Managing Toners Stock in the Field

[freebyrd116]

Hello All,

I have questions regarding how everyone is managing toner stock for on contract customers in the field.

We are a Canon dealership trying to manage customer toner in the field using ERDS but it is becoming a nightmare.

- Gen3 machines ver 1/2 report via percentage left
- Gen3 machines ver 3/x700 series machines report via number of days remaining (ver 1/2 Gen3 machines can't do this)

We are trying to move forward to a model where we DO NOT leave extra toner in the field and only drop ship toner as required when machine reports to ERDS that it is needed.

This has become quite challenging lately and we are wondering how everyone is managing this. We are hesitant to leave toner at customer locations (for toner "in" contracts) because it gets lost and we all know how much more expensive toner has become on these new machines.

Looking for ANY comments on how other dealers are managing this dilemma.

Thanks for your input in advance.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

Only leave the customer with an extra black toner and waste toner container if you think they need it.

Do not leave an extra full set of CMYK just because the customer asked for it. This quickly snowballs into $1,000s of your money in the field.

[freebyrd116]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

That's exactly the problem we are having. Wasn't so bad when the toner was cheaper.

Currently our manager wants to leave NO toner in the field and rely upon ERDS to notify when customers need it.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

That's exactly the problem we are having. Wasn't so bad when the toner was cheaper.

Currently our manager wants to leave NO toner in the field and rely upon ERDS to notify when customers need it.

I always leave one full set of toner at their place. if you don't, you're gonna be making a lot of emergency toner deliveries. Mark my words.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

That's exactly the problem we are having. Wasn't so bad when the toner was cheaper.

Currently our manager wants to leave NO toner in the field and rely upon ERDS to notify when customers need it.

I know nothing about ERDS. On Toshiba A3 copiers, we can set an automatic email toner alert when the copier senses 20% low leaving about 6k pages of toner remaining.

We direct ship to the customer from the OEM, never handling the toner.

For high volume customers this may not work but for the average SMB customer it works just fine.

A4 copiers have much smaller onboard toner capacities, so maybe set at 30% if possible.

You always need to have some toner inventory in the office because nothing ever goes according to plan all of the time.

[mojorolla]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

Its been a few years since touching a Canon but you should be able to set when the machine reports, if messages display or not, toner low messages,etc. I do this on all KM and Toshiba machines.
Email reporting has a high fail rate, especially using gmail or some other free service for SMTP.


Have you considered a monitoring software like FM Audit ? It works great, cost is not outrageous and it integrates nicely with other, existing systems.

[40yearsplus]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

I worked for a large company that paid commission to their Technicians to bring overstock back that the customers were hoarding. Like five bucks a box or so brought back to restock.

Eventually they all are seen for service. You can mail me my commission for sharing the idea with you!

It helps to confirm with a phone call they don't have any on the shelf also when you see the unit asking for some, and they actually need some.

[tsbservice]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

We use PrintFleet whenever is possible on contract customers. It works well for us but we're small company I could imagine it's tedious or full day job to monitor and deliver. On few big accounts we keep them same model family as much as possible so if they have let's say 20 machines same model we will give them to stock 6-7 black toners and maybe 2-3 complects CMY toners.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

One of the risks of overstocking toner at customer locations is that if you lose the account to a competitor and do not get there quick enough, the competitor will toss your toner. A set of A3 CMYK toner could be worth $400.00+ .

Many customers do not understand that the toner that is on their property does not belong to them.

Xerox charges the customer full MSRP+ for any toner that is not returned to them. It is written in the fine print of their service contracts ... which is fair.

[mojorolla]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

We use PrintFleet whenever is possible on contract customers. It works well for us but we're small company I could imagine it's tedious or full day job to monitor and deliver. On few big accounts we keep them same model family as much as possible so if they have let's say 20 machines same model we will give them to stock 6-7 black toners and maybe 2-3 complects CMY toners.

You would think so but, not really.
I have hundreds of machines and spend no more than 30 minutes per day on supply fulfillment. Hell, I can even do it from my phone in a pinch.
I can also forecast months ahead of time based on historical usage. I know how much toner, and PM items I need in the coming months.

In my experience, getting the machine settings right from various makes, models, series and generations, firmware levels, etc... is the hard part.

