Business Sites:Non-Production
–Internal Initiatives–
Super Fresh-up Day enhanced by reduced lighting
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Japan/Ricoh Co., Ltd.
Ricoh designates two days per week as “Super Fresh-up Days,” for the prevention of excessive overtime work by employees, the promotion of physical and mental refreshment, and the reduction of environmental impact at business sites. On a Super Fresh-up Day, employees are expected to leave the office by 18:30. As a measure to strictly implement this campaign, the office lighting control system is programmed to turn off half the lights in each room at 18:15 and the other half at the finishing time. To continue to work after hours at offices on days this measure is implemented, employees need to switch on their desk lights, which is expected to help eliminate unnecessary lighting in unoccupied spaces. Our calculation of the effects of this campaign at the Head Office, where 1,939 employees work, showed that CO2 emissions were reduced by about 0.127 tons on average on a Super Fresh-up Day, or a total of about 11.9 tons per year. In relation to this, the Ginza Mitsui Building, which houses Ricoh’s Head Office, received one of the top awards of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on May 26, 2011 in recognition of efforts to address global warming under the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on Environmental Preservation.
Super Fresh-up Day enhanced by reduced lighting
Printing catalogs and manuals via POD
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Japan/POD Center, Ricoh Creative Service Company, Ltd.
POD Center in Heiwajima
Introducing color production printing to support POD operations, aiming to reduce costs and environmental impact
Ricoh Creative Service Company, Ltd. (RCS), a subsidiary which prints manuals and catalogs of Ricoh products, has begun to switch from offset printing to print on demand (POD)1 for printing these documents, aiming to reduce costs and environmental impact. RCS runs a network of five POD Centers based in Heiwajima (main), Gotemba, Ebina and other locations, where the company undertakes the production and printing of documents for Ricoh’s products and corporate communications. Ricoh launched its production printing business in 2008, and then developed the high-quality color production printer RICOH Pro C900 series. RCS introduced this printer to the POD Centers to undertake self-printing via POD and reduce outsourced printing operations. Behind this move is the diversification of Ricoh’s product mix, which has been intensifying in recent years with an enhanced lineup of imaging products and shorter lead time to the launch of new models. In response to the shift toward high-mix low-volume manufacturing, the company began to review its catalog/ manual printing operations, in order to deal with the need to shorten the lead time as well as to print diversified documents in small quantities due to the rising number of product models while the number of copies required for individual models is declining. Offset printing is highly cost-efficient for mass volume printing, but less cost-effective for high-mix lowvolume production. Another issue with this conventional printing technology is the considerable inventory costs incurred due to the printing process, which requires a relatively long lead time for new print production, attributable to the need for resetting for each document and tuning according to document design. This compels the company to keep a substantial stock of catalogs/manuals in order to provide them promptly on receiving a request. Worse yet, it often happens that a large portion of the stored copies end up being disposed of as waste after the end of their applicable period. All these issues were solved by introducing the RICOH Pro C900 printers to launch POD, which, by eliminating the work required for different settings and dramatically reducing lead time and inventory costs, is particularly suitable for limited-volume printing. We surveyed roughly 1,300 items of our catalogs/manuals to compare cost-competitiveness for the two types of printer, and calculated the break-even point. The calculation results show that offset printing performs better when printing more than 10,000 copies annually or booklets with more than 25 pages; otherwise POD has the advantage. Following this analysis, we conducted a detailed evaluation of printing quality and selected 178 catalog/manual items to go POD. As a result of this, we reduced costs related to plate making, printing, storing and disposing of printed material by a total of ¥14 million. One of the key elements for promoting POD is to create documents by effectively using POD features, aiming at enhanced visual quality of printed documents. To ensure understanding and practice of this principle across the Group, RCS’s POD Centers have developed instructions and manuals for POD document design and creation, which have been distributed to related departments of the Group companies. Use of the POD functions of the RICOH Pro C900 printers has expanded, including variable data printing (VDP)2, a feature technique for printing direct-mail advertising and educational materials for training and seminars. Drawing on the know-how developed in these inhouse POD operations, RCS plans to provide a POD service to a wide range of customers as an innovative solution to reduce costs, lead time and environmental impact while enhancing operational efficiency and advertising effectiveness.
- 1Print on demand (POD): A method of printing developed as a feature of office digital printers which is suitable for high-mix low-volume printing
- 2Variable data printing (VDP): A form of on-demand printing, in which elements, such as text and images, can be changed from one printed piece to the next, without slowing down the printing process. It is anticipated to increase the advertising effectiveness by creating marketing and promotion tools tailored to individual customers.
- *For details of the color production printer RICOH Pro C900 series , please refer to the related section of the web page
Variable Data Printing
- Concept of Non-Production
See more details about our concept for Non-Production.
