Starting summer 2014, ChemIT produced on-going savings of $1,850 per year (a 40% savings on prices ChemIT involved in) to provide full-color printer services, for free, to Chem majors, in Lar's undergraduate (Mac) lab. This included procuring a new, second, full-color printer for almost nothing.
Summary, July 2014
Challenge: Find a way to reduce printing costs for high-volume 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 their use.
- Costs for providing this service runs around $6,300 per year.
Action by ChemIT:
- Enrolled in a service contract with Eastern.
- This service provides us cheaper Xerox-branded consumables.
- This included maintenance services for the printers, even if off-warranty.
- Bought a new, second color printer for a ninth of it's expected cost.
Result: Effected savings of over 1/3.
- 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: Paper costs remain as they were.
Cost savings summary, PER YEAR
| Item | Annual Cost | Annual Cost NOW | ANNUAL |
|---|---|---|---|
Consumables ChemIT saved on | $3,736 | $2,718 | $1,018/yr |
| Warranty-type services (2 printers) | $333 | 0 | $333/yr |
| Recent printer purchase, amortized over 4.5 years | $556 | $57 | $499/yr, |
| Costs and SAVINGS, per year: | $4,625 | $2,775, | $1,850/yr (40% savings) |
| Paper (no ChemIT involvement) Assume: $4.73/ 500 pages | $1,670 (estimate) | $1,670 (same costs) | No change expected |
| Costs and SAVINGS, per year: | $6,295 | $4,445 | $1,850/yr (30% savings) |
DETAILS
(1) Saving on consumables costs
ChemIT arranged for saving ~$1,000 per year by moving to Eastern service contract
We are now on Eastern service contract, so our consumables 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 for 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.
| Type of printing | Eastern's charges, | Page counts, as of 7/24/14 | Costs $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| B&W, or little color | 0.7 cents | 200,000 | 1,400 |
| More color | 2.5 cents | 65,000 | 1,625 |
| Full color | 5.5 cents | 15,000 | 825 |
(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's 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.)
- Assume that of 280,000 pages, only 250,000 papers used due to double-sided printing.
- Estimate use of 176,500 paper sheets per year, derived from 250,000 papers over 17 months.