AFL Lab Coordinator Training

All of the information outlined in this wiki is in additional to the General LC Training. Please complete that course prior to reading through this page.

The Lab Coordinator of the AFL should take steps to ensure that all of the staff, volunteers, machines and jobs are properly managed in order to help fulfill the goals of Terrapin Works. The Advanced Fabrication Lab is the flagship lab of Terrapin Works, and is key to supporting important research, student projects, and innovation.

Some key responsibilities include:

• Ensuring that job requests pertaining to machines residing in the AFL are being completed consistently and on-time
• Enabling basic and advanced training on machines and workflows in the lab space for staffers, volunteers, and non-staff where appropriate
• Enabling reasonable research or education requests
• Managing staff members to ensure that no knowledge is lost on any machines or processes
• Supporting advanced internal workflows, such as 3D Scanning and Design team work
• Improving the workflows and processes in place for machines, staff, and customers

These are just some of the responsibilities that are common for a Lab Coordinator in the AFL. In some cases, this emphasizes what is normally expected from a Lab Coordinator, but in other cases it adds to those general responsibilities.

There are many tools and techniques detailed through this wiki that will help with these responsibilities, and should serve as a bit of a reference during any unique circumstances.

Technical Supervisors are key to the successful operation of the AFL. The LC is responsible for using the TS’s to accomplish certain tasks, and it is NOT EXPECTED for the LC to do all of the ‘high-level’ work. An LC must learn to lean on their support network, and the TS’s are a key part of the support network.

TS’s can be used to:

• Answer/handle helpdesk questions
• Ensure that complex job requests are handled properly
• Follow up with technicians on skills progression
• Train other staffers in the space (especially during basic and advanced training)
• Manage lab improvement projects

Machine Specialists/Technical Coordinators are also important, as they can be used to provide technical advise on specific jobs and help develop or update training. The LC does not need to have the best technical knowledge on every machine in the lab, but needs to make sure that the technical knowledge is not lost. This often means ensuring each machine track has an MS/TC, and a new MS/TC-in-training is identified.

MS/TCs can be used to:

• Answer/handle technical helpdesk questions
• Enable reasonable research or education requests
• Support advanced internal workflows, such as 3D Scanning and Design team work
• Train other staffers in the space

Technicians are critical to the basic operations and request fulfillment. They are indirectly critical to the LC support network. Most of the time, the techs should be serving as part of the TS’s support network, so it is encouraged to go utilize techs through the TS’s. This ensures that the TS’s are developing healthy work relationships with the techs, and that the LC is not the single person that is being contacted for every little issue.

Utilizing the help of an tech through a TS can be accomplished by handing off a problem, project or making a request of a TS, and encouraging them to involve techs in their process.

Director of Technical Operations

Expertise in Lasers and Electrical Engineering. External client relations (and issues) can be elevated to his level. Rick also often brings tours through the lab, so some coordination for those may be required.

Terrapin Works FTE (Safety focus)

Andy is the go-to for anything safety and hand equipment related. Andy is also the most frequent FTE in the lab, and helpful for machine setup and general repair.

Design Team Manager

Any requests beyond the scope of “throw it in PaperCut” that may be more design or prototyping related should be passed off to the Design Team.

Cypress Building Manager (Student Competitions)

Any student competition group relations can be handled through Ted, especially MOU’s, education (workshops), or introduction to TW resources. He will also be aware of student storage spaces, such as lockers.

Instructional Fabrication and Advanced Fabrication Lab Manager

Anything related to machine tools, or more complicated subtractive manufacturing needs (3D subtractive, manual machining). He also manages the machines over in the Terps Racing shop, and has a hand in the Leidos Innovation Labs. He is the go-to guy for any AFL questions.

This is an incredibly important part of the LC responsibilities, since it keeps the AFL running smoothly. This is not a complete list, but rather a place to start. Each LC will have their own interpretation and nuance during their period managing the AFL, so feel free to add to this list.

These should be completed on Monday and Tuesday so that any orders can be placed by Tuesday afternoon (COB).

• Submit weekly AFL order if necessary
• Review of AFL Jira board, review stalled projects
• Review of helpdesk tickets, follow up with stalled tickets

These are usually done during the last week of the month.

• Review project ideas, and move forward projects which are important
• Review staff workload in Jira
• Check in on lab organization
• Review Bioraft dashboard and compliance

These are usually done at the beginning or end of a Spring or Fall semester.

