One of the typical things we see when performing audits is that toners are often not empty when replaced. In some cases its just a few percentages and in other cases we see more than 20% left. If the cost of toner is € 100 then you are losing € 20 with this example?
Why is that so? Why are toners replaced even when they are not empty? There will never be a justified answer for that unless the toner is broken, but most cases, it's simply because people are too busy.
why not replace the toner while we are here? It's saying low, so let's be proactive.
The problem here is that you might have had 500 prints left easily depending on your coverage even though its low.
We could call id a misunderstood effectiveness, but the fact of the matter is, that it's expensive and not good for the environment either.
So how can one make sure to get full utilization of toners? We have added our recommendations on things you can do today:
Disable the alert functionality on the printer so it doesn’t blink when toner is low but only empty. But... make sure to have a spare toner close, so it's easy to replace when someone sees its empty. This is just like coffee! no problem to fill it up, but if there is nothing to fill, the real problem arises!
Order toners proactively. If you are a part of an MPS program, chances are that your vendor is already using this option. In short, based on your behavior they predict how many days left there is in the toner, and send the toner in an optimal time. Not too late or early. On your next status meeting, requests to see the average toner waste.
Put a poster above the printer reminding users not to replace a toner unless it's 100% empty. Maybe add a “Did you know how much toner costs”
Picture by: Chris Philpot
The larger company the more complex and time consuming it is to keep track of supplies replacements and waste.
This is where you need analytical tools such as 3manager to keep track of replacements, forecasting and much more automatically.