Office Machines, Equipment and Automation
Office machines and automation raise speed, accuracy and neatness. The exam tests categories of equipment, selection criteria, advantages and limitations of automation and cost-per-copy reasoning.
Categories
- Duplicating: photocopier, scanner with printer, digital duplicator.
- Communication: telephone, intercom, email, video conferencing.
- Recording and computing: computers, storage devices, accounting software.
- Mail: franking machine, letter opener.
- Destruction: shredder.
Selection and automation
- Criteria: volume, speed, accuracy, cost, operator skill, after-sales service, compatibility, security, space and power.
- Automation suits repetitive, high-volume, rule-based work and improves management information.
- Limitations: capital cost, downtime, obsolescence, data-security risk and over-dependence.
- Compare total cost per copy or per transaction, not just purchase price.
Worked example
An office making 50 copies a day buys a 100,000-copies-a-month copier on a service contract. Reasoning: capacity far exceeds demand, so fixed cost and service charges dominate. A desktop printer or outsourced copying may be cheaper. Calculate cost per copy including toner, paper, service, power and downtime before deciding.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming automation always reduces staff.
- Treating a scanner and a photocopier as identical.
- Using a shredder as a backup device.
- Choosing equipment by purchase price alone.