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JR2ALTA
08-15-2015, 06:08 AM
I have been doing this job for about 10 years and have never questioned my job security until recently.

The new Bizhub 4 series (admittedly after some firmware fixes) are THE most rock solid low maintenance machines I have seen since the days of the Kyocera Falcons.

I have very good networking, troubleshooting and people skills so I don't consider myself low-hanging fruit in the company, but I honestly think companies moving forward are going to need less techs.

My essential tools of the trade are down to screwdriver, flat blade, clamps and cleaning supplies.

No more rebuilding fusers or IUs. Feed rollers are a breeze. And PM lights turned off by default.

The old adage of "there's always going to be need for xy&z" will always be true but not as much as before.

By the way, this is coming from several months of a steady decline in service calls as old equipment has been replaced so I am not speaking out of school.

allan
08-15-2015, 06:48 AM
Jip your right. after a lot of upgrades in the field we have the same amount of machines and service calls have died down. We had a meeting in the office this week about this topic. Now i must gear up with added value option to move over to billable IT hours. So My job is to find ways to do this.

First thing is to get CS remote care running with Vcare server to be able to pitch that for sales. Then find useful ways to integrate the LK's like 101,103... to start with. Use and prove the security functions. Also to create a better internal infrastructure by setting up 2 local servers. And to engage in IT consultation.

So the two sides finally integrates. This means less of us, higher skill level, more working hours and better money at the end of the day.

DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS
08-19-2015, 08:30 PM
I have been doing this job for about 10 years and have never questioned my job security until recently.

The new Bizhub 4 series (admittedly after some firmware fixes) are THE most rock solid low maintenance machines I have seen since the days of the Kyocera Falcons.

I have very good networking, troubleshooting and people skills so I don't consider myself low-hanging fruit in the company, but I honestly think companies moving forward are going to need less techs.

My essential tools of the trade are down to screwdriver, flat blade, clamps and cleaning supplies.

No more rebuilding fusers or IUs. Feed rollers are a breeze. And PM lights turned off by default.

The old adage of "there's always going to be need for xy&z" will always be true but not as much as before.

By the way, this is coming from several months of a steady decline in service calls as old equipment has been replaced so I am not speaking out of school.
The 'paperless office' is slowly but surely taking root, the demand for hard copy print is diminishing everyday, machine's reliability is high; smart phones, tablets etc are not helping matters. I am contemplating moving to another business such as in the fast moving consumer goods or construction materials. The future doesn't look very bright for copier repair techs.

JR2ALTA
08-22-2015, 02:35 AM
Yes DAG,

The other nail in our coffin is most machines I work with you cannot rebuild fusers or image units.

Even the feed rollers only require a couple screws and c-clips.

That means a skilled hand isn't required. No aptitude needed, just teach someone to turn a screwdriver and pay him peanuts.

NeoMatrix
08-22-2015, 08:51 AM
As much as it hurts to say the same thing as everyone here.
I too am attempting to diversify/focus in another direction.
I'm still working in the service industry, but just working on different prospects.

Hopefully we can see a light at the end of the tunnel in 12 months or so.

I appreciate everyone's input in the current post....

subaro
08-22-2015, 04:57 PM
Takes nerves to mention this topic, as a lot of guys out there knows this and put it in the back burner. There are some people today called " preppers", who are taking proactive measures in case of predicted events, e.g economy collapse ect. Well if the writing is on the wall, then folks in this industry will have to do the same, learning new skill set as of now and not waiting. For the old dogs, and cats, they have to start thinking of the resting plot they would want purchase.:cool:
Must say though, to be independent and or to be hired with experience in this field, strong " Information technology" skills should be on your resume. Most large companies separate hardware and IT deparments, so some techs are not exposed to software side of troubleshooting, which put them at a disadvantage to becoming a complete service tech.
calls for software issues are sent to IT and hardware malfunction to service tech. In my opinion, if you want to survive a be competitive in this industry , you must have strong skills in both. Also if independent, then a short course in social skill would not hurt.

great topic though and i hope many more will give their input here.

jmaister
09-02-2015, 01:16 AM
well, still us dummies to cover them distance tho. even its just putting in a modular part

and you can always count on engineers to mess it up, or zero QA on outsourced parts.

for example, i suspect a brand's toner chemical engineer team is not talking to the fuser engineer design team.

Dreama
09-02-2015, 05:16 AM
Definitely the newer general office machines are
1) more reliable
2) used less

this adds up to = less techs! Pure and simple.

I used to go and service machines who had dirty lines etc and the drum had only got to 80-90% of their life, and sometimes I wasn't even the first tech. I went out a while back to a "low end colour" machine - I was the first tech to visit this machine, and everything was over 120% of life! Newer model far easier to repair and more reliable.

There re will always be techs, just not so many of us

subaro
09-04-2015, 12:24 AM
[QUOTE=Dreama;487621]Definitely the newer general office machines are
1) more reliable
2) used less

this adds up to = less techs! Pure and simple.

I went out a while back to a "low end colour" machine - I was the first tech to visit this machine, and everything was over 120% of life!


colour machine over 120%. now which machine that might be if i may ask politely. i want one.

