Servicing Color & Black and White

[Caveman]

With the copy process being different for the color and black & white lines, I would like to ask all Ricoh field service reps their opinions regarding servicing both the color and black & white product series.

Are those of you who service color exclusive to this line or do you service the black & white series as well?

From the standpoint of being technically strong on both series, can the Color and Black & white lines be effectively managed in the field by one rep? Can an adequate car inventory be carried/maintained to support the two lines?

Does color require full dedication or can the color and black & whites lines be mastered together?

Would like to get a realistic overview as to managing the two lines.

All feedback regarding this inquiry appreciated.

Thank you -
Caveman

[KenB]

Not too many years ago (maybe 5) our color techs only worked on color machines, and the black and white techs stuck with B&W machines.

We have been getting color training to the B&W techs, and B&W training to the color techs for quite a while now. The only exceptions are the high volume B&W techs who work on the Segment 6 machines, but that will be changing soon as well.

Color has now become so popular, primarily because of the lower cost, that it's inevitable that the number of color machines will eventually outnumber their monochrome brothers.

[Eric1968]

I you know the color machines, then the B/W-machines aren't a big deal to learn. If you are a B/W-tech only, then you'll need to do some study to learn the color basics. Like Ken said it's very likely that the color machines are going to outnumber the B/W-machines because the costs of color machines are getting lower. We almost only sell color machines, and incidentally a B/W-machine.

[Lotec]

I service both the color and b/w machines Ricoh have. That is fairly easy as long as you have a number of machines that you can handle.

I think the problem first start when you have several brands. I service Ricoh & NRG, Kyocera, Konica Minolta, Lexmark X945 (Xerox), and a lot of smaller models from Lexmark and Brother. And if I have to I service Samsung and Toshiba too.
But with many brands and therefor many models the inventory is large and expensive.

I only have parts for Ricoh and Kyocera with me - and toner for these models. Together with my tools and vacuum cleaner I have almost filled up my car 2/3rd in volume.
I've read the service manuals for all the Ricohs. Kyocera is new to me - but we sell more Kyocera now then Ricoh. If I can find the time, I will have to read the service manual for these machines. Maybe pull a machine apart in the shop to see how things work before I do the job at the customers.

85% of the jobs are Ricoh and Kyocera machines. Color is now taking about 80% of my time.
They color Ricohs do not run from one PM to another. And with four drums/dev units that is not replaced at the same intervals - we get more service calls.
The last weeks I have been working at least 70 hours a week, and I'm not still on top of things.
I also use a lot of time to learn about new models and stuff like that too. I spend about 1-2 weeks a year on courses at the importers.

In 2011 I'm going to the university to learn more about computers, networks, security, programming and so on. Learn more in detail about the embedded OS that Ricoh have on the GW controllers. I will not get paid for this. In fact I have to use my vaccation to be able to do so. I will spend about 5-10 hours a week in the classroom, and the rest I have to read myself to get good grades on the exams. I'll take between 20 to 35 credits each semester.
But I feel I need a LOT more knowledge because I'm connecting the copiers to more and more advanced networks running God knows what kind of special software...
A lot of the service calls have to do with printing and scanning - and in 75% of the cases it is a fault with the customers IT systems.

If you service more professional machines like the Pro900 I think it will be hard to service a lot of other stuff because the customer is always in a rush - and they are very focused on print quality. In the MPC range from Ricoh 95% of the customers have never calibrated the color ever. They just want a copy, and they are fairly happy as long as there are not color streaks on it - and the colors are fairly accurate.

I would like to have better time to serve the machines, so everything can be done the right way all the time. For me that is not allways the case. Sometimes you have to fix the machine enough so a paper car move through the copier and print an OK picture - and then I have to rush to another customer.
It hurts my professional pride..

I have a problem with our salesmen. Sometimes they sell stuff I have never seen before. Then I come to the customer and I'm going to fix it (and later charge the customer a lot of money).. and I don't even know how I enter service mode, I don't know how the machine is constructed and I don't even know how to open the machine..
I have started to give the cell phone number to the salesmen to these customers and I hope they learn. I can not say to the customer: tough luck.. I have no idea what so ever, how to fix this. I don't even know how to get the parts I need.


If you have a car like mine (Opel Combo), you will have no problem to bring with you the parts and toner you need. But I keep a limited number of each part and toner.
I bring with me 10-12 PCUs for the Ricoh color machines too. At least..

Just study what machines you are going to sell, and don't let the salesmen sell whatever they can get their hand on. Keep the number of models down, and don't have to many brands. You can fix everything, but too many will keep your skill lever for every model too low. Will take a lot of extra time.

[Paranoid]

I transitioned over to colour aswell as b/w from the second year of the 1224C being released, personally I have found no real difference in servicing the b/w over thecolour apart from you have more dev units and now more drum units.

I have mpc2500 to mpc7500 colours and 1022 right upto a couple of the ex1356 Pro machines in all types of work environments and have found no need to specialise is one or the other, I dont just work on Ricoh either have 3 other manufacturers machines to look after all within the same copy speeds etc, its not a problem just have to pick the correct types of parts to carry to make sure you have a high first time fix rate. I have a VW Golf and manage fine.

[knightfall]

When you get training from Ricoh they tell you that if you are trained in color of certain models you are also trained on the black & white of the same engine, I do find that the color are alot easy to troubleshoot than the B&W, usually there are certain parts that are in the color that are also in the B&W such as feed rollers & fuser rollers.

[collme]

I have worked on both colour and b/w machines for many years. working on Km, canon, ricoh and sharp. was not easy to balance car stock when looking after so many manufactures and models but i managed. now i just look after ricoh and a few canons but i don't feel any extra work is needed between colour and b/w machines. as long as you keep all areas clean and replace parts when due, the machines run well. over time you fine tune what parts you carry in your car as you get to know what you fit most and what regular parts fail ie touch screens and mpc power supplies. Drums we fit correct units and none of this modding black units to fit and seem to have few problems.

[Ricoh-ono]

With the copy process being different for the color and black & white lines, I would like to ask all Ricoh field service reps their opinions regarding servicing both the color and black & white product series.

Are those of you who service color exclusive to this line or do you service the black & white series as well?

From the standpoint of being technically strong on both series, can the Color and Black & white lines be effectively managed in the field by one rep? Can an adequate car inventory be carried/maintained to support the two lines?

Does color require full dedication or can the color and black & whites lines be mastered together?

Would like to get a realistic overview as to managing the two lines.

All feedback regarding this inquiry appreciated.

Thank you -
Caveman

A skilled tech can manage both color and bw.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I work on all kinds of brands and b/w and color. I don't seem to have any problems. Years ago I did have a color theory class online that gives a good understanding of how color works if you've never dealt with it. Other than that, it's more like b/w times 4.

[jonhiker]

I work on both b&w and color. A lot of the copy functions are the same, so the transition is not that difficult. Ricoh has a digital color basic class which will help a person understand the difference between the two processes. As Ricoh-ono says, a skilled tech can handle both.