Current status, July 2014

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Summary, July 2014

Challenge

Find a way to reduce $5,800 annual printing costs for two color printers.

• This was critical to do following the decision by the Chemistry department to continue to not account for use by student, much less meter

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• their use.
  • Costs for providing the portion ChemIT could control was around $4,625 per year.

Action, by ChemIT

(Thank you, Michael Hint!)

1. Enrolled in a service contract with Eastern.
   1. This service provides us cheaper Xerox-branded consumables.
   2. This included maintenance services for the printers, even if off-warranty.
2. Bought a new, second color printer for a ninth of its expected cost.

Result

Effected recurring savings of almost $2,000 per year.

• Reduced costs by over $1,000 per year for just consumables through use of new service contract with Eastern.
• Saved $333 per year on warranty-type services, covering both printers. ($500/3 yrs * 2 printers)
  
  • Accomplished this by not having to pay $500 for 3-year warranty service on new printer, or similar services for old printer, since service included with new service contract with Eastern.
• Saved ~$550 per year for new printer.
  • A new printer was bought at 1/9th the expected price, giving the lab two, full color printers.
  • Assume printer survives 4.5 years.
• Note 1: Paper costs remain as they were.
• Note 2: On-going actual savings assumes Eastern delivers on their service promises, of course.

Cost savings summary, PER YEAR

NOTE: On-going actual savings assumes Eastern delivers on their service promises, of course.

DETAILS

(1) Saving on consumables costs

ChemIT arranged for saving ~$1,000 per year by moving to Eastern service contract

(1) During the summer 2014, Michael Hint bought a $1,925.22 printer for $256.56.

• Did this through loyalty rebate ($1,443.91) and trade-in ($224.75) of (old, broken Abruna) printer to Xerox.
• Did not buy the extra warranty (~$500 more?), since under Eastern service contract.
• This gives Lars to Xerox color printers. This new printer displaced a B&W HP printer, which went to Dan Lorey.

(2) We are now on Eastern service contract, so our consumables and cost less. And our service costs are largely fixed, and also less.

• We were paying about 1.89 cents per page for ink and maintenance kit replacement, on average. So for 280,000 pages (Dec 2012 - July 2014 (~17 months) from the oldest printer (Buckbeak); 40,000 from 2/14 to 7/14), that would be $5,292 ($3,736/yr). Service only if under warranty (new printer). Otherwise, for old printer, pay directlyfor repair services and parts out-of-pocket.
• For the same volume, now we would have paid $3,850 over ~17 months (see below chart). That's $2,718/yr.
  
  • That's a savings of $1,442 over 17 months, which is a savings $1,018/yr.

Previous info, from Feb 2014

Summary

Consumables = (Ink + maintenance kits) + paper = $10,200 + $1,930 = $12,130 over 33 months.

This comes to about $4,411/year.

Data and analysis

Hardware costs, including "consumable" maintenance kits

Printer's initial cost, including 3 year warranty: $2,500

• Amortizing cost of printer over 540K pages printed comes to 0.46 cents per page.

Cost for maintenance kits, up to now: $1,945

• 10 have been installed for the most recent 240,000 pages, at $86.40 each: $864 + $1 = $865
• Thus estimate we 1.25 additional kits (~12.5 kits) for the first 300K pages printed: $1,080

Thus, $4,445 spent so far on hardware, including maintenance kits.

Ink cost calculations

Total ink costs: $8,250

Usage Dec 2012 - Feb 2014

• $3,665 for 240,000 pages comes to 1.53 cents per page, on average.
• Thus, estimate that an additional 300,000 pages used previously (1.25 as much again) would cost about $4,585.

Paper costs

Cost for paper, up to now: $1,930

• 0.575 cents per page, if buying cheap and you don't care about the environment.
• Total of 335,000 sheets of pater used.
  • 149,000 paper sheets used for 240,000 pages printed.
  • Thus estimate that an additional 186,000 paper sheets used for previous 300,000 pages printed.

Paper purchase cost options

0.575 cents/ page for Staples® Copy Paper, LETTER-Size, 92/104 US/Euro Brightness, 20 lb., 8 1/2" x 11", 5,000 Sheets/Ct (if $28.77 for 5000 sheets).

1.03 cents / page for Staples® 30% Recycled Copy Paper, LETTER-size, 92/104 US/Euro Brightness, 20 lb., 8 1/2"H x 11"W, 5,000 Sheets/Ct ($51.59 for 5000 sheets)

• Contains at least 10% post-consumer recycled content

(2) Saving on capitalization costs

New Xerox printer bought by ChemIT for less than 1/9th the expected price.

New printer, with 3-year warranty, was expected to cost $2,500. During the summer 2014, Michael Hint bought the printer for $256.56!

• Did this through loyalty rebate ($1,443.91) and trade-in ($224.75) of (old, broken Abruna) printer to Xerox.
• Did not buy the extra warranty (~$500 for 3 years), since under Eastern service contract. So price of printer was $1,925.22, not the expected $2,500.
• This gives Lars' undergraduate lab two Xerox color printers. This new printer displaced a B&W HP printer, which went to Dan Lorey.

(3) Assumption: No change in costs of paper.

Paper costs holding steady at $1,670/year.

ChemIT not involved at all on paper procurement. Did not invest in determine actual costs, so made estimates based on assumptions stated below.

Paper sold by CCB stockroom is $4.73 for ream (500 pages) of 8-1/2"*11" paper.

• Thus: $0.00946/ paper. (That's 0.946 cents per paper page.)
• To get paper used, used snapshot that 148,666 paper was used to print 231,116 imprints (due to double-sided jobs), or 64.3%.
• Of 280,000 pages printed, can estimate 180,000 paper sheets used (due to double-sided jobs).
• Of 180,000 paper sheets used over 17 months, that comes out to about 127,000 paper sheets used per year.

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