JR2ALTA
09-04-2015, 02:45 AM
[QUOTE=Dreama;487621]Definitely the newer general office machines are
1) more reliable
2) used less

this adds up to = less techs! Pure and simple.

I went out a while back to a "low end colour" machine - I was the first tech to visit this machine, and everything was over 120% of life!


colour machine over 120%. now which machine that might be if i may ask politely. i want one.

The vast majority of Konica OEM parts will last 2x or 3x life expectancy (t-belts will last years). This was such a racket that KM was forced to offer a switch that turns off "end of life" messages

subaro
09-04-2015, 03:03 AM
[QUOTE=subaro;487920]

The vast majority of Konica OEM parts will last 2x or 3x life expectancy (t-belts will last years). This was such a racket that KM was forced to offer a switch that turns off "end of life" messages


rearly seen colour machines that would see the consumables go the life time consistently. Yeh, you would get some here and there, and they are getting better at it these days. but fusers still a problem and dev units dropping toner [main problem areas and which is substantial cost to profit. We had bizhub in the past and for the most part mechanically sound, but the devs and fusers and duplex unit generate too many calls. great colour quality though.
IF the newer Konica are doing what you say, then i will have to show my boss your post.

cccjjn
09-16-2015, 08:37 PM
I came to the copier world from a dealer who's primary business was typewriters. Anybody remember those things???!!!!! The guy had a thriving business. We had the government contract for IBM Selectric Typewriters and a couple other brands. He was getting $189 per typewriter per year on the government contract. We also did all the typewriter repairs for a number of local SEARS stores. We had schools, county colleges and municipalities that each had 200+ typewriters. I will never forget the day in the summer of 1993 when I visited one of my largest school districts and all of the desks with typewriters were pulled out in the hallway. I went to the office and asked what was up???? They told me that they would no longer be teaching typing on typewriters that they were all being replaced with computers. What a sinking feeling that was. I began searching for a new job and landed where I am today. Within 18 months of me leaving, that company I used to work for was out of business despite the owner's attempts to get into computers and copiers. He thought typewriters and his gravy train would be around forever. He failed to adapt and find other sources of revenue.

I often get the feeling that that is exactly where the copier industry is heading. The end for copiers just won't be as abrupt as it was for typewriters. Businesses will always need to get output onto paper so there will always be some sort of need. Those who will really be hurt are those small dealers who have build their businesses on small machines and who lack IT capabilities. You have to have a good clientele of mid volume and high volume machines to have any chance of survival..

allan
09-16-2015, 08:50 PM
[QUOTE=JR2ALTA;487954]


rearly seen colour machines that would see the consumables go the life time consistently. Yeh, you would get some here and there, and they are getting better at it these days. but fusers still a problem and dev units dropping toner [main problem areas and which is substantial cost to profit. We had bizhub in the past and for the most part mechanically sound, but the devs and fusers and duplex unit generate too many calls. great colour quality though.
IF the newer Konica are doing what you say, then i will have to show my boss your post.

I can confirm that Konica Minolta machines does 2 to 3 times the yields. From a C35 to a B1250 it would just keep going. I can get up to 2.4M prints from a B1250 drum that is 2 and a 1/2 times the yield. You get 300K prints out of a C360 drum that is rated for only 70K prints.

kingpd@businessprints.net
04-16-2016, 05:14 AM
What includes the bizhub 4 series?


I have been doing this job for about 10 years and have never questioned my job security until recently.

The new Bizhub 4 series (admittedly after some firmware fixes) are THE most rock solid low maintenance machines I have seen since the days of the Kyocera Falcons.

I have very good networking, troubleshooting and people skills so I don't consider myself low-hanging fruit in the company, but I honestly think companies moving forward are going to need less techs.

My essential tools of the trade are down to screwdriver, flat blade, clamps and cleaning supplies.

No more rebuilding fusers or IUs. Feed rollers are a breeze. And PM lights turned off by default.

The old adage of "there's always going to be need for xy&z" will always be true but not as much as before.

By the way, this is coming from several months of a steady decline in service calls as old equipment has been replaced so I am not speaking out of school.

JR2ALTA
04-16-2016, 01:49 PM
They're not current anymore and I can't speak to the current run because I don't work on KM right now.

http://http://www.biz.konicaminolta.com/bw/554e_454e_364e_284e_224e/

MFPTech
10-02-2016, 10:56 PM
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"!

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

JR2ALTA
10-02-2016, 11:39 PM
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
10-03-2016, 07:54 AM
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
10-03-2016, 02:39 PM
Sharp will close the doors soon like Panasonic. How many times are they going to bail Sharp out?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

subaro
10-03-2016, 06:38 PM
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
10-03-2016, 07:48 PM
Sharp will close the doors soon like Panasonic. How many times are they going to bail Sharp out?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

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
10-04-2016, 04:14 AM
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
10-18-2016, 09:10 PM
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
10-30-2016, 01:49 AM
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. (http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/companies/hp-goes-bullish-on-india-launches-33-printers-in-a-day/425477/)

What is prospect of comments?

johnyb
11-04-2016, 12:28 AM
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!:rolleyes:

SwisSeV
11-04-2016, 01:30 AM
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
11-04-2016, 03:27 AM
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!:rolleyes:

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.

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