When we’re talking printer cartridge recycling, there are several terms are often used, but seldom understood. Much of the time, these terms are confused for each other, and sometimes the cartridge recycling layperson is left just plain confused.

Printer cartridge recycling definitions

Recycled Cartridges: These are any cartridges that are considered recycled, meaning some or all of their parts come from what would have been waste. The cartridges have to made of at least 20%-30% recycled materials to fall into this category.

Cartridge Recycling Process: The cartridge recycling process includes; breaking down damaged cartridges, repairing won cartridges, refilling with new ink, and quality testing before the cartridge is resold.

Refurbished/reused/remanufactured: These terms can be used interchangeably to describe cartridges that have gone through the recycling process and are ready to be, or already have been, resold.

Refilled Cartridges: These cartridges are not considered “recycled” because they are not broken down, and they have had no parts replaced. They are just used cartridges that have been refilled with ink or toner. You can buy ink refilling kits and refill your cartridges at home, or you can take them to a shop to be refilled. It’s important to remember that refilling cartridges won’t do anything for routine wear and tear damage to your cartridge.

Virgin Cartridges: These resources hogs are terrible for the environment. They are brand new cartridges made up of 0% recycled material. The best thing to do with these cartridges is recycle them when they run out of ink.

This is a common question we get asked often. This short, 2 minute YouTube video explains the different types of inks available on the market in plain English without technical ‘geek speak’ and three letter acronyms.

It’s provided here to help you become better informed about your printers and copiers because, as a print or copy fleet manager, you have a lot of capital invested in them.

The more you know, the better your decisions will be when it comes to optimising that investment and on-going maintenance responsibility!

A close friend and master investor recently explained this disarmingly simple, yet immensely powerful concept to me. I thought it may be of value to you – that is if you’re looking for that extra 20, 50 or even 100% return on your share (and other) investments.

Imagine you make a stock investment and as soon as the trade is concluded, you lapse into a coma. You wake up days, weeks, months or years later. How will you know if you wake up happy with your investment?

The answer is obvious – the  lessons are not.

If your return is MORE than you expected, you’re happy. If not, you’re disappointed or depressed.

So what are the lessons and how do they relate to Printer Fleet Management?

Printer Fleet Management Lesson #1

You usually don’t fall into a coma after making a trade. Instead, you track every single daily (hourly?) up and down movement and rarely, if ever, play the trade/investment through to your original “decision-making horizon” – the period over which you originally invested.

Many investors invest with a “let’s see what happens” approach that has them constantly second-guessing themselves, creating immense levels of stress and sub-optimising their returns. If the stock goes up, they might sell prematurely, if it goes down, they might sell at a loss in fear of a further drop.

You need to approach your investments KNOWING ahead of time your particular decision-making horizon for EACH decision, so that you can appropriately mix and match investment size and risk/return with the decision-making horizon in mind thus MAXIMIZING returns and MINIMISING stress and lost opportunity (costs) this includes Printer Fleet Management that needs to have a multi-year horizon to achieve economies of scale and discount of volume.

Printer Fleet Management Lesson #2

The second lesson is selecting the right investment for the right decision-making horizon. Some investors ‘day trade’ stocks whereas others have a buy and hold strategy – BOTH benefit from knowing how long their horizon is. The worst thing you can do is buy, hold and lose sight of time. Returns are TIME DEPENDENT. A 100% return sounds great, but if it took 10 or more years, in today’s terms, that is a very poor return on capital.

So, how do you select the right stocks with a decision-making horizon in mind? You must MATCH the projections of growth with YOUR horizon. If a company has a 3-year plan that is attractive, but your decision making horizon is 1 year, that’s a sub-optimal match just based on the time line.

When considering your Printer Fleet Management Decision Making Horizon, it’s paramount that it match your corporate objectives and reporting cycles taking into consideration financial and managerial accounting milestones (e.g. Financial Years, etc.).

