Organizational Profile:
Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, PMX Industries is a supplier of high quality copper and copper alloys. PMX produces a wide range of copper materials in strip, coil, sheet and plate forms in a variety of colors and finishes to be used for electronics, building products, healthcare, automotive and consumer products.
Situation:
This is really a typical scenario with the company's focus on manufacturing and not on the processes that pertain to all of the printers, faxes and copiers that it maintained. The IT staff began to look at all the printers, faxes and copiers and wondered why there were so many. Why did IT have to fix printers when there were more important IT endeavors to pursue? Why did the executive secretary have to manage a two page list of supply items, such as toner cartridges, since it seemed there were no two alike? To buy one of each item for a simple inventory would easily cost $4,500.00 or more! What happens when a printer goes out of commission and a new toner remains in inventory?
Solution:
To begin the solution process, Advanced Systems worked with PMX's network manager, Nick Ternary. The first phase in the process was discovery, which involved two steps: (1) a study of the floor plans and prints/copies, which included electronic meter collection, and (2) a study of cartridge cost/yield ratios to obtain a cost-per-copy of those units.
Phase two was a validation process to ensure that the costs being studied were the true costs that PMX was paying for its printer fleet. Executive assistant, Lynn Leighton owned this process so we were able to match the data with PMX's monhtly payments to its vendors. The result was paring down from 61 devices to just 14 with a substantial monthly savings for the client.
Conclusion:
Don Wolfgang, CFO, now enjoys the fact that PMX is now doing more with less by using updated technology with an emphasis on imaging and process improvement. IT is freed up to work on more important projects and the executive assistant can work on processes that help PMX focus on their mission statement rather than operating a supply room. Doing more with less and working smarter is a nice thing - and did we mention that it takes less electricity too?