Once you enter in the IDIT building and you see that the fablab is omnipresent as machines are everywhere in the 10 000m2, once you ask people where you can find the team of the FabLab and that the answer you get is : « You can find some of the team at university giving courses to students, some others coaching small companies about digital fabrication, and the rest in the lab helping makers and working on the research activity of the lab » you won’t trust me if I tell you the FabLab team is only made of 2 people : Luis, a designer, and Rolando, an engineer, two former students of IBERO University. « Today, we do the work of a least 4 people ».

But thanks to the very close proximity to the university, each year, approximately 8 students, who received scholarships, are helping them in the research activity.

Both Luis and Rolando are focus on having an impact on people lives by sharing their knowledges and giving access to the machine so « anyone can model the future ».

In practical terms, to reach this goal, they are working on three areas :
- Education, with standardized teaching programs inspired by the Fab Academy courses and adapted to the public like the student of the university and the public from outside. - Small business development to help entrepreneurs or poor citizens to prototype and launch their business. In 2017, in the context of the challenging « Yo compro poblano » project supported by IDIT and the municipality government, they assisted 80 small companies about digital fabrications. - Research to find innovative process (ceramic crafts development, textiles, …) by replicating existing processes with the help of digital machines and then looking for the new way to improve it. One goal is to produce new educational programs and to develop skills they can sell to companies.

Face to the success of the lab, they are improving the way they are working before growing their activity.

By being very active inside the university through its education programs, the Fablab mainly attracts students (70%) and teachers (10%). In 2017, 10 to 50 students came each month to do projects for their own, for the lab or for the IDIT project department. They often came either to validate internships or to work for the Social Service, a community service that benefits to marginalized sectors of society which consists of Mexican students enrolled in higher education.

What is very surprising is that last year 60% of the students who used the lab came from outside the IBERO university in which the lab is settled. In fact, students from universities such as industrial UEDS or Monterrey schools came because they have no machine to practice either due to a lack of means or because they are not allowed to use it. In a way, the results might be explained by the fact they better measure the chance to have access to the impressive machine park!

Finally, 20% of the users are small companies who need to do prototypes and who learn digital fabrication thanks to the dedicated education program given by the Fablab team.

In addition to the animation of its own community, the fablab is involved in the FabLat network. First, he coachs new FabLabs like Fablab Analco located in Puebla. And then, he works with Fablabs from Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica on FabCraft project whose objective is to find a way to combine digital and craft work without loosing the essence of the tradition and to allow craftsman to sell their knowledge and products through internet.

In the future, the lab has the ambition to be even more active in the international Fablab network by welcoming a FABx. And more precisely the FAB17!

Fablab Puebla benefits from IDIT lucrative structure which is funded 20% by the university budget and 80% by private incomes made by the institute activities. Salaries of the team are supported by the organisation such as spaces, electricity and machines.

The incomes mainly stem from social programs created by fondations or government. For instance, the current and most important program is “Yo compro poblano”(“I buy local”), a Puebla program which aims to develop 300 business cooperatives located in the most conflicted and poorest area of the city. 35 persons were hired in IDIT to coach entrepreneurs. Fablab is teaching them how to use machines and to develop their activity with digital fabrication. For instance, they helped a local shampoo provider to reduce the containers costs by 70% thanks to digital fabrication. The second major program is the development of fablabs in poor cities, funded by US embassy, which targets to reproduce the “Yo compro poblano” in these cities thanks to fablab structures.

The second source of incomes comes from the big companies projects. 4 years ago, a company project department was created to fit the needs of private sector which was unexpectedly interested by the Fablab services. Nowadays major contracts provide running research incomes, such as the one with Volkswagen for the creation of an exoskeleton made in the lab by engineers of IDIT. The support to small and large businesses brought them also long term revenues with the creation of patents.

The freedom allows by this economic context enables and supports Fablab Puebla team to experiment new activities (such a platform to buy their products) and to imagine new products (like 3D printing with textiles) which fit with the values and vision of the institute.