McDonald’s Australia Print Centreand Ricoh
Overall, the Ricoh solution and the Ricoh people who work with
us have meant our Print Centre now has the print production
capabilities that can easily keep pace with the demands of
one of the country’s most rapidly growing businesses.
”
”
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that there
are over 800 McDonald’s restaurants located throughout
Australia. Especially in light of the fact that more than
30,000 McDonald’s restaurants in over 120 countries serve
meals to more than 50 million people every day. It’s a serious
business, and one that relies on one of the world’s most
efficient organisational infrastructures.
Playing a background yet crucial part in that infrastructure is the
McDonald’s Australia Print Centre located in the company’s
Sydney headquarters.
Challenge: A total production solutionFor the Print Centre, meeting the almost non-stop demand for
print production services means maintaining a high-performance
production environment in which reliability, quality and versatility are
of paramount importance. Training manuals, business cards and local
in-store marketing resources are only a few items in the wide range of
printed materials generated daily by the Print Centre and contributing
to its 150,000 black-and-white impressions per month output.
According to Print Centre Manager, Cathy Hodge, an incumbent
black-and-white print production system that was breaking down
on a regular basis and lacked even adequate finishing options was
having a negative impact on the Centre’s production capabilities.
“With anything up to a four day wait for on-site support, and the
need to outsource booklet and manual binding, we were
failing to meet our production deadlines, which was in turn
disadvantaging our internal clients.”
Rather than apply band-aid solutions to a problem that showed no
real signs of improvement, the decision was made to undertake a
complete refresh of the Print Centre’s production environment,
with a primary focus on black-and-white production capabilities.
The answer (and a sudden change): A Ricoh production solutionFollowing several months of evaluating proposed solutions from three
vendors – none of which was Ricoh, by the way – contracts were only
days off being signed when Cathy received a call from one of Ricoh’s
print production specialists. “Even though we had already decided
to go with another vendor,” Cathy explains, “we went along to a
demonstration at the Ricoh Printing Innovation Centre.”
By the time the presentation was over, it was a totally different game.
“We were so impressed with the professionalism of the Ricoh team
and the capabilities of the production solution that we immediately
entered into discussions for a Ricoh solution,” Cathy states.
“And within a couple of months we had taken delivery of two
new 110 page per minute units that were giving us benefits right
from the start.”
Any job, any timeKey among those benefits is the Print Centre’s dramatically improved
turnaround times, particularly with regard to jobs requiring specific
finishing. Using the Ricoh solution’s inline perfect binding, large
reports, booklets and training manuals are printed, collated and
perfect-bound in a single workflow.
Previously, jobs that required binding were either sent to an
external service provider or manually punched and bound by
Print Centre staff. Even though the pre-Ricoh system included a
tape binding finish option, according to Cathy it looked so
unprofessional that the majority of business units made a point
of specifying an alternative.
“With the Ricoh solution we’re able to produce perfect-bound
reports and manuals of up to 400 pages,” Cathy says. “And with our
training manuals, which are one of the major print jobs we undertake,
we’ve been able to cut days off the production time simply because
we no longer have to send them out for binding. It’s all done in the
one operation.
“Actually, even with the solution we were going to implement
prior to deciding on Ricoh, having perfect-binding capabilities
would have meant bringing in a separate dedicated machine that
would have taken up an enormous amount of space. With the
Ricoh solution, it’s all inline and has a minimum space impact.”
McDonald’s Australia Print Centre:
A high-performance production environment
One of the things that has constantly impressed us is that
whether it’s a technician conducting a regular service or our
account manager, all the Ricoh people have an excellent
understanding of the hardware and software, and are able to
give us the advice and support we need on the spot.
”
‘‘
Cathy recounts a particular instance where a business unit manager
raised concerns about a regular monthly charge-back of $3,000. “It
was all to do with the printing of large reports that were distributed
throughout the business,” she says. “When we explained that the unit
was receiving the charge-back only because the Ricoh solution now
gave us that ability, those reports were no longer printed. Instead, it
was decided to distribute them via email.
“And even while some of the recipients might opt to print the report
rather than reading it online, they’re few in number, and the business
unit has saved itself over $35,000 per year.”
Support and training on demandGetting the job finished and delivered on time, whether it’s a set of
business cards or a large run of perfect-bound training manuals, is
one of the Print Centre’s standard imperatives. According to Cathy,
while the speed, versatility and reliability of the Ricoh solution is the
foundation for achieving that, the on-site support and training given
by Ricoh specialists are main contributing factors.
“We’re constantly exploring ways and means of using our Ricoh
production environment to do things better and more efficiently,”
Cathy explains. “So whenever anyone from Ricoh comes on site we
always take advantage and start asking questions.
“One of the things that has constantly impressed us is that whether
it’s a technician conducting a regular service or our account manager,
all the Ricoh people have an excellent understanding of the hardware
and software, and are able to give us the advice and support we need
on the spot.”
In commenting on how support from Ricoh is helping the Print Centre
meet the production deadlines of the McDonald’s business units,
Cathy is quick to point out that on-site service and support were
among the most critical requirements of the entire solution. “In most
cases, it’s a maximum of two hours from the time of submitting a
support request to having a Ricoh specialist on site and a resolution
reached,” she states.
“Compare that to the three or four days we had with our previous
vendor and system, and it’s easy to see how we’re now a more
efficient part of the McDonald’s business than ever before.
“Overall, the Ricoh solution and the Ricoh people who work with us
have meant our Print Centre now has the print production capabilities
that can easily keep pace with the demands of one of the country’s
most rapidly growing businesses.”
Waste reduction and accurate charge-backLike many businesses, McDonald’s strives to ensure each of its
business units is fully accountable for their expenditure; and with the
introduction of the Ricoh solution, the Print Centre is at last in the
position of being able to introduce charge-backs to the units for their
print production jobs.
Where it used to be the case that the Print Centre would have to
absorb all print production costs, business unit usage reports are now
being generated each month, detailing the number of impressions,
finishes and even stock involved in each job.
With those reports, which are generated in a matter of minutes,
the Print Centre has introduced a monthly charge-back schedule,
accounting for every black-and-white impression made for each
business unit. Quite aside from the fact that the Print Centre is
no longer a money-pit, the charge-back capabilities enabled by the
Ricoh solution has brought about major cost and paper savings for
business units.
Ricoh Australia Pty. Ltd. 8 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone: 1800 181 002 Fax: 02 8977 1100 Web: ricoh.com.auRicoh New Zealand Pty. 60 Stanley Street, Parnell, Auckland New Zealand. Phone 0800 2 Ricoh (0800 2 74264) Fax: 09 915 1401 Web: ricoh.co.nz
Product code: 950518 Printed on a Ricoh colour production device