Printer Efficency - Opinions
Printer Efficency - Opinions
(OP)
Just floating this idea as a trial balloon, I have never taken it up as a cause.
I work in a department with a dozen networked printers and maybe 100 engineers.
What do you think of having a clerk walk through the department with a cart of paper and toner cartridges checking and load every paper tray of every printer, fax etc every morning.
Having an engineer refill a tray as a one-off event doesn’t seem like a big deal.
If the paper isn’t readily there, someone may have to go for a walk and get the key, sign out supplies etc. Sometimes multiple engineers head off to different supply cabinets.
In any case, while a machine is out of paper the print jobs back up, two or three people start to loiter by the printer. Person in a rush runs pack to send the job to another printer etc.
There is always someone struggling with how much paper were using too.
I wouldn’t mind if we set aside dedicated printers with cheaper recycled paper for proofing if that made a significant cost difference.
I work in a department with a dozen networked printers and maybe 100 engineers.
What do you think of having a clerk walk through the department with a cart of paper and toner cartridges checking and load every paper tray of every printer, fax etc every morning.
Having an engineer refill a tray as a one-off event doesn’t seem like a big deal.
If the paper isn’t readily there, someone may have to go for a walk and get the key, sign out supplies etc. Sometimes multiple engineers head off to different supply cabinets.
In any case, while a machine is out of paper the print jobs back up, two or three people start to loiter by the printer. Person in a rush runs pack to send the job to another printer etc.
There is always someone struggling with how much paper were using too.
I wouldn’t mind if we set aside dedicated printers with cheaper recycled paper for proofing if that made a significant cost difference.





RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
On the downside I would guess you don’t expect engineers to sit in front of a screen for hours on end (it is certainly against the law in the UK) is this one of their breaks and if so would they actually do anything more productive in this time if it is? Also do you have hours when you have engineers working but not clerks? If so who fills things then?
For proofs and internal use only cheaper paper and low quality print settings as well as black only where possible will also save money, whether the money saved is greater than the time an effort involved in getting people to do that is less certain.
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
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RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
I prefer to know how to change toner cartridge, unjam a printer/copier, and how to fill it up with paper. This way, when I am working late, I at least can print my stuff out.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
(Yes I worked somewhere that did that, yes jobs were sometimes held up because of it.)
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
We asked the paper supplier to deliver it to the point of use, i.e. to monitor and restock each networked printer, just like the fastener supplier did for nuts and bolts. Problem solved.
( Okay, _that_ problem was solved. )
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
around here the secretary controls the stock of paper, but she doesn't charge it to the printer. The paper is in a cabinet next to the printer and when it is finished the next person put a ream of paper in the printer.
Every week or so the secretary will send an email to central office and they will order the paper for all departments. The supplier delivers the paper in each location.
This works for us but we are not 100 engineers...
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
Then the world changed. We were downsized in a "merger of equals". Yeah, right.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
For some reason paying engineers and trained inspectors to do administrative tasks is not government waste.
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
At the aerospace defense place I used to work at we had similar SOP. Unless it was a 'controlled copy' it had to be marked up "reference print only, will not be updated".
Actually makes a lot of sense even if a pain at times.
Our current place seems to have piles of paper next to the printer. I'm not sure who puts them there though. For our plotter an external stationary guy comes around about once a week and checks if we need more paper, we maintain one spare roll.
Not sure about cartridges.
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
"The paperless office"
It never materialised and I guess the amount of paper used is growing exponentially. In my last company pallet loads of paper seemed to arrive daily and get stacked up around each printer.
The main problem never seemed to be running out of paper but the printer packing up... the service engineer seemed to have his own parking spot.
"Fewer Staff"
Well, no more typists but a lot more filing staff and a raft of expensive IT people.
Don't get me wrong, but I miss the solvent smell from the copier machines we used to have. Maybe, like vacuum cleaner aromatisers, they ought to add the solvent smell back in?
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
"A" Work is work only you can do.
"B" Work is work is work someone else can do with your supervision and/guidance.
"C" Work is work anyone can do without you.
No one ever winds up doing all "A" work. IF you find yourself doing to much "B" and "C" your not doing yourself any good and it's time to change something.
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
initial cost is definitely up there but cost per page is significantly reduced in the long run.
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
1. Assign 1 engineer per day the task of loading all printers. (If there are 100 engineers, then roughly you are chosen for duty 3 days out of the year.)
2. Randomize day assignments, post e-mail reminders to Scheduler Software.
3. Have all supplies delivered to your location by vendor and stored on a cart.
3b. Take advantage of new hires by forcing them to substitute on your selected days.
3c. Force them to get coffee for you, too.
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
Corporal punishment is required for
People log jamming the print queue, that you cannot clear their corrupted document without IT intervention.
The reams and volumes of garbage printed and never collected.
Tracking down the bonehead that jammed the photocopier and left it to the next guy to fix. Particularly if he/she melted a transparency to one of the drums.
Refill Roster - Very Bureaucratic - loads of promise and good intentions, but no hope of success - just like govt
FOETS
"social drinker with a golfing problem"
RE: Printer Efficency - Opinions
It seems everytime I try and print out a two or three page doc I am sat in a print queue behind somebody printing a 100+ page guide book. That no doubt gets put in a folder somewhere and filed away to be forgotten about.