5.3: Printing as a Service

The degree to which you offer access to your 3D printer will depend on your goals with the device; regardless, one way of framing access control is viewing it in terms of a service model. Who are your "customers" or "patrons"? What is your capacity? What suite of offerings will you provide to your users? It may be that your intent with your 3D printer is merely to print instructional models to use in class; for example, an engineering course instructor may print mechanical models for demonstration, or an anatomy instructor may print models of bones to demonstrate how they fit together. In those cases, the instructor is the only "patron", so the service model as such is quite simple indeed.

3D printing as a practice in an instructional context has grown beyond mere production; the availability of easy-to-use commercial printers, as well as the demand from an advancing workforce for technical and creative problem-solving skills, has elevated its position from the closet to the lectern. Your students will benefit from interacting with 3D printing if you have the time, motivation, and inclination. The skill of iterative thinking - taking a raw idea and refining it through repeated creation, assessment, and recreation - is invaluable, and can be translated from the 3D printing context to nearly any creative endeavor. 3D printing has the benefit of being cool, too.

The Service Model

If you're convinced of the value of sharing access to your 3D printer with students and/or colleagues, first think about the following with regard to your service model:

• Level of Interaction - How do you want your patrons to interact with the 3D printing process? You may choose to keep direct access to the equipment relatively locked down, only accepting print submissions in the form of STL files. You may want a mediated access model, where patrons can book time with an expert to discuss their project and help guide them through the printing process. You may even want to run an "open shop", where patrons are invited to come at any time during open hours and freely use shop equipment. Each level of interaction brings its own challenges unique challenges. Simply offering a print-on-demand service on the one end of the spectrum is streamlined, precluding the need for direct face time with patrons, but it requires a carefully developed asynchronous communication system to establish the patron's printing requirements and accept STL print file submissions. An open shop, on the other side of the access spectrum, is relatively hands-off in the day-to-day, but requires that visitors have expertise in operating the shop equipment - and where else will the receive that instruction but from you, the shop manager?
• Nature of Services Rendered - Are you a print shop, working on customer invoices to deliver finished goods? Or, are you a consulting firm, helping to educate and guide customers to develop their own finished products? As mentioned previously, you may choose to operate as an open shop, where patrons are either assumed to have existing expertise or you provide robust training on the use of shop equipment. This point admittedly overlaps somewhat with the prior note; it can help to reframe your concept of what you want to do with your space in different ways to identify potential challenges.
• Bandwidth - It's natural to get excited about having a new 3D printer and wanting to share it with anyone who expresses vague interest. Remember that resources are limited - time and money of course, but even motivation can be finite, as anyone who has experienced burnout can attest. The consequences of "biting off more than you can chew" can range from that burnout to printer downtime due to damage from mismanagement or neglect, or even injury if a workspace isn't properly equipped with safety equipment and protocols. Make sure that your service vision aligns with your bandwidth.
• Communication - This will be expanded upon in a later section, but think about how you will interact with your patrons. If you will be operating a sort of "closed shop" model where direct access to the 3D printer is not available to patrons, your communication with them will likely need to be asynchronous and electronic. Will your patrons submit print jobs via email, or via an online form of some kind? If you will allow your patrons to book time in the space, how will you accomplish that? There are a number of online services for scheduling meetings that you can take advantage of, and your institution may contract with a technology platform like Google or Microsoft which provides an app for schedule management. You should also be sure to clearly communicate your services rendered and, possibly more importantly, the boundaries of what services you are able to provide. Manage your patrons' expectations according to your bandwidth. Be clear about any shop rules you may have developed, and if you expect your patrons to follow posted rules, be sure not to break or bend them yourself! Setting an example will go a long way towards compliance.

Your local circumstances will determine the initial parameters of your service model, but remember that such things can, and will, evolve. Taking a cue from the idea of “iterative thinking,” start with an approach that works for you now, while staying flexible enough to adapt as your circumstances change. You may discover new capabilities in yourself, your colleagues, or your students that you didn't expect. Or, you may find that an expectation you held before starting didn't bear out - don't be afraid to discard any policies or procedures that you put in place which no longer align with your reality.