How Fast a Copier Do You Need?
January 22, 2008
Let’s face it. Copier salespeople want to upsell you that’s where the profits are. But in many cases, people buy too much copier for their needs. Most vendors have copiers ranging from below 20 pages per minutes (ppm) to over 100ppm, and estimating what kind of speed you really need is a complex task. This paper is an attempt to help you in determining the appropriate copier speed for your office.
Faster not necessarily better
There are some good reasons why you may want to consider a slower copier now than you might have in the past. A main reason is that most offices are experiencing a shift in work from copiers to printers. If you are typical, you may find that your copy volume is steadily decreasing.
Another reason is that today’s copiers offer greatly enhanced productivity compared to their predecessors of a few years ago. For example, not so long ago, most mid-volume machines would slow down substantially if you needed to make double-sided copies. Some still slow down, but the best copiers these days (and most of them) work at more than 90 percent of full speed when duplexing. Even scanning in two-sided originals is getting faster with speedy duplexing document feeders. Paper supplies have become much larger, and advanced features such as automatic covers and insert sheets — features that used to be the preserve of the high-volume market — are now commonly found at the mid-volume level.
We don’t want to overstate this point. We don’t think that someone who rationally purchased a 65ppm machine a few years ago could today sensibly buy a 35ppm model to cope with the same needs. But we do think that someone who previously bought, say, a 50ppm unit should at least consider one of today’s much-improved 40ppm machines.
Also, many companies used to buy excess copier capacity because their copy machines were down more often than they were working, so a major backup alternative was needed. Today’s copiers are far more reliable and most dealers are better at servicing them. Planning for excess capacity to handle downtime is less urgent and, in a pinch, lower-cost copier or printer multifunctionals can handle emergencies.
Monthly volumes
All manufacturers quote recommended monthly copy volumes, but these figures tend to be very optimistic. Often, they are also pretty arbitrary. For example, it is not uncommon for a manufacturer to radically increase recommended volumes on its copiers — without making any physical adjustments to the machines themselves! In practice, few people run their copiers to the manufacturers’ quoted maximums. In fact, if you get within half the official limit, the dealer will often tell you that you’ve outgrown the machine and that you should think about trading up.
Speed factors
We can offer some guidelines to give you an idea of how fast a machine you probably need for your monthly workload. Our advice is necessarily generalized and may not apply to your circumstances. For example, if you make 20,000 copies a month but 15,000 of them are made in the last week of each month, you’ll probably want a faster copier than someone who makes the same total number of copies spread evenly throughout the month.
To an extent, the speed of machine you need also depends on your patience. Some people like their copies in a hurry when producing long multipage sets and are prepared to pay a premium to not be kept waiting. Others would rather pay less even if it means hanging around by the copier a while longer.
Keep in mind that although faster machines are often built for higher workloads than slower ones, this isn’t always the case when the speed differences are comparatively small. For example, many 45ppm copiers are speeded-up versions of 35ppm or 25ppm models and are no more heavy-duty (even though the vendors quote different maximum copy volumes). Conversely, the relatively small number of machines in this mid-volume guide that are slowed-down versions of high-volume models can be smart buys. You can typically expect a more robust machine than you would get by picking a stretched version of a slower model.
Finally, remember that not all machines with the same quoted speed actually deliver the same number of copies per minute in practice. As we point out elsewhere in this guide, manufacturer-quoted speeds are the maximum the machine is capable of cruising at, not the real-life speed you’ll get on short-run work or when deploying certain features (such as automatic duplexing or auto-stapling).
Some guidelines
So, with all these caveats, here are our copy-volume/copier-speed guidelines. Remember that if you are making a lot less than 10,000 copies per month or a lot more than 35,000–40,000, you’re probably reading the wrong guide. You should refer instead to our guides on low- and high-volume copiers, respectively.
• 8,000–10,000 copies per month: At this level, you’re just barely in the volume range that generally justifies a mid-volume copier. Remember that these days quite a few sub-20ppm low-volume models have options such as document feeders, finishers, and automatic double-sided copying. If you do want a mid-volume model for fewer than 10,000 copies per month, you should probably look at one in the 20–25ppm range.
• 10,000–20,000 copies per month: At this level, a 25–35ppm machine is likely to be your best bet. By all means, look at the more aggressively priced 40ppm models, too, if speed is a real priority.
• 20,000–30,000 copies per month: We’d be inclined to focus on 35–45ppm copiers for this volume band. Some people choose 50–60ppm machines that fall in our high-volume category, but this isn’t really necessary (it’s like buying a sports car with a powerful engine if you regularly drive at less than the speed limit).
• 30,000–40,000 copies per month: Now you’re getting into upper-mid-volume territory. We’d probably be looking at 45–49ppm machines, possibly breaking into the high-volume market by considering 50–60ppm models if we wanted a bit more speed.
Keeping the machine exercised
One other piece of advice related to matching a machine to your copy volume: copier service technicians often report that machines that are run more heavily make more copies between service calls. In other words, although heavier users of mid-volume machines might see the service technician more often, they do so less often on a per-copy-made basis. This sort of measurement is somewhat anecdotal, and there are exceptions to every rule, but it is often the case that electromechanical equipment works best when regularly exercised.
The mix
Your copier is part of a mix of office productivity machines, including other copiers, workgroup printers, and printer multifunctionals. If, for example, you have several copiers at your site, you probably don’t need all of them to have the maximum speed. Bigger production jobs, for example, can be run on one centralized copier. The vast majority of copy jobs involve only a few pages copied a few times (such as notes for a meeting). It’s a waste of money to dedicate high-speed copiers to such jobs, when small workgroup multifunctionals can do the trick. And since most jobs start out as digital files, single-function printers can handle many jobs that once would have gone to the copier. Think of balancing raw speed (and such options as stapling and high paper volumes) with smaller, convenient, workgroup-oriented machines that can be used at lower volumes but with easy availability.
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