Printer Fleet Management Lesson #3

Make the trend your friend and match it to your horizon as much as you can. If a company has an aggressive growth strategy within a bigger trend (e.g. commodities) that you believe they can deliver on AND your horizon and their projections match up, it’s definitely something you want to consider and put on your short list.

When evaluating your printer and copier fleet – you want to be aware of the trends that are in play and what the next waves of technological introductions will be. A reputable Printer Fleet Management company will be able to summarise this for you as well as keep you up-to-date with what’s happening now and what’s around the corner.

Printer Fleet Management Lesson #4

When you’re in a coma, you can’t keep researching and over-analysing every option available. When you are awake you can – but that  doesn’t mean you should. Of course there’s a fine line involved and interpretations of this lesson will vary between investors, but Warren Buffett is notorious for sticking to his horizons even when everyone’s telling him he’s wrong. His bank account is proof that he knows something few people ever learn!

Because Printer Fleet Management can only be justified over several years, revisiting it monthly or quarterly just doesn’t make sense. An annual review is sufficient to fine tune and adjust unless there are extenuating business or economic circumstances that preempt the annual review.

Printer Fleet Management Lesson #5

Last and most importantly – you can use this secret to unlock unlimited opportunities in other investments you make – be they in real estate, projects, personal or entrepreneurial ventures. Once you KNOW how long you’re in for, you can make the necessary time, effort and resource commitment to ensure a stellar return or outcome.

When you match them up, it’s like all the stars in the universe lining up and magic starts to happen. When you don’t it’s as if everything is conspiring against you producing disappointing or disastrous results.

Summary:

The most simple secrets are often the most powerful and valuable, like this one – every single successful ‘master’ investor alludes to this concept and I can guarantee you it’ll improve your results. How much? As much as you abide by its principles!

Today’s blog post is adapted from several original articles written by Dr Marc Dussault, an award winning author, columnist and now popular  blogger as the World’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist it’s been adapted to Printer Fleet Management because we know that an optimal decision requires a match between a clearly defined Decision Making Horizon and the agreement.

Today’s blog post is adapted from several original articles written by Dr Marc Dussault, an award winning author, columnist and now popular  blogger as the World’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist. This blog post deals with rapid equipment obsolescence and the impact on Life Cycle Costing (LCC). This is important when you consider the possibility of leveraging Print Fleet Management within your organisation.

Rapid obsolescence and the impact on Life Cycle Costing

The industry is currently in the midst of a technological revolution where the equipment used and services requested are changing at a furious pace. The rate of change has been so rapid that some equipment has been made obsolete before even being launched, other equipment has been launched only to be obsoleted in 6 months. Capital investments, traditionally made over long term horizons, of 5,10, and 20 years must now be made over 1,2 and 4 years.

Firms historically expect a new piece of equipment to remain a profitable investment for 15 to 20 years yet the obsolescence cycle for new technology has now slipped under three years. Very little reprographic or electronic copying equipment economic life will exceed five years. No capital investment should be considered with over a three year payback. Consequently, a higher profit percent than prevailed in the eighties will be needed to offset a reduced life cycle.[i]

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) [ii], is the total cost of ownership for a piece of equipment. Frequently, the initial cost is very small in comparison with operating and support costs. It is estimated that 80 percent of the cost of owning and operating a piece of equipment occurs after the item is purchased.

Issues related to Life Cycle Costing:

