Kit Certification

Introduction

OSE kit certification is a certification given to individual who are interested in building OSE Kits according to OSE specifications. The first kit produced by OSE is the 3D printer kit - for OSE's 3D Printer v18.10 - the official 3D printer release from 2018.

Certification Process Overview

As a Distributive Enterprise organization - OSE encourages others to produce OSE kits. Anyone is welcome to build from our plans independently. However, to obtain OSE Certification as an official mark of quality dated by year of issue - the producer has the option to apply for certification using the process below.

The the first kit that OSE is producing is ready for widespread replication, and is documented in the 3D Printer Manual for the 3D Printer v18.10. This is the first major documentation manual since the Civilization Starter Kit v0.01 of 2012 - which included 4 early prototype heavy machines. In contrast, the 3D Printer v18.10 has gone through about a dozen iterations to arrive at the current version. We deem the v18.10 as a product release in a high level of refinement, with no major bugs affecting perfromance. v18.10 has run successfully with a direct-drive extruder at 200 mm/sec print speeds, and is currently undergoing regular use in part production for additional printers.

To produce the 3D Printer kit, one must be able to do the following steps:

1. Understand the build of the OSE 3D Printer by having built one or more of them. Kit Certification is typically intended to be taken together with Build Certification - where the individual builds the intended kit to a finished product. One must understand how the OSE printer is built in order to produce kits effectively.
2. Source materials according to the 3D Printer BOM
3. From sourced materials, preparing a complete and tested kit sufficient for building one D3D v18.10 3D printer completely.
4. Package the kit and ship to the customer

Individual Kit Certification

The ability to prepare a kit from sourced materials must be done effectively and efficiently in order for a kit to be a scalable and economically significant product. We are interested in distributed production of kits - with accompanying capacity for distributed quality control. OSE is testing whether distributed production of kits is a viable business model, including proper quality control. Distributed quality control can be achieved by a combination of easy-to-source off-the-shelf parts, reliable sourcing, simple design, and quality control checklists. OSE is testing not only the viability of distributed kit production - but also - of distributed quality control.

Distributed quality control begins with kit producers demonstrating the ability to produce, test, and document their kit. Certification may be done on the OSE premises on an appointment basis - or remotely via a Certification Application. Both OSE staff and outside collaborators are eligible for submitting their Application - as OSE is an open organization that encourages others to replicate OSE work.

To get certified to produce kits, the producer builds the kit from parts, and submits necessary documentation. The submission would be pictures, answers to key build quetions, checklists, and some written notes on the wiki. The documentation part will require 1-2 hours to record/embed pictures on the wiki, in addition to the actual kit preparation.

For anyone to get certified to build kits, the best place to get training is during OSE's Immersion Training Program. Otherwise, one may pick up the 3D Printer Manual and study the wiki for additional information.

In both cases of Kit + Build Certification, the certification would be represented by a percentage score based on well-defined criteria recorded on a checklist - so there is no ambiguity on what the grading actually means. Thus, we can create a transparent certification where everyone understands clearly the level of competency achieved. This can be both an educational and aspirational process for all of the OSE community - and especially useful to those people who are considering starting their own microfactories.

The certification application involves both producing documentation and submitting a finished kit for review.

Criteria

Criteria for a successful kit production operation include:

1. Short build time. 4 kits per day is decent production for 1 person, but if taken in more of an assembly line fashion with good ergonomic setup and efficient tools - it should be possible for a single person to build 12 kits comfortably in a single 8 hour day.
2. Effective inventorying. Proper arrangement of parts in supply bins is required for organizing materials effectively.
3. Ability to 3D print parts. Many of the critical axis parts and other components are 3D printed, requiring 24-72 hours of print time depending on setup.

Build Steps and Time

Kit preparation involves a number of steps, and these are summed up in this spreadsheet: