Enterprise Track Topics

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Introduction

The Enterprise Track is designed for people who are considering starting a business around our open source products. The Enterprise Track consists of a nightly Seminar, in which we discuss key topics enabling successful startup, based on our lessons learned and participant input. We are co-creating a network of open source producers, and invite you to join if you'd like to take an active part in the transition to an economy based on collaborative design. Topics covered will be prioritized by the needs and interests of participants. The Seminar sessions may involve working exercises that generate useful assets for an enterprise - such as working on marketing copy, developing the supply chain, experimenting hands-on with production engineering optimization, documenting operating procedures, developing Lean Six Sigma techniques, and more.

Content Clarity

To focus the development, the Enterprise Track should be as much about hands-on enterprise startup as possible: for kit production, for running STEAM Camps, for producing goods for the Open Source Everything Store.

This means that for kit production, we have a specific set of skill sets to cover:

  1. Going over the Bill of Materials - applied lesson: building the cut list for metal, wiring, and other parts
  2. Going through a build from kit together - and documenting it
  3. Going through a troubleshooting procedure with a kit where 'Everything That Could Go Wrong Went Wrong'
  4. Documenting the production ergonomics for building a batch of parts.
  5. Creating an Amazon Store hands-on, after documenting production capacity and pricing for an owner-operator enterprise
  6. Creating a sales website. For highest modularity - we use advanced Mediawiki templates as a first choice, but there may be others.
  7. Creating a marketing strategy, marketing plan, and copy.
  8. Developing a business plan with revenue projections

Kits, STEAM Camps, Summer X, Incentive Challenge:

  1. Developing an Enterprise Development Training Package: for Kit Producers, Instructors, STEAM Camp Open Source Franchisees
  2. If time allows - going over Summer X replication training. Just like we do STEAM Camps in multiple locations, we will be doing Summer X in multiple locations as well to maximize collaboration


Enterprise Track

  1. Intended Audience -The Enterprise Track is dedicated to those individuals with a serious interest in starting an enterprise based on the subject matter learned.
  2. Enterprise Areas - At present, we have documented productivity and revenue milestones that serve as proofs of concept for meaningful enterprises. These enterprises revolve around production of STEAM Camps, production of kits, production of finished machines, and delivery of immersion training programs for collaborative design and build. We are actively developing an open source microfactory and the Open Source Everything Store - to deliver the promise of open source, collaborative, digitally-assisted fabrication and collaborative design as the new paradigm of economic production.
  3. Specific Products - During Summer X - we will be releasing the following products: (1) Large Volume Enclosed 3D printer – 2x2x3 foot working area with enclosure for retaining heat, and air filtration; Filament Making - with shredder and extruder; MicroTrac with 3D printed tracks and wheel modules; CNC Torch Table; CEB with Soil Mixer; Construction Panel 3D Printer – 4x4x8 foot panel printer, using waste plastic feedstock. Other prototypes that lead to these are described at the overview schedule
  4. Co-Creation - This is likewise a collaborative, co-creation process in the format of a seminar where discussion is encouraged. During each seminar, held at the Microhouse, we select documenters/note takers. The demands of participants include active commitment to documenting the lessons learned using cloud collaborative Google Docs.

Topics

Topics include: Collaborative Literacy for Enterprise Development, Open Source Business Models, 3D Printing Production Engineering, Production Engineering, BOM Specification and Sourcing, Workshop Layout, Quality Control, Certification, Economics of 3D Printing, How to Start an Amazon, Etsy, or Online Store for Your Open Source Hardware Business, Big Picture of the Open Source Economy, Open Source Microfactory Infrastructures - from Home Scale to Off-Grid, Green Microfactory, The CNC Torch Table: Key Tool of the Open Source Microfactory; Production Engineering for Products Made on the CNC Torch Table; How to Post Events on a Wordrpess Site. And more:

  1. How to Start an Amazon,Etsy, or Online Store - What are the steps for, practical issues of, and true costs of starting and running an Amazon or Etsy store.
  2. Open Hardware Business Models - viable business model options for open hardware, revenue projections and scenarios for sample products; revenue model case studies. Valuation of Open Hardware, Common household products paper, and Case Study of Distributed Eyeglasses Production. SU as model for OSE education franchise. TedX model, X Prize model, Extreme Manufacturing model, STEAM Camps model. Kits.
  3. Ergonomics and Economics of Kit Production. How to Produce a Universal Axis Kit. How to produce the D3D Universal Kit. How to produce a CNC plotter kit. How to produce a D3D Simple 3D Printer Kit. How to produce a CNC mill kit.
  4. Open Source Economics - definition of, philosophy of humility, branding, case studies, and growing the pie for everyone.
  5. Packaging and Shipping - strategies and best practices for effective and automated packaging shipping
  6. The Economics of 3D Printing - producing common goods, custom items, and construction materials using 3D printing. Production rates. Value per printer hour. The 3D printing hype curve: what was missing? Economics of household good production with 3D printers. Economics of Printing with Rubber.
  7. The Open Source Microfactory Infrastructure - How to design and operate an on open source microfactory. Startup budget. Home workshop. Garage workshop. Basic heavy machine workshop facilities. Full Workshop facility. The Off Grid Microfactory. The Desktop Microfactory. The Open Source Materials Production Facility. Layout, parts inventory, workflow.
  8. Franchising, Producer Training, and Certification - What is a financial model for disseminating microfactories worldwide? What does an open source franchise look like? Franchise agreements. OSE Producer Certification.
  9. Product Support and Warranties - How to leverage an online community for support. Forums. Askbot. Product reviews. How to leverage lifetime design for an Unlimited Lifetime Warranty. Collaborative dev can include R&D - marketing - product support via community and forum and simple design - and lifetime guarantee. COTS addresses parts support. Documentation addresses customer support in a major way.
  10. Production Engineering - Detailed ergonomics of production and revenue genearation. Production rates. Production revenues for machines per hour. Requirements: nitty gritty of STLs, profiles. Using specific nozzle size depending on print size: Microfactory vs Torch Table and larger machines vs construction and furniture.
  11. Packaging - shipping options, labeling, packaging. Flat rate, envelope, and custom shipments. The USPO mailbox.
  12. Distribution Channels - How to set up an Amazon or Etsy store. Setting up kit sales on Kit.com. Setting up a Crowd Supply channel. Kickstarter campaigns. E-commerce, m-commerce, and an OSE Everything Store app. Direct marketing. Edumarketing. Sales funnel for OSE collaborators: designing a sales funnel for your open hardware business, and leveraging collaboratively-developed products marketing assets. Drop shipping.
  13. Collaborative Production of Documentation -- Creating a Build Manual (for builders), Production Manual (for entrepreneurs), and a Product Manual with Troubleshooting and Repair information (for users). How to do a Documentation Sprint to produce a product manual with a Remote Team using realtime collaborative editing: roles involved.
  14. Open Source Everything Store - The concept of collaborative product development for scaling self-determination. The most efficient way to produce. From vision to execution. On-demand production infrastructure for microfactories. Required uniform infrastructure, delivery time, and producer certification. Open Source Everything Store templates on the wiki. Defining standards for the Open Source Everything Store: The 12 Requirements.
  15. The Open Source Film Studio - Using the OSE Tablet Video Studio. Making and preparing education products for YouTube, live streams, webinars, and podcasts. Combining the Open Source Film Studio for product photo shoots, promotional materials, and instructionals. How to script and produce an explainer video, a blackboard video, and a whiteboard video. Product Photo Shoot - How to do a product photo shoot.
  16. Collaborative production of video assets with shared Kdenlive files and YouTube assets.
  17. Product Templates - embeddable website product page templates with 3D visualizations and product reviews for e-commerce. How to create them and use them for your own online store, and how these fit into the Open Source Everything Store.
  18. Product Strategy - What is a Product Strategy? How to design a robust product strategy. How to design an irresistible offers in open source; education products; bootstrapping products. Physical products, education as products, and the Experience Economy.

Granular Breakdown

  1. Starting a 3D printer kit production enterprise starts with a firm understanding of admissible parts for the BOM. We can go over this in detail.
  2. Getting a 3D printer up and running involves a basic procedure to verify that all parts work as intended. We can go over this in detail, to be captured at the D3D Universal#Troubleshooting as a set of basic procedures that also apply to larger or more complicated machines. Once one understands the process for D3D Unviersal, this process can be applied to other Universal Axis machines that use the Universal Controller.
  3. Producing kits involves basic quality control procedures to verify that all parts work as intended. To be captured at D3D Universal Quality Control and D3D Pro Quality Control, D3D Pro Mega Quality Control, D3D Laser Cutter Quality Control, and D3D CNC Torch Table Quality Control.

Exercises

We may engage in any of these exercises during the Seminar as time allows:

  1. Collaborative Literacy for Enterprise Development - documenting a Collaboration Architecture for an Incentive Challenge
  2. Open Source Business Models - writing a sample economic analysis
  3. 3D Printing Production Engineering - determining maximum 3D printer extrusion rates as a function of heating power to determine extrusion limits in production printing
  4. The 3D Printer BOM. Exercise: optimizing sourcing for one component, such as GFCI - [1].
  5. Production Engineering - designing a Visual Workplace
  6. BOM Optimization and MOQs - determining the savings and feasibility of a large part order
  7. Workshop Layout - design exercise for a 3D printed materials and tool storage system effective production
  8. Tooling optimization - designing a 3D printed tool set used for production - to lower cost of tooling
  9. Distributed Quality Control - designing a distributed QC protocol for a select product
  10. Producer and Product Certification - refining an Open Source Franchise Producer Agreement
  11. 3D Printed Product Development - designing the production engineering and process for producing a common, on-demand product
  12. Business development - Designing a custom 3D printing website where people can order custom parts, including verification of printability and print parameters
  13. Exercise - starting a Distributed Collaborative Sales Site on Etsy or Amazon in a collaborative way where multiple poeple produce the same products
  14. Open Source Microfactory Infrastructures - from Home Scale to Off-Grid, Green Microfactory
  15. The CNC Torch Table: Key Tool of the Open Source Microfactory. Designing for fabrication. Nesting. Operating Costs.
  16. Production Engineering for Products Made on the CNC Torch Table - Taking a specific CNC nesting and optimizing it further
  17. How to Post Events on a Wordpresss Site - generating a common, embeddable product template
  18. Creating a Unique Value Proposition - taking a select product and documenting a UVP for it

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