Fast, high demand warehouse printer

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Pyrox

Hello all. First time posting on this group, but i've been reading it
for some time now. :)

Our company is wrestling with the way our MSDS sheets get shipped with
our warehouse orders. As of right now, we currently employ 3 people
who manage all our MSDS's in a few filling cabinets, printing them in
batches overnight, and then retreiving them when an order needs one.

What our thought is:
Instead of having 3 full time people do this one job, why not combine
that position with a different position where the orders are already
sitting at? The orders already go through a funnel point where someone
confirms the picking. We were thinking we could print the msds's on
demand there and stick them with the order.

We have usually 1200 msds orders a day, each msds is an average of 5-6
pages. We thought that we could start the printing of the msds when
the order is first checked in by the confirmer and then have the
msds's printed by the time the confirmer has confirmed the order
(doesn't take very long for them to do this).

I really know nothing about printers and warehouse stuff, so here are
the few questions i have that i hope you can help me answer...

1. What is a good, reliable, fast, heavy load warehouse printer that
can withstand warehouse conditions? We dont' deal alot with dust, but
heat and humidity are currently killing our medium load printers.

2. There are 3 stations for confirming, would it be better to have 3
fast printers, or 2 really fast printers that they share?

3. Is there a better process that you can think of to do this? (we
thought of sending the msds's out electronically to the customer, but
there would have to be too many system changes, and eventually it
would take over 20 years to recoup that loss)

I really appreciate all your help! You dont know how much this will
help me!
Thanks again!
Paul
 
Hello all. First time posting on this group, but i've been reading it
for some time now. :)

Our company is wrestling with the way our MSDS sheets get shipped with
our warehouse orders. As of right now, we currently employ 3 people
who manage all our MSDS's in a few filling cabinets, printing them in
batches overnight, and then retreiving them when an order needs one.

What our thought is:
Instead of having 3 full time people do this one job, why not combine
that position with a different position where the orders are already
sitting at? The orders already go through a funnel point where someone
confirms the picking. We were thinking we could print the msds's on
demand there and stick them with the order.

We have usually 1200 msds orders a day, each msds is an average of 5-6
pages. We thought that we could start the printing of the msds when
the order is first checked in by the confirmer and then have the
msds's printed by the time the confirmer has confirmed the order
(doesn't take very long for them to do this).

I really know nothing about printers and warehouse stuff, so here are
the few questions i have that i hope you can help me answer...

1. What is a good, reliable, fast, heavy load warehouse printer that
can withstand warehouse conditions? We dont' deal alot with dust, but
heat and humidity are currently killing our medium load printers.

2. There are 3 stations for confirming, would it be better to have 3
fast printers, or 2 really fast printers that they share?

3. Is there a better process that you can think of to do this? (we
thought of sending the msds's out electronically to the customer, but
there would have to be too many system changes, and eventually it
would take over 20 years to recoup that loss)

I really appreciate all your help! You dont know how much this will
help me!
Thanks again!
Paul
Click to expand...

You'd be amazed at what you can do. Your thoughts about sending the
mods out electronically isn't out of line, and isn't as involved or
complex as you think.

You know who you should contact about this? Xerox. They do stuff like
this all day long.
 
Pyrox said:
Hello all. First time posting on this group, but i've been reading it
for some time now. :)

Our company is wrestling with the way our MSDS sheets get shipped with
our warehouse orders. As of right now, we currently employ 3 people
who manage all our MSDS's in a few filling cabinets, printing them in
batches overnight, and then retreiving them when an order needs one.

What our thought is:
Instead of having 3 full time people do this one job, why not combine
that position with a different position where the orders are already
sitting at? The orders already go through a funnel point where someone
confirms the picking. We were thinking we could print the msds's on
demand there and stick them with the order.

We have usually 1200 msds orders a day, each msds is an average of 5-6
pages. We thought that we could start the printing of the msds when
the order is first checked in by the confirmer and then have the
msds's printed by the time the confirmer has confirmed the order
(doesn't take very long for them to do this).

I really know nothing about printers and warehouse stuff, so here are
the few questions i have that i hope you can help me answer...

1. What is a good, reliable, fast, heavy load warehouse printer that
can withstand warehouse conditions? We dont' deal alot with dust, but
heat and humidity are currently killing our medium load printers.

2. There are 3 stations for confirming, would it be better to have 3
fast printers, or 2 really fast printers that they share?

3. Is there a better process that you can think of to do this? (we
thought of sending the msds's out electronically to the customer, but
there would have to be too many system changes, and eventually it
would take over 20 years to recoup that loss)

I really appreciate all your help! You dont know how much this will
help me!
Thanks again!
Paul
Click to expand...


I suppose that you have already run the numbers and have come up with a
single printer (or printer array) out put of 7200 pages per day and
about 15 pages per minute output.

Personalized direct mail printers can handle this total output.

However, the process of rapidly getting the correct pages into the hands
of the confirmer at the right time without error could be a problem...
at least I didn't try to solve it in doing the capacity estimates.

But, it doesn't seem outlandish at all.

Jim

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Pyrox said:
We have usually 1200 msds orders a day, each msds is an average of 5-6
pages. We thought that we could start the printing of the msds when
the order is first checked in by the confirmer and then have the
msds's printed by the time the confirmer has confirmed the order
(doesn't take very long for them to do this).