• Reliability- The probability that a system or product gives satisfactory performance for a specified period of time when used under stated conditions. In the case of new technologically innovative products, it is critical to specifically define performance as well as conditions required to obtain that performance. Products are usually “Beta tested” prior to being launched and the results of these tests can usually be obtained from the manufacturer and/or firm involved in the trials.
• Maintainability- Refers to those features of a product that contribute to its ease and cost of repair. With advances in technology, the ease and cost of repair may shift to new components. It is the buyer’s onus to ask such questions. Many specialized trade publications publish pre-release technical evaluations that could prove to be very useful in this regard.
• Availability- The probability that the equipment will be in operating condition at any point in time. “Leading edge” technology is not for the risk averse. Such technological leadership requires that risk be carefully evaluated and considered within the firm’s strategic business plan.
• Commonality- Depending on the size of operation and number of similar types of equipment, commonality can save a lot of operating and support dollars. Often, a service contract on all of the company’s equipment can be arranged with the manufacturer at a fraction of the total of all the service  contracts on all the company’s equipment- even if they are different. Commonality of parts and technology are also important considerations. With digital systems, there is a commonality in the underlying computerization processes. An Information Systems (IS) support person may in some cases be well worth the investment in managing and optimizing the company’s computer systems and processes. This is especially true in “Open System” environments where all the systems “talk to each other”.
• Upgradeability- This feature is particularly important in a highly volatile market such as digital technology. Although somewhat limited, such future transitional possibilities are critical to the feasibility of many high-technology based capital investments. Upgradeability has shifted in recent years from costly physical (hardware) upgrades to much less costly software or program updates.
• Compatibility- If the equipment in question is to work as a component of a larger production system, interfacing issues and associated costs are of critical importance. It should be apparent that reprographic companies are no longer facing simple independent product purchasing decisions, but rather are looking at their company’s overall reprographics strategy. Today, companies don’t buy machines, they buy systems, and they need to know that they can grow with these systems. [iii]
• Capacity- The equipment’s capacity specifications will enable you to define labor required for given production volumes. Analysis of multiple variations will also be possible, i.e. would it be more economical to have two smaller machines or one larger one?
• Operability- Easy operation lowers labor and training costs. In digital reprographic systems the importance of this point cannot be overstated.
• Essentiality- Identify those sub-assemblies or options essential to meet your basic needs and budgetary constaints. Some experienced salespeople use techno-lingo or double-speak to confuse the buyer or hide product weaknesses. Complex principles need to be simplified and clearly understood by the buyer to ensure that they make “common sense”. Many options are made available on digital products to assist in the sales process to the manufacturer’s very diverse clientele. Identifying specific needs are critical to not overloading the purchase with options that will not serve a useful and cost-justifiable purpose in the buyer’s particular applications.

The following areas should be carefully reviewed for cost impact:

1. Consider the cost of acquisition versus the cost of operation and general support. With digital equipment there is an additional type of support contract to consider above and beyond the traditional hardware maintenance contract- a software contract. Software contracts generally include upgrades and technical telephone support.
2. Compare the costs of competing equipment but compare both the front end costs and the costs for the life of the system. Due to the variety of solutions available in the digital area, this comparative analysis is a most  challenging endeavour.
3. Compare the differential costs of the current system versus the cost of the proposed new system; does the new system really offer a savings over the existing equipment?
4. Get to know the equipment industry, as the rate of technological innovation increases, the risk of product obsolescence increases.
5. Cost of disposal. Will the equipment have a residual value at the end of its useful life? Unlike traditional reprographic equipment, digital equipment retains practically no residual value.

Note: When evaluating the costs of a new technology, do not take a vendor’s claim as gospel, get a second opinion from either a trade association, consultant or client using the same technology in essentially the same conditions. Be wary of referrals from vendors, they won’t refer you to disgruntled clients, try to find your own.

Preparing your firm for NEW technology

The implementation of new technology requires that;

1. A true need be diagnosed (and justified)
2. An appropriate solution is available to meet this need (often needs are only partially met as a result feasibility suffers or is altogether unachievable)
3. Top management support the chosen solution
4. That the organization be ready to implement the new technology effectively. For example, who will be responsible for it and how will it affect workflow?
5. Resistance to change should not be discounted, but rather seriously considered. If resistance is high, preparatory measures should preceed its implementation.
6. Assign a change champion who will be responsible for the technology’s successful implementation.

Note: Change in technology will also mean an increase in the importance of training and in some cases, retraining.