Beginning:

• Update @aflstaff group in Slack
• Update @afltrainees group in Slack
• Update training channel and mgmt channel attendance in Slack (usually taken care of by usergroups)
• Update staff in Bioraft
• Review hazards in Bioraft

End:

• Identify PaperCut products and options that need to be updated (must be completed before new semester starts)
• Identify cost scripts that need to be updated (must be completed before new semester starts)
• Identify Dozuki machine pages that need to be updated (must be completed before new semester starts)
• Identify Website pages that need to be updated (must be completed before new semester starts)

Project Management is a huge part of the LC role. It has several aspects, ranging from organization to project review, which is hard to cover in a single resource. As these processes change and people gain more experience with them, this wiki should serve as a base of knowledge and a reference for whoever needs it.

AFL Jira board - Review the Jira Usage in the AFL Wiki, especially understanding the organization behind everything in the AFL project. As the Jira project grows and expands, it’s important to keep this wiki up to date and ensuring that changes fit within the spirit of how Jira is used.

Additionally, keeping these resources up-to-date inherently forces any changes to be fully fleshed out with proper reasoning.

Make sure that each and every meeting has a note-taker assigned and notes taken in the comments. The biggest thing is to make sure each meeting has an agenda, notes, and any action items are assigned to specific people, put into the comments or linked to appropriate follow up issues.

• Agenda: Should outline the meeting, and link any resources that will be referenced during the meeting
• Comments: Note-taker should include notes here; since Jira is sometimes funky about saving comments, split up each topic into its’ own comment (comments can be edited in case a topic comes up again)

Be sure issues are labelled appropriately. Issues should be attached to some of the persistent epics if necessary, such as the two “meetings” epics, training, or product configuration epics.

The AFL project in Jira should only include things that are being worked on or will be worked on by AFL staff - should not include or breakdown projects that are being done by the design team for the AFL. However, issues to keep track of these design projects may be made and linked to the design team tracker token.

Any issue put into the “Ready for Review” status should be reviewed in less than one work week, in order to keep work flowing consistently.

Tips for reviewing content:

• Check comments to see if there is anything the assignee wants the review to focus on
• Make sure the assignee has linked the resources
• Check project against any standards of quality set for projects of that type, ex. Dozuki’s should comply with the Dozuki SOQ
• Make sure the project maintains consistency of language, imagery, etc. as appropriate
• Provide feedback on the project, either through annotated screenshots, or detailed comments in the Issue
• Update the status of the issue as appropriate, and make sure the assignee continues work if work needs to be done

Reminders for completed projects:

• Only mark as “done” once ALL work is completed, including release, deployment, etc. as appropriate
• Be sure the completed issue has a descriptive and consistent title, like Dozuki guides should have an issue with their title somewhere in the name

“Advanced Machines” include the prosumer and industrial machines in the AFL. These machines have some special considerations in terms of their materials, parts, maintenances and other items to keep them running to effectively support the mission of Terrapin Works.

Call Stratasys support. Any large issues or potential repairs should be at least mentioned or discussed with FTE.

Email services@amtekcompany.com and request the materials needed. Then upload the purchase order to Procurify. Orders should be conducted twice a year or once every major school semester.

When ordering new material, order in these quantities

• Vero White: 3 cartridges
• Vero Black: 1 cartridge
• Vero Clear: 1 cartridge
• MED 610: 2 cartridges
• Agilus30 Black: 3 cartridges
• Agilus30 Clear: 1 cartridge
• Soluble Support: 4 cartridges

This machine was purchased through Cimquest.

Contact our Cimquest representative, Courtney DeCasas at cdecasas@cimquest-inc.com.

Contact our Cimquest representative, Matt Sypniewski at msypniewski@cimquest-inc.com.

Contact our Cimquest representative, Courtney DeCasas at cdecasas@cimquest-inc.com.

This machine was purchased through Amtek and we also have a service contract with them.

WIP

Contact Stratasys directly for support and service. They may ask for the machine serial number, and will see our support contract with Amtek.

Request account on hub.stratasys.com and get purchase information from there. If there are any issues with material availability, etc. email services@amtekcompany.com and request the materials needed. Then upload the purchase order to Procurify.

This machine was purchased through Cimquest.

Contact Desktop Metal Support at support@desktopmetal.com

Contact Desktop Metal Support at support@desktopmetal.com

Contact our Cimquest representative, Courtney DeCasas at cdecasas@cimquest-inc.com.

These machines were purchased through a reseller.

Purchase from the Markforged store. Advanced needs may need to reach out to Markforged support.