[kuby]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

We had one customer that was ordering toner until one day I asked the manager why he send them toner went he sent them some last week. He said that they told him they were out? I went and looked at the copy count and came back to the shop and looked up the invoice and last serviced and showed it to the manager and told him something is fishy. There was not way they used that much toner. I told manger either that had another machine like that somewhere else ( not on contract from us ) or they are selling the toner to some one. The manager called them and questioned them about it and it stopped. Toner gets costly after a while.

[mloudy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

Just starting to have techs find all toners and then ask where any more are stored when they are on site. Way too many leased machines are being retuned with gobs of toners.

One nice feature to monitoring software is that you can set up Premature Toner Alerts. Some of the dumbest customers will swap out all the toners when the colors are off. I had an alert hit my phone and I showed up in minutes to find a full set of toners in the trash which would have been gone by the next morning. Then I train the person who did it but unfortunately a new knucklehead will be in charge in a few months.

Setting email alerts is great and we use them but if a toner is changed at, let us say 60%, then the email alert setting of 20% is never sent. With Sharp you can print out a 22-6 which will show the "near-near end" toners, toners replaced early but that is after the fact. It does help identify abusers.

Our largest account would often start swapping toners when it needed an image unit. Talking about a fleet of 70 color printers. So for a black image unit alert on the display the printer would get a full set of new toners and image units. Keep swapping until the printer worked again basically. We eventually had to change them over to a cpc for parts/service and they paid for supplies. To this day we still pick up gaylords full of "empties" and bring them back to go through one by one. Normally we find about $500 our cost in brand new toners that have never even inserted as well of multiple toners with varying life left. When you never install a toner it doesn't show up in the Premature Replacement Alerts. After 12 years we still don't know how it happens and neither do they. We re-box them and ship them all back to them. I HATE MPS.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

Just starting to have techs find all toners and then ask where any more are stored when they are on site. Way too many leased machines are being retuned with gobs of toners.

One nice feature to monitoring software is that you can set up Premature Toner Alerts. Some of the dumbest customers will swap out all the toners when the colors are off. I had an alert hit my phone and I showed up in minutes to find a full set of toners in the trash which would have been gone by the next morning. Then I train the person who did it but unfortunately a new knucklehead will be in charge in a few months.

Setting email alerts is great and we use them but if a toner is changed at, let us say 60%, then the email alert setting of 20% is never sent. With Sharp you can print out a 22-6 which will show the "near-near end" toners, toners replaced early but that is after the fact. It does help identify abusers.

Our largest account would often start swapping toners when it needed an image unit. Talking about a fleet of 70 color printers. So for a black image unit alert on the display the printer would get a full set of new toners and image units. Keep swapping until the printer worked again basically. We eventually had to change them over to a cpc for parts/service and they paid for supplies. To this day we still pick up gaylords full of "empties" and bring them back to go through one by one. Normally we find about $500 our cost in brand new toners that have never even inserted as well of multiple toners with varying life left. When you never install a toner it doesn't show up in the Premature Replacement Alerts. After 12 years we still don't know how it happens and neither do they. We re-box them and ship them all back to them. I HATE MPS.

... this sets up your business for having a lot of useless toner on discontinued copiers when the copier is eventually returned to your office after an upgrade to replace the existing copier. This dead toner will likely sit on your shelves for years before you write it off and throw it away in a landfill. I am not sure if you can recycle a full toner cartridge.

[mloudy]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

When we get down to a a limited number of a certain model in the field I start watching in-house and on-site pretty tight. I normally sell newly dead stock on eBay at half our cost.

Right now it is the MX-M623N. Three left and all to be replaced by July. I think I will be left with about 6-8 toners. Watching charge per call supply orders is also important. I got a PO a few weeks ago for over $8K worth of toner that the customer would never use. Because of Covid the materials people now work from home and there is a disconnect for sure. These toners were for five 10 year old printers that they barely use anymore and the only ones we have in the field so I knew at some point they would want to return them for a credit. The people that take these orders at most companies have no clue of what is needed and what isn't inless they have a way to double check quickly. Other companies see an $8K supply sale and run it through. I didn't have the stock to begin with becasue I knew the demand and have been limiting what I stock for this printer model.

[freebyrd116]

Re: Managing Toners Stock in the Field

Thanks Everyone.

Great information on the topic