If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

With hard economic times, the last thing anyone would want to see at the beginning of a work day is a pink slip. As the days go by, however, more and more people seem to be receiving them, as companies look to restructuring and reorganization in order to cut down on costs. A usual result of these activities is the cutting of jobs – and more people face the chopping block each day. Even the oldest and most stable of companies have been doing major changes in the way they run their business.

Printronix, Inc., a manufacturer of industrial printers and printing supplies for other manufacturers as well as printer retailers, will be moving its manufacturing operations from Irvine to Nogales, Mexico. Printronix is one of the oldest technology companies in Orange County.

The move will result in the cutting of 54 jobs when the company closes its local factory. Manufacturing will be moved exclusively to the Mexican border city next to Arizona, where the company already has a 17,000 square-foot plant. The company plans to expand the plant to 75,000 square feet, and is now looking for a buyer for the current 46,000 square-foot factory building in Irvine. They are also looking at selling either their entire office complex or part of it. In total, the Printronix complex is about 187,000 square feet.

The Irvine plant was used mainly for assembly work as well as the manufacturing of printer ink, toner and thermal ribbon paper. Thermal ribbon paper is used for heat-sensitive printing instead of ink.

Only the manufacturing part of the company’s operations will be moved to across the border, though. Its corporate headquarters will still be in Orange County, although whether they will stay in their current office location or move to a new home will depend on whether someone will buy their complex on 14600 Myford Road. Sales, marketing, finance, engineering and customer service, as well as other administrative departments, will also still be based in Orange County.

Printing from the web has never been so easy – if you have the Lexmark Toolbar on your web browser, that is. Don’t let the name fool you; even if this helpful tool is brought to you by Lexmark, it can work with any printer you have at home. And best of all, you can get it for free.

You can download the Lexmark Toolbar from the Lexmark website, the latest version being Version 4.0. It has downloadable versions for both Internet Explorer and Firefox, so you can take advantage of its features no matter what browser you prefer using when surfing the net.

The Lexmark Toolbar is basically a good companion for those who print a lot of stuff – articles, features and other stuff – from the web. It allows you to take more control of your printer while you are surfing, and makes printing from the web more convenient.

With the Lexmark Toolbar, managing how you would like web pages printed out will be as easy as clicking a button. The classic toolbar features include the ability to print text only – the toolbar allows you to get rid of images in one easy step should you not want them on your printed web page, saving you time and, of course, precious ink. You can add further to your ink savings by choosing to print the text or the entire page in black and white instead of in color. But then, if you want crisp, clean photos from your favorite site, it also has Photo Editing features.

You will never be behind on your research and will always be at the top of your game with scheduled printing or scanning. You can choose to print a specific web page on a regular basis. The newest version has added printing or scanning directly to a viewed folder, and the option to print only highlighted text and images on a web page.

Fuji Xerox introduced two A4 black and white laser printers last January, the Phaser 3124 and Phaser 3125/N. Both printers were developed to cater to the printing needs of budget-conscious households and small businesses. The 3124 is a standalone monochromatic laser printer, while the 3125/N has the option for network connectivity. Both are ideal for homes and organizations who would like to shift from inkjet to laser printing.

As a follow-up to these launches, the company introduces ways to jazz up these two models: designer skins to take away the monotony of the boring printer! The offer is part of the company’s “Great Deals Always” promo, but will be available only to Fuji Xerox consumers in Singapore. The limited edition skins can be applied to the printers in a few easy steps, instantly transforming the machine into a stylish addition to your home office or printer station.

Jolene Yeo, the Marketing Manager for Fuji Xerox in Singapore, reveals that the promo was launched to present the new laser printer range in a “fun, unique and exciting way”. These ‘transition laser printers’, which will be new to those who have gotten so used to inkjet printers, are more cost-efficient and is increasingly becoming the printer of choice for households and students. Understandably, this demographic will be partial to changing the physical appearance of a printer, making it less of a machine and more of a décor that can complement the design aesthetic of a combined living, study and office space.

Yeo adds further that the available skin designs generally reflect the personalities of the majority of their customers. Yeo believes that giving consumers a chance to reflect their personalities will be a way for the company to enhance the customer’s experience.

The skins will be optional for those who choose to purchase the Phaser 3124 or the 3124/N, and will be available for the duration of the “Great Deals Always” promo, which will run until end of March this year.

Companies nowadays are faced with multiple challenges and responsibilities, and one important fact is that they are now facing increased pressure to become eco-friendly. Eco-friendliness is one of the best ways to reduce the detrimental effects of global warming to our environment, and the current trend towards being eco-friendly is by adopting the practice of sustainability.

Being a sustainable company is basically being able to balance all your company’s objectives – everything from environmental, social and financial – by integrating energy as well as resource savings initiatives and applying these to the company’s products, services, methodology and operations in order to ‘create a better world’. Simply put, it means doing a little something in-house that contributes towards a greater good without sacrificing profitability.

Printing is one company-staple that can contribute greatly towards sustainability. Here are a few eco-friendly practices that companies may adopt.

Aim for zero-waste printing practices. Printing need not be wasteful. First, don’t print out anything and everything. And then when the time comes for replacing your printer’s toner or cartridges, keep in mind that 90% of cartridge material can be reused or recycled into new products. Check out the programs that your printer supplies vendor maintains regarding recycling these materials.

Identify your needs, and when applicable, consolidate. With the prevalence of multi-function printers for businesses in the current printer market, take time out to evaluate your hardware needs and see if it is time for a change. If yours is one of those companies with a separate printer, copier, scanner and fax machine and that have all these machines running in the office at all times, changing to a multi-function printer will help save energy. Aside from the savings you will get on energy costs, using less energy will help the environment.

Make informed purchases. If you determine that you need a change, do not grab the first printer you see. Before anything else, think first about what you will do with the machines that you already have. You may want to consider taking them back to the manufacturer for a trade-in in order to reduce waste. Then, when choosing the new printer, make sure that you consider everything from the energy that it uses to its total operating costs. Choosing wisely will not only result in dollar savings, but will contribute significantly towards saving Mother earth.

A group of community schools in a county in Michigan has approved to provide every teacher in the community with a laser printer. The board members of Lapeer Community Schools voted in favor of allocating $35,700 for the purchase of 380 laser printers. They are doing this despite being faced with a $3.5 million revenue shortfall. Sometimes, there is a need to spend money in order to save money in the long haul, and this is exactly what LSC technology specialists used to justify the request.

Right now, Lapeer Community School teachers use inkjet printers in the district’s media centers for their printing needs. The cost of operating these printers ranges from 10 to 12 cents per page. The cost of operating the new black and while laser printers that LSC is planning on purchasing will only be 3.5 cents per page, less than half of the cost of operating the old inkjet models. This was revealed by Nick Ward, supervisor of technology for the district. Over time, the savings will actually end up as more than the cost of replacing the printers.

The money that will be used to purchase the printers will come from a $2.2 billion bond issue that LCS voters approved in May 2007 according to board member Peggy White. The new purchases are expected to make things more efficient for Lapeer Community Schools.

District Supervisor Nick Ward informed board members further that the purchase will mark the first time that the entire district will be utilizing common technology. This fact actually adds more savings to the district, since using common technology will mean that they can pool maintenance purchases such as replacement toners and buy in bulk. Bulk purchases usually result in lower unit prices. This is the same principle used by the NSW Education Department in Australia, featured in one of our posts last year.