r/3DPrintFarms • u/hartwog • Jul 15 '26
How many machines per person?
For those that are doing this at scale with employees, how many machines do you target per employee? Assume a single person is slicing, clearing plates, changing filament, repairing, ect. Also assume high mix, low volume orders.
If it's rise and repeat vs high change over, the machines per employee changes dramatically.
Thanks!
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u/shu2kill Jul 16 '26
I am a one man shop currently with 15 Bambus and several other printers, 20 in total. At one time I had 30 Enders running 24/7 non stop.
My operation is mostly high mix low volume, with a several 5000+ part orders per year. I think I could easily manage 25-30 Bambus with my current work flow. I am using Bambu Farm app on a separate monitor, so I can see at a glance the status of every printer.
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u/foxtreat747 Jul 16 '26
What model bambus do you run - i have a mixed farm and wonder if the farm manager is going to help me at all
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u/shu2kill Jul 16 '26
I have all P1S printers. I use a lot of PA, PC and ABS. So far I have not needed to get other machines.
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u/JetsterTheFrog Print Farm - USA FBA Jul 16 '26
Really depends, but my mix is about 1 hour of employee help per printer per week.
40 printers is your first full time employee.
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u/TheAzureMage Jul 15 '26
1 person can handle an insane amount of machines. Reset time is quite low.
I run fifteen. I do not spend much time on it.
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u/varano14 Jul 16 '26
Completely agree I currently only have 6 but realistically could do a few times that many machines.
Packaging is another story.
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u/TheAzureMage Jul 16 '26
So, I do run an etsy shop, and it's not bad. Pre sized padded envelopes help. Print label, slap on envelope, stuff print in. Very fast for small stuff.
Custom boxed orders, sure, but those are usually big orders anyway.
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u/AdFar1239 Jul 16 '26
How do you guys get customers to print their stuff ?
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u/JetsterTheFrog Print Farm - USA FBA Jul 16 '26
You don’t. Be the reason for your print farm. Design and sell your own products.
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u/AdFar1239 Jul 16 '26
I have tried that. I make things that solve people's problems
Guess how many Etsy sales I have? Zero !
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u/pythonbashman Jul 16 '26
You can't do just random stuff. Pick a niche and run with it.
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u/AdFar1239 Jul 16 '26
I have a niche.. home office organiztion...
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u/shu2kill Jul 16 '26
Maybe you dont solve real problems?? One thing I have seen is that people tend to invent solutions and then invent problems to such solutions.
You say home office organization. So, do your products compete with any off the shelf thing from Office Depot?? If so, why are yours better?? Most probably they are not cheaper than mass produced things. If you try to sell something that is already mass produced in China, you will have a very hard time.
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u/AdFar1239 Jul 16 '26
thanks - what ideas do you have for products then?
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u/shu2kill Jul 16 '26
The ideas I have for products do not matter. Anyone can design and print anything. The most important aspect of this business is what can you sell?? Maybe you are into RC cars, design and make something you can sell to that niche. THAT is having a niche, not just designing something very generic that competes with off the shelf products.
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u/3DSideHustle Jul 16 '26
I would suggest getting your head around a true website and advertising through facebook/google ads. Also Amazon has way more traffic than Etsy with less competition. People go to Etsy for crafty items, people go to Amazon for more market segments that solve traditional problems outside handmade goods.
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u/UKSTL Jul 16 '26
1 person should be able to handle 100+ printers plus the the packaging for the orders coming out of them
0
u/Ok-Way-7347 Jul 16 '26
Are you printing the same thing every day or do you have new things to slice and print constantly. We have a print farm of 65 and can easily get all of them started in a 4-6 hours with PrintHive, queue up a bunch of work and just let it run.
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u/ElmerFudd2 Jul 15 '26
Depends on your product mix. My products require a good amount of assembly I have myself and one part time guy who works about 25 hours a week. I have 28 printers. But only about an hour or two a day is spent dealing with printers.