[i] Bob Neely, “The reprographic industry of the 1990′s”, Repro Report, September 1990, pg. 10-12

[ii] Frank L. Hicks, “The real cost of graphic equipment”, Plan and Print, December, 1980, pg. 14-18, 39

[iii] Gene Oddo, “Facing the Transition Dilemna”, from a manuscript of a speech given at the International Reprographic Association’s Annual Convention in 1992.

In previous blog posts, we discussed the concepts of Mean Time Between Failure in comparison to Mean Time To Failure as well as the risk of security breaches from hard disks in photocopiers being discarded carelessly.

That triggered questions about reliability of storage systems. To fully address this issue, two terms need to be defined: data integrity and hardware reliability.

Data integrity is when all characteristics of the data including business rules, rules for how pieces of data relate, dates, definitions and lineage must be correct for data to be complete.

Data integrity is the overall goal, whereas, hardware reliability is one factor in how this goal is achieved.[i]

A reliable hardware system does not silently continue and deliver results that include uncorrected corrupted data, instead it corrects the corruption when possible or else stops and reports the corruption to the user.

Mean Time Between Data Loss (MTBDL) is used to convey data integrity statistics while Mean Time Between Failure (MTTF) is used to convey hardware reliability.

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Correct Device Alignment is one of those terms that seems obvious and self-evident, but actually has substantial ramifications for you if you are to trust that your documents are being printed properly across your company or organisation on a consistent basis.

It’s imperative, when you enter into a Print Fleet Management contract or agreement that the provider is responsive to your employees so it can provide consistent printer availability, service and management as well as advanced multifunction device capabilities everywhere they are needed especially as needs change and evolve over time.

With correct device alignment in place, improved productivity is increased due to faster print devices as well as higher-quality output.

This gives you the ability to better align technology with your business needs. Using correct device alignment means supplies are stocked, managed and filed regularly with users using a single point of contact for problem resolution.[i]

The most versatile way to ensure correct device alignment is through web-based remote support services that use a connected hardware appliance to collect device data to receive and report service and toner alerts while also enabling remote firmware upgrades.

Through a secure portal, usage data for the fleet is automatically aggregated and made available to you. Opting in to a remote correct device alignment service is beneficial when looking to eliminate manual meter readings and simplify time consuming administrative tasks.[ii]

[i] http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/so/pdf/output_management_services_case_study.pdf

[ii] http://www.miracomnetwork.com/

Reliability is a term a lot of people use without fully understanding what it means, much like service and dependability. When using reliability within calculations, you are using the probability that a component will perform its required function under the stated conditions for a specific period of time and is able to provide an accurate result or outcome during that time.

The method used to assess the reliability of a component is called Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), a measure based on statistical estimates of the average time it should run before requiring repair. Although MTBF is a measure of reliability, it should not be confused with the fact that a product with a high MTBF will last as long as a similar product with a low MTBF.[i]

Mean Time Between Failure

For example, if the MTBF of a component is 40,000 hours, it doesn’t mean that the power supply will last for 40,000 hours, it means that the statistical average then becomes the true average as the number of samples increase:

The formula to measure the MTBF is:

MTBF = Total time/Number of failures[ii]

A similar measure that sometimes confuses the issue is Mean Time To Failure (MTTF). MTTF is a statistical value for the expected failure time of a component and CANNOT be repaired, whereas, MTBF is the key statistical value for systems that CAN be repaired and resume service.[iii]

A common way to show MTTF is the ‘Bathtub Curve’: [iv]

Mean Time To Failure "Bathtub Curve"

This shows a component’s MTTF has a high probability of failure within the first few hours or weeks of operation and then it comes down and stays relatively low for an extended period of time, increasing sharply when its normal life has run out.

The formula for MTTF, to clarify more distinctly between MTBF, is understood that the total number of hours of service is divided by the number of components:

MTTF = Total time/Number of units under test [v]

*It is only when all parts fail with the same failure mode that MTBF converges to MTTF.[vi]

Before we take a look at MTBF for printers and copiers, how long do you think your printers’ MTBF is?

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