Now, the shipping and
23:31fulfillment area is really the heart of
23:33this operation. It's not as sexy and
23:35glamorous as a print farm full of robots
23:37making parts, but this is where finished
23:39kits get put together that are going to
23:41get shipped out to customers. It's also
23:42where orders are fulfilled and it's
23:44where basically the 3D printed part
23:46becomes a product to a customer. And
23:49right off the bat you see this massive
23:51assembly table here. This is
23:534 and 1/2 ft wide and about 20 ft long.
23:56And this is something that I was very
23:58adamant on having in this new space
24:00because in our old print farm, we had
24:02such a limited amount of room for
24:04multiple people to work. So, the idea
24:05with having a large center place table
24:08is that you can have people on both
24:09sides all the way down the table to
24:12effectively have up to, you know, six
24:14people working fairly comfortably in one
24:16area. This also lets you spread out and
24:18do a bunch of work all at once. You can
24:20see in the far end of the table we've
24:21got our adapter sets that are kind of
24:23pre-staged. We can take up 10 ft of
24:25table and still have a huge amount of
24:27room to fulfill orders and do other
24:29work. And this mountain of boxes you see
24:31over here is our finished part kits
24:34ready for sale inventory. All right, as
24:36we kind of continue around the table
24:37here we've got shipping supplies and raw
24:40materials for putting our kits together,
24:42which is all conveniently located right
24:44next to the spot where it's happening.
24:46And then a little bit further down the
24:47line we have some inventory of some of
24:49the products that we offer. Now,
24:50something that I take a lot of pride in
24:52or I'm overly anal about, depending on
24:53who you talk to, is making sure that
24:55everything is clearly labeled and has a
24:57specific place.
24:59We picked up a bunch of these cardboard
25:01inventory bins, which are super cheap.
25:03We usually used plastic bins in the
25:05past. The thing I don't like about the
25:06plastic bins is they're pretty fixed on
25:08size. They're kind of expensive, and
25:11they don't It's It's hard to modify, if
25:13that makes sense. These cardboard bins
25:16allow us to change things up pretty
25:17easily. You're not losing a bunch of
25:19money if you end up going with a
25:20different size or changing something. It
25:22kind of doesn't lock you into a certain
25:23configuration. So, everything is labeled
25:26with color-coded labels. So, green means
25:28that it's a finished product. Blue is a
25:31finished product that we buy from
25:32elsewhere. So, these koozies are
25:35obviously manufactured by someone else
25:37that we just resell. Everything in green
25:39is something that we manufacture
25:40ourselves. And if it's got a red label,
25:42like you see here, these are raw
25:44materials that go into our part kits.
25:47So, these aren't things that will ever
25:48get sent to a customer. We're not going
25:49to ship them a plastic bag or a zip tie.
25:53But, these are things that go into
25:54making up a kit that is part of our
25:57finished good, if that makes sense. So,
25:59that small discrepancy in labeling, I
26:01think helps kind of discern whether this
26:03is something that is a product versus
26:05something that we manufacture and sell
26:07ourselves. So, you can see that we
26:09basically got everything readily
26:10available to assemble basically any kit
26:12and fulfill any order at any time. And
26:15of course, I'm not going to let the
26:16massive storage possibilities go to
26:18waste underneath this giant table here.
26:20This is where we store a lot of our bulk
26:22items. These are mostly the plastic
26:25vacuum adapters that come with our kits.
26:27As you can see, these are the ones that
26:28are staged here. By staged, I mean
26:30they're nested in the three sizes that
26:32come in a standard kit. As we're putting
26:34together finished part kits that go out
26:35to customers, they can just grab one
26:37bunch of these and know that they've got
26:39everything at once. So, a little bit of
26:41a time saver there. But, as you continue
26:43down, we've got more of the bulk parts
26:45that we use, the flexible hoses
26:47of varying sizes. We have foam pouches
26:50for packaging
26:52and other things like that. So, as
26:54things move on to this shelf, it's
26:55effectively the finish line of goods
26:57that are ready to go out to customers.
26:59Now, to fulfill those orders, we do that
27:01at the shipping station. This little
27:02nook over here is our shipping station,
27:04which is also a FlexiSpot desk. Would
27:07you look at that? So, we come to the
27:08computer, we print out all of our
27:09packing slips and shipping labels for
27:11all the orders that are going out that
27:12day. We'll print them out on our thermal
27:15label printer down here, and then we'll
27:17kind of divvy them up for fulfillment.
