Printer Consolidation

Executive Summary

A manufacturing leader dramatically reduced operating costs and improved uptime of its printing services.

Case Background

Industry: Manufacturing; transportation
Company: A 100-year-old global leader in recreational vehicle manufacturing with more than 10,000 employees, 20 locations globally, and annual sales of $5B.

Key Challenges and Goals

The client's printing system, which produced more than 40 million pages each year, was clearly outdated and inefficient. However, because printing was managed in a decentralized way, the company lacked clarity on total inventory and costs. For example, the client's printing devices were subject to at least 15 different service agreements. The overriding goal was to reduce operating costs while improving service.

Affinity's Approach and Solutions

Affinity first gathered inventory data (covering model, age, service contract and spare parts) and created useful performance benchmarks for all existing print assets. The client operated more than 2,000 devices, including printers, scanners, faxes, and copiers in more than 500 distinct models. Total operating cost was more than $2M per year.

We created a plan to streamline this fleet of devices emphasizing simplicity, centralized management, environmental sustainability, and user satisfaction.

Results

The print system overhaul was completed ahead of schedule and reduced operating costs by half - saving the company $1M per year. A significant contribution to this savings came from a simplified management program for spare parts, which also improved overall printer uptime for the company while reducing helpdesk calls. The net savings in ongoing expense will cover the project cost completely within one calendar year.

Project Snapshot

Affinity expertise applied:

• Business and technical process improvement
• Risk management and reduction
• Business and technical strategy alignment
• Financial analysis (cost modeling, cost-benefit analysis, ROI and return on assets)
• Change management
• Project management