Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

[MFPTech]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

This is the case with all 3 brands I work on, Canon, KonicaMinolta and Kyocera. I can't remember when i used my screwdriver last. All calls have been about answering "how to" questions or printing and scanning issues, which i mostly solve over the phone. New Installs take about 1 hour including software solutions... Customers are cancelling service agreements because they don't see the value, big companies are laying technicians off and small dralers are closing the doors. There is no job security in this industry anymore but my motto is " enjoy while you can"!

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[JR2ALTA]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

Jobs are good here as Baby Boomers retire and 20s,30 year olds don't stay at one job for more than a year.

I started this post about Konica Minolta.

Now I am working on Sharp and they require a lot of maintenance as they have low yield drums, strip developer, have faulty sensors and make a lot of noise.

yea, work!

[copier tech]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

This is always a worry, however all copiers are MFD's so multi functional copiers will always be needed.
Customers will always need a contract even if purely for the fact they cant find or are too lazy to look for a jam etc.
Another fact they will always break bits off again needing an engineer.
We could seen be purely "scanning engineers"

[MFPTech]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

Sharp will close the doors soon like Panasonic. How many times are they going to bail Sharp out?

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[subaro]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

As long as there are moving parts, techs would be around. The question is how often would they be called out. Kyocera has some desktop mfp that are 60 ppm and runs excellent. some customers are replacing larger mfp wtih these [ A4 format ]. kyocera newest lineup are a technician dream, like one screw to remove the rear cover and nothing takes more that 5 minutes to remove.
You have to be multi-skill in today's job market i would say. Have a backup or sideline something that can be activated if the hit the fan..

[JR2ALTA]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

Sharp will close the doors soon like Panasonic. How many times are they going to bail Sharp out?

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What do you mean? I know they were recently acquired by FoxConn...is there any evidence that their MFP division is losing big money?

[peterxu256]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

What do you mean? I know they were recently acquired by FoxConn...is there any evidence that their MFP division is losing big money?

Similar to Samsung MFP division sold to HP recently. Interested in Hardware supply chain. Wondering if Samsung own a dependent Toner Factory, producing the Chemically Produced Toner (CPT) or just conventional toner. I think all hardware manufacturers(Brand makers) have lacked the core competency to go further before the industry itself going to end.

[roho]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

I've noticed a steady slow down for almost a year. The latest versions of machines have reduced the service calls, also there are more dealers now then ever. We are keeping and turning over our accounts, tough to get new ones. I know two dealers we compete with who have laid off a small number of techs. Future doesn't look to promising to this lifer!

[peterxu256]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

But sometimes it may not scary too much, look at HP, recently acquired Samsung MFP business, published scary news too"
"HP goes bullish on India; launches 33 printers in a day" HP goes bullish on India; launches 33 printers in a day - The Financial Express.

What is prospect of comments?

[johnyb]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

I think all manufacturers try to keep up with each other and try to get the edge on one another, in recent years they have moved strongly in many directions to gain that edge, and one is reliability of the product.
The new Ricoh devices have a very long drum life and in comparison to their older office products, the drum life's have more than quadrupled, meaning less service calls, add to that other reliability improvements, fuser, paper feed, and so on make a lot less service calls per machine.
Canon , Konica, Kyrocera , and HP with introduction of the Page Wide have all followed suit in making machines more and more reliable.
Does that mean the end of the Engineer / Tech, no I don't think so personally, but the days of having 250 machines per tech have gone, and have probably jumped up from that quite considerably maybe 350 ?, hard to tell yet.
Machines will still break, and customers will still be dumb.
Software solutions, security is another area which has moved paces.
The days of being a nuts and bolts Engineer have gone, and now a TOP Engineer has to be able to turn is hand to several brands of machine and know software solutions and networking capabilities making the IT tech and - Copier Engineer a more integrated role.
Not all can adapt to the IT side and if I was one of them then I would be worried more so!

[SwisSeV]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

Doesn't matter how reliable a machine is when a gecko climbs onto the high voltage board and shorts out the circuit. Just today, I peeled a crispy gecko that shorted the power board and caused the fuser lamps to overheat. Those damn geckos are job security.

[peterxu256]

Re: Scary new Reliability specifically Bizhubs

I think all manufacturers try to keep up with each other and try to get the edge on one another, in recent years they have moved strongly in many directions to gain that edge, and one is reliability of the product.
The new Ricoh devices have a very long drum life and in comparison to their older office products, the drum life's have more than quadrupled, meaning less service calls, add to that other reliability improvements, fuser, paper feed, and so on make a lot less service calls per machine.
Canon , Konica, Kyrocera , and HP with introduction of the Page Wide have all followed suit in making machines more and more reliable.
Does that mean the end of the Engineer / Tech, no I don't think so personally, but the days of having 250 machines per tech have gone, and have probably jumped up from that quite considerably maybe 350 ?, hard to tell yet.
Machines will still break, and customers will still be dumb.
Software solutions, security is another area which has moved paces.
The days of being a nuts and bolts Engineer have gone, and now a TOP Engineer has to be able to turn is hand to several brands of machine and know software solutions and networking capabilities making the IT tech and - Copier Engineer a more integrated role.
Not all can adapt to the IT side and if I was one of them then I would be worried more so!

Fully agreed above comments, I think the reliability has no reason not to be improved as time goes. At least there should be less and less internal Recalls, Drum's protection layer increase several um(micrometer) doesn't need high Technology. As e-everything grows fast, customers' overall volume decline dramatically. In early days, copy mode usage reached 90% of all, now it revises, printer or scanner mode is highly associated with IT fundamental knowledge. Most of senior techs started from workshop. so they have few basic concept of network infrastructure. But machine's software(Unix basis) is always lagging after conventional OS's (windows,or iMac Os), Still make a lot of mainstream IT guy configuration.