27:19Once we have our boxed up orders ready
27:21to ship, we'll take them into the
27:22atrium, which is where we came into the
27:24building.
27:28That's it. Orders are on their way. Now,
27:30we've already fixed a lot of problems
27:31that were present in the last place in
27:33this new place. We have a lot more room
27:34to fulfill orders, to package orders, to
27:36prep parts. We have more room for
27:37printers. But, one of the things that I
27:40definitely want to make sure we improved
27:41on here was the ability to store more
27:44finished goods. In our last place,
27:46especially when it came to the holiday
27:47season, which is the busiest time for
27:48us, we would have piles of these boxes
27:51up against walls, kind of shoved in
27:53every random spot around the place. Now,
27:55we have a massive volume of shelving
27:58that we can occupy with finished goods
28:01to get us ready for those busy seasons.
28:02So, I'm really glad we did that. But,
28:03the second thing
28:05>> [sighs]
28:06>> is pallets. So, if you follow me back
28:08down this hallway through the condition
28:10storage, which we've already talked
28:12about, but we didn't actually talk about
28:13this side yet. And this side is another
28:15important sort of step up from our last
28:18place, and that's managing our inventory
28:20of our raw materials
28:22besides filament that we use in our
28:24production process. Now, in our last
28:25place, we had kind of a cabinet assigned
28:27to this, which worked okay, but it
28:29didn't have immediate visibility or a
28:31clear trigger on when to reorder parts.
28:34So, we've done here is implemented a
28:36two-bin system. And let me quickly
28:37explain what this is. A two-bin system
28:39is a dead simple way to control
28:42inventory without having to use software
28:44and make it overcomplicated. So,
28:46two-bin, obviously, there are two-bins.
28:47There's a front bin
28:49and a smaller back bin. The front bin
28:53represents all of the inventory that you
28:54can use up, right? These are plastic
28:57bags. Say we use all these plastic bags.
28:59As soon as this front bin is empty, and
29:01I then have to reach into the second
29:02bin, that triggers a reorder. So, you
29:05stock the level of the second bin such
29:08that whenever you go through this, it
29:10will be enough time for you for that new
29:12shipment to come in for you to order and
29:14have the new shipment come in. And you
29:15control this with something called
29:17Kanban card, which we already kind of
29:19talked about. So, each one of the back
29:21bins has a card that looks like this.
29:23This is for some star knobs
29:25um that we use on some of our products
29:27here. When you get to this card, this
29:29immediately tells you I need to reorder.
29:32More specifically, that I need to
29:34reorder. Since I'm not the one doing
29:36this all the time anymore, I can't keep
29:38track of when we run out of things, and
29:40I can't really rely on people just
29:42knowing how long stuff takes to order,
29:44where I order it from, that kind of
29:46stuff. So, these cards really help out.
29:48So, what you do is if you collect one of
29:50these cards, say this ran out and I
29:51pulled the card for it, we'd come out
29:53here to our handy-dandy super visual
29:56board here that needs actual labels, and
29:58put this in the needs to order bin. If
30:00I, Travis, who is responsible [snorts]
30:03for ordering stuff, walk by here and I
30:05see that all of these things need to be
30:06ordered, a light bulb goes off my head,
30:08I collect all the cards, I bring them
30:11back to my desk, I place the orders, and
30:13then I come back here and to signal to
30:15all the guys working here that they were
30:17in fact ordered, I move them over to the
30:19ordered side. Now, when these show up in
30:22however long it takes, some of these
30:23could be, you know, 60 days, some could
30:25be a week. When they show up when we get
30:27a shipment, the guys, when they see the
30:28shipment, they go, "Oh, let me go grab
30:30that card." And they put the card back,
30:32thus restarting the cycle. It's a dead
30:35simple, like I said, analog way to
30:37control inventory that I found to be
30:38really effective, and is actually
30:40exactly what we teach in the Print Farm
30:42Academy course, but it's not just
30:44limited to Print Farms. Like people,
30:45manufacturing companies all over the
30:47world do this. It's a very simplified
30:49system of the Kanban system implemented,
30:52I think, first by Toyota, but is now
30:54done by, like I said, everybody and
30:56their mother. So, that's how we control
30:57inventory, that's how we reorder parts,
30:59and we signal that we have ordered them
31:01as well. Okay, now finally for that fix
31:03for pallets that I alluded to earlier.
