Never overbuy again: Five tips for reducing your company’s printing costs
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/28/2009 12:57:00 PM
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Printing is an essential function for businesses in manufacturing and supply chain execution. As presented by TallyGenicom, here are five ways to maximize printing investments to make the best use of 2009 budgets without sacrificing productivity and performance.
• Optimize your printer fleet.
Organizations need to ensure they’re purchasing the right printer for the right job to reduce the risk of “overbuying” hardware. Assessing the organization’s printing needs—whether in the front or back office—is an essential first step to ensuring the printer fleet is suited for the particular job, location, or business process at hand. For example, a hybrid thermal printer offers an efficient way to print labels without purchasing a larger and more costly printer. A company can significantly reduce its bottom line and optimize the printer hardware implementation with a total cost of ownership analysis from a trusted printer partner.
• Out with the old.
Many businesses believe they are saving money by holding on to antiquated hardware. This is false. Older printers can be energy hogs, are costly to maintain, and useless during their downtime (which is frequent). Businesses should take advantage of printer manufacturer trade-in or upgrade programs that can deliver cost savings when purchasing new, more reliable and energy-efficient hardware.
• Request a custom printing solution.
Off-the-shelf printers don’t always fit the specific needs of an organization and many companies spend too much money purchasing the wrong hardware trying to build a solution on their own. Select a printer vendor that has the expertise and know-how to develop a customer solution specific to your application needs. Professional services are helpful for developing custom solutions that solve the most complicated printing challenges.
• Eliminate preprinted forms waste.
Organizations should use electronic forms Instead of stock piling preprinted stationery that can quickly become obsolete. Electronic forms eliminate the significant cost associated with developing, purchasing, and storing expensive preprinted forms and documents. It’s also an environmentally friendly solution that eliminates the need to throw out reams of paper every time a logo, address, or other content is changed.
• Consider impact printers
By using impact printers, companies can pay as little as one penny for every six copies. There's still a large market for impact printing for businesses that need to print multi-part forms on a daily basis. Along with offering high reliability, impact printers also have relatively low consumable costs, making it a safe long-term investment for business printing.
