Generating wider adoption of 3D printing at RICOH and beyond…
Ricoh 3D has proudly launched the ‘Ricoh 3D Academy’ at Ricoh UK Products Ltd, with the aim of generating a wider knowledge and adoption of 3D printing within the business.
The academy, which will run quarterly workshops on-site, recognises the need for a wider adoption of 3D printing within the manufacturing industry, so Ricoh 3D will be facilitating an internal environment to help achieve this.
Ricoh 3D Academy, established 2024.
Ricoh 3D Academy | Continuous Improvement
With a rich Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) culture at RICOH, the team will drive principles of knowledge-sharing, co-creation and ‘learning by doing’, to apply elements of additive manufacturing across the business, generating new value within Ricoh UK Products and for its customers.
In addition to quarterly workshops, Ricoh 3D has set up a dedicated ‘self-service’ printing area, providing desktop printing technology, as well as a range of materials and resources, and a team of support staff.
Furthermore, the area will allow the space and time for innovation and design iteration, without constraints of larger manufacturing controls.
This combinative approach has been carefully crafted to help maximise 3D printing within the business, including in-depth explorations, training and project work, to support one-off works as well as total manufacturing solutions.
The academy hopes to support those outside of the existing Ricoh 3D team through championing RICOH’s culture of Kaizen and encouraging engineers and alike to utilise iterative design through testing, and to make 3D printing more accessible across disciplines and departments.
Ricoh 3D Academy | Shaping Learning and the Business
Participants will actively be involved in sharing and directing the content of the workshops too, co-creating to overcome pain points, projects and manufacturing solutions, also identifying further scope for 3D printing and potential scalability.
Ricoh 3D Senior Engineer, Richard Minifie commented: “The academy will provide the expertise, support and resource to better help employees across the business understand where 3D printing can fit in, manufacture and implement applications, and benefit the business and, or our customers.”
“We hope to create a group of ‘AM Champions’ within RICOH – who can support one another, as well as their peers. This will enable horizontal deployment of 3D printing solutions, knowledge-sharing and co-creation.
“At present, parts are often ordered which have not been designed with AM in mind, but rather chosen for the quick lead time. Whilst employees and customers will still benefit from this speedy operation, we aim to educate on design elements, such as Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) – which will allow for greater performative gains, such as higher or more efficient performance, making parts lighter, smaller, stronger, reducing wastage and supporting sustainability, or even just creating an aesthetic ‘wow-factor’.
“The first workshop session took place on 7 February, and I am pleased that we have 16 members so far, ranging from engineers, production staff and apprentices.”
Further Scope
He added: “It’s an exciting time for us at Ricoh 3D and I certainly hope there’s further potential for scalability or an expansion of the academy to support external parties also, or tailoring academy workshops for customers and organisations as a holistic service.”