31:05You see, before our space had 8-ft
31:07ceilings, and there wasn't really any
31:08room for anything, but now we have 16-ft
31:12ceilings. Would you just look at how
31:14amazing this is? Now, when we originally
31:17bought the building, this is an area
31:18that I was
31:19kind of really excited about, even
31:21though it really has nothing to do with
31:23the printing process or any of the cool
31:24stuff that we already showed, but the
31:26ability to store pallets in a place
31:29that's not in the way of everything is
31:31such a massive relief. And then when we
31:33added the pallet racks, which we've only
31:35had for a couple weeks now, had the guys
31:36put them together in a weekend, now
31:38being able to elevate pallets and stack
31:41pallets is like next level. It literally
31:44leveled up our storage capabilities. You
31:46know, there's a lot of stuff we still
31:48got to tweak in here. This is definitely
31:49like early days for how we have this set
31:52up, but man, this is nice. And as you
31:54can see, there's all kinds of crap in
31:56here that now doesn't have to take up
31:58valuable space inside of the facility.
32:00And I mentioned that we're using 3D Fuel
32:01for our filament. Um you can see we've
32:03got a pallet here stacked with empty
32:05spools and empty boxes of filament that
32:08we've already gone through, and we're
32:09participating in a program that they
32:11call Farm Fuel. Basically allows us to
32:13ship back boxes and spools so that they
32:15can reuse them. One thing that I always
32:17felt terrible about was how much
32:19cardboard and plastic we ended up
32:21getting rid of. Now, I do have a
32:22recycling dumpster specifically for
32:24cardboard just based on how much
32:25cardboard we go through, but these black
32:27spools aren't really recyclable, and we
32:29kind of get yelled at when we tried. So,
32:31you end up just throwing them away. Just
32:32seems like a giant waste. So, the fact
32:34that we can ship these back to them,
32:35they respool on them, and then we kind
32:37of keep the cycle going. I don't know,
32:39makes me feel kind of good inside, but
32:40it's also a cool program that they
32:42offer. Um like I said, 3Z Fuels been
32:44amazing so far. Uh really glad to have
32:46them as a partner.
32:47Um the last thing I'll show you in here,
32:49check this little guy out. Now, I know
32:51it's not a forklift, it's a pallet
32:54stacker,
32:55but it's got a 3,500 lb capacity with
32:58side shift, and it does everything we
33:00need. Um the tallest pallet rack we have
33:02is uh 10 ft, I believe. Um and this
33:05that's right at the top of its capacity.
33:07So, you know, now when it comes to
33:08unloading trucks, when we get a a
33:10shipment of something that comes on a
33:11pallet, we normally would have to have a
33:13liftgate as part of the delivery, which
33:15you pay extra for, but now just being
33:17able to go up and grab it and pick it up
33:18off the truck has been great. So,
33:21uh the guys have gotten already pretty
33:23good at driving this. No one has crashed
33:25it into anything too valuable yet. One
33:27of our guys, Ron, has quickly stood out
33:29um as the guy that knows how to drive
33:31this the best. So, if there's ever a
33:32tight job or we need him to, you know,
33:35something needs to go in a kind of a uh
33:37sketchy spot, he's the guy. Uh we also
33:40have our tool wall set up and some tools
33:42out here. So, if we're doing any kind
33:43of,
33:44you know, putting in an outlet, hanging
33:46a picture,
33:48doing something, we got tools.
33:50Since you're probably dying to know, our
33:52bathrooms are back through this door
33:55here into this sort of like common area,
33:58which there's a random Christmas tree,
33:59not really sure why. We got men's and
34:02women's bathroom.
34:04Pretty exciting. And that is basically
34:06the gist of it. I am super happy with
34:08how this place turned out. I love the
34:10flow. We haven't really run into any
34:12bottlenecks yet. I know that they're
34:14going to pop up, it's just a matter of
34:15how we deal with them, but so far the
34:17flow from the print farm room to part
34:19prep to fulfillment shipping and raw
34:21materials, it all kind of is very
34:23cohesive and easy to use
34:25so far. So, that is the print farm in a
34:27nutshell. I hope you enjoyed the tour.
34:29If you've got any questions or I left
34:30things out, leave those down in the
34:31comments. I'll try to answer as best I
34:33can. And if you want to learn how to
34:35build a 3D printing business, I
34:36basically taken everything from my head
34:38and thrown it into a course that I spent
34:406 months killing myself to make. It's
34:42called Printform Academy. You can scan
34:44the QR code here if you're interested.
34:46Other than that, happy printing out
34:48there.

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