Contact through normal Markforged support channels. We do not have a service contract on these machines.

Purchase from the Markforged store.

These machines were purchases through a reseller.

Parts like resin tanks or build plates are available on the Formlabs store. For advanced needs contact Formlabs support directly.

Contact Formlabs support directly. Service is only needed on very catastrophic issues, in which case we may have to send the printer back or it may be more efficient to retire the machine. Definitely inform an FTE and figure out the options prior to this.

Consumables are available on the Formlabs store.

This machine was purchased through Amtek.

Parts for the Kern can be purchased from LaserLocker.

Call or email Kern support at help@kernlasers.com, (218) 631-2755

One of the goals of Terrapin Works is to constantly provide opportunities for our staff members to grow and learn. The LC must ensure even coverage between all machines/technologies so that no knowledge is lost over time. These are the following machines that need dedicated Machine Specialists / Technical Coordinators:

• Stratasys Objet500 Connex
• Stratasys Fortus 400mc
• HP Jet Fusion 580
• Desktop Metal Shop
• Scanning:
  • Keyence VR-3200
  • Romer Absolut Arm
  • Artec Space Spyder
  • Artec LEO
• Kern LaserCell 50

Design team will submit jobs to PaperCut just like any other customer. Most workflows for design team that come through the AFL will follow standard client procedures, and all communication should be managed through PaperCut to keep everything easy to follow. Design team members may come to the AFL to work on their design projects, and it is the LCs responsibility to make sure that opportunity is available.

The AFL (and AFL LC) will have to make sure staff is available to support scanning jobs as requested by Design team staff. This time should line up with regularly scheduled hours in the space, for the most part. For bigger scanning jobs, special times may be created for specific jobs.

Researchers should be supported in any way that is reasonable.

“Reasonable” requests should:

• NOT pose risk of damage to TW-owned equipment
• NOT take an exorbitant amount of time that would displace normal use for an extended period
• Be well thought out by the researcher (a documented plan of action or proposal is desirable)

Often, an agreement can be reached where a researcher will purchase parts that are at risk of excessive wear or damage. Some examples include:

• Purchasing (or paying for) hotend cartridges for the Ultimaker 3 prior to exotic materials testing
• Purchasing (or paying for) a new resin tank and build plate for different resin use on the Formlabs Form 2 (must still be Formlabs approved resin)

Some common workflows that we’ve supported so far include:

• Camera attached to top lid of Connex
• Specific materials testing on consumer/prosumer machines (materials and parts provided by researchers, including parts that would undergo wear)
• Complex or untested geometry (with justification)

Requests made by students should be reviewed for practicality, and often a cheaper or better solution for their parts can be suggested. If cost is a concern for the student, explore self-service options for them to save money and learn a little more about the equipment which we have.

Students and student project teams need to be encouraged, so in some cases agreements can be reached for expensive jobs or unique processes dependent on specific situations. In some cases this may require and MOU and discussion with a FTE.

Requests made by external users must still be made through PaperCut. They must request a guest account through ter.ps/GuestPC, and log in to see product options. Many external users will start out by contacting Terrapin Works through the ticketing helpdesk. External users can communicate with us most easily through the helpdesk by emailing terrapinworks@umd.edu , or through their PaperCut request.

External users will be subject to external pricing. This is still below fair price of the services which we are providing, but includes machine costs that otherwise are waived for internal users.

The LC should have edit access to the AFL calendar. All appointments are booked through this calendar, and should be integrated with the #ops-afl_notifications channel in slack.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, this calendar is being used to manage contactless pickup in 30 minute timeslots. This utilizes the appointments feature of Google Calendar, so please be aware of how that works.

Integration with Slack is handled through the Google Calendar for Teams app, so check that out if the integration needs updating.

All pickup and dropoff should be associated with a PaperCut number, and this PaperCut number should follow the materials or parts for the job wherever it goes. It is the responsibility of the LC to make sure that these expectations are well known to all AFL staff, and figuring out how best to convey that information to Customers.

It is the responsibility of the LC to manage organization and workflow for the entire process that a customer or staff experiences. Essentially, the LC is the person who can take a step back and look at how the process can be made easier and painless from both sides.

It’s highly encouraged to bring up these ideas with FTE or during the LC meetings, in order to get feedback and flesh them out further. At the moment, we are working to specify workflows for our staff on each machine in Dozuki as a part of training. One of the ideas for the future is to create public guides that can be sent to customers when they ask about how to submit jobs on specific machines, or if they have a question about how the process works.