1. What is a good, reliable, fast, heavy load warehouse printer that
can withstand warehouse conditions? We dont' deal alot with dust, but
heat and humidity are currently killing our medium load printers.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "warehouse printer"? Impact, thermal transfer,
laser? I've used lasers in a dusty and hot warehouse environment with
surprisingly good results. I did put them in enclosures to protect
them.
2. There are 3 stations for confirming, would it be better to have 3
fast printers, or 2 really fast printers that they share?
Click to expand...

Probably depends on how far apart the locations are.
3. Is there a better process that you can think of to do this? (we
thought of sending the msds's out electronically to the customer, but
there would have to be too many system changes, and eventually it
would take over 20 years to recoup that loss)
Click to expand...

20 years? Let me try a couple of suggestions:

Put all the MSDSs on a web page.

Send out a CD of all of your documents to those who ask.

That may not eliminate the need to print, but it could cut down the
volume considerably.
 
Currently the msds's are in PDF format on a network computer, and when
we go to refill the cabinets with msds's they actually open up adobe
acrobat, and print it to the big foot printer up in the IT department,
and then someone brings down the new printed msds's.

We were thinking of getting high speed printers because from the time
that the confirmers start the confirm process on their block of
orders(the orders come on a cart with about 40 orders, each order may
or may not have an msds sheet.), to when the order is moved down the
line, is about 2 minutes(that's why i'm looking for a very fast
printer :) )

So our theory was...

When they start confirming the cart of orders, start a print job of
all the msds's on that order(something tyed to the confirm process so
they don't have to do anything, it'll just spit them out on it's own.
THe system already knows which orders need msds sheets. ). When they
are done confirming that cart, all the orders that need msds's have
their msds printed out. The confirmer then takes the stack of msd's
and puts it on the cart for the order packer to put them with the
shipment.

So yes, i did run the numbers, but the problem was the short time from
when the order cart comes to the confirmer, to when it leaves.
So any recommendations on a few printers that might handle this
situation?
I really appreciate all the help! Thanks a ton!
Paul
 
Pyrox said:
Hello all. First time posting on this group, but i've been reading it
for some time now. :)

Our company is wrestling with the way our MSDS sheets get shipped with
our warehouse orders. As of right now, we currently employ 3 people
who manage all our MSDS's in a few filling cabinets, printing them in
batches overnight, and then retreiving them when an order needs one.

What our thought is:
Instead of having 3 full time people do this one job, why not combine
that position with a different position where the orders are already
sitting at? The orders already go through a funnel point where someone
confirms the picking. We were thinking we could print the msds's on
demand there and stick them with the order.

We have usually 1200 msds orders a day, each msds is an average of 5-6
pages. We thought that we could start the printing of the msds when
the order is first checked in by the confirmer and then have the
msds's printed by the time the confirmer has confirmed the order
(doesn't take very long for them to do this).

I really know nothing about printers and warehouse stuff, so here are
the few questions i have that i hope you can help me answer...

1. What is a good, reliable, fast, heavy load warehouse printer that
can withstand warehouse conditions? We dont' deal alot with dust, but
heat and humidity are currently killing our medium load printers.

2. There are 3 stations for confirming, would it be better to have 3
fast printers, or 2 really fast printers that they share?

3. Is there a better process that you can think of to do this? (we
thought of sending the msds's out electronically to the customer, but
there would have to be too many system changes, and eventually it
would take over 20 years to recoup that loss)

I really appreciate all your help! You dont know how much this will
help me!
Thanks again!
Paul
Click to expand...
If the printer now in the IT department was moved closer to the packers
would it do the job? If so, just buy one of those.
 
when i say warehouse, i just mean something that can handle humidity
and heat better than a normal laser printer. And yes, just a laser
printer is fine. The enclosure idea was an exellent idea. If we go
this route, i think we might do that to help spare the ware and tear
on the printers.

The website idea was our first idea, the problem was that we'd still
need a process for printing all the documents if the customer wants
them in their order (we get alot of: i'm ordering from boston, send my
package to the warehouse in texas type stuff) We'd also need some
modifications to the website to prompt the user if they want it
electronically or not, and then a way for them to get it. (more
maintenence for our web site guys) Then our over the phone order
system would need to be modified to ask the person if they want a
paper copy of the msds or not. (we cant' assume they want an
electronic copy because some dont' even have computers, that's also
the problem with sending out a CD full of them.) So we figured, if
were not saving anything by moving electronically, why not just
modifiy the existing way of doing things to make it better?

Thanks again for all your help! Any help is appreciated!
Paul
 
when i say warehouse, i just mean something that can handle humidity
and heat better than a normal laser printer. And yes, just a laser
printer is fine. The enclosure idea was an exellent idea. If we go
this route, i think we might do that to help spare the ware and tear
on the printers.

The website idea was our first idea, the problem was that we'd still
need a process for printing all the documents if the customer wants
them in their order (we get alot of: i'm ordering from boston, send my
package to the warehouse in texas type stuff) We'd also need some
modifications to the website to prompt the user if they want it
electronically or not, and then a way for them to get it. (more
maintenence for our web site guys) Then our over the phone order
system would need to be modified to ask the person if they want a
paper copy of the msds or not. (we cant' assume they want an
electronic copy because some dont' even have computers, that's also
the problem with sending out a CD full of them.) So we figured, if
were not saving anything by moving electronically, why not just
modifiy the existing way of doing things to make it better?

Thanks again for all your help! Any help is appreciated!
Paul
 
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