McDonald’s Australia Print Centreand Ricoh

Overall, the Ricoh solution and the Ricoh people who work with

us have meant our Print Centre now has the print production

capabilities that can easily keep pace with the demands of

one of the country’s most rapidly growing businesses.

”

”

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that there

are over 800 McDonald’s restaurants located throughout

Australia. Especially in light of the fact that more than

30,000 McDonald’s restaurants in over 120 countries serve

meals to more than 50 million people every day. It’s a serious

business, and one that relies on one of the world’s most

efficient organisational infrastructures.

Playing a background yet crucial part in that infrastructure is the

McDonald’s Australia Print Centre located in the company’s

Sydney headquarters.

Challenge: A total production solutionFor the Print Centre, meeting the almost non-stop demand for

print production services means maintaining a high-performance

production environment in which reliability, quality and versatility are

of paramount importance. Training manuals, business cards and local

in-store marketing resources are only a few items in the wide range of

printed materials generated daily by the Print Centre and contributing

to its 150,000 black-and-white impressions per month output.

According to Print Centre Manager, Cathy Hodge, an incumbent

black-and-white print production system that was breaking down

on a regular basis and lacked even adequate finishing options was

having a negative impact on the Centre’s production capabilities.

“With anything up to a four day wait for on-site support, and the

need to outsource booklet and manual binding, we were

failing to meet our production deadlines, which was in turn

disadvantaging our internal clients.”

Rather than apply band-aid solutions to a problem that showed no

real signs of improvement, the decision was made to undertake a

complete refresh of the Print Centre’s production environment,

with a primary focus on black-and-white production capabilities.

The answer (and a sudden change): A Ricoh production solutionFollowing several months of evaluating proposed solutions from three

vendors – none of which was Ricoh, by the way – contracts were only

days off being signed when Cathy received a call from one of Ricoh’s

print production specialists. “Even though we had already decided

to go with another vendor,” Cathy explains, “we went along to a

demonstration at the Ricoh Printing Innovation Centre.”

By the time the presentation was over, it was a totally different game.

“We were so impressed with the professionalism of the Ricoh team

and the capabilities of the production solution that we immediately

entered into discussions for a Ricoh solution,” Cathy states.

“And within a couple of months we had taken delivery of two

new 110 page per minute units that were giving us benefits right

from the start.”

Any job, any timeKey among those benefits is the Print Centre’s dramatically improved

turnaround times, particularly with regard to jobs requiring specific

finishing. Using the Ricoh solution’s inline perfect binding, large

reports, booklets and training manuals are printed, collated and

perfect-bound in a single workflow.

Previously, jobs that required binding were either sent to an

external service provider or manually punched and bound by

Print Centre staff. Even though the pre-Ricoh system included a

tape binding finish option, according to Cathy it looked so

unprofessional that the majority of business units made a point

of specifying an alternative.

“With the Ricoh solution we’re able to produce perfect-bound

reports and manuals of up to 400 pages,” Cathy says. “And with our

training manuals, which are one of the major print jobs we undertake,

we’ve been able to cut days off the production time simply because

we no longer have to send them out for binding. It’s all done in the

one operation.

“Actually, even with the solution we were going to implement

prior to deciding on Ricoh, having perfect-binding capabilities

would have meant bringing in a separate dedicated machine that

would have taken up an enormous amount of space. With the

Ricoh solution, it’s all inline and has a minimum space impact.”

McDonald’s Australia Print Centre:

A high-performance production environment

One of the things that has constantly impressed us is that

whether it’s a technician conducting a regular service or our

account manager, all the Ricoh people have an excellent

understanding of the hardware and software, and are able to

give us the advice and support we need on the spot.

”

‘‘

Cathy recounts a particular instance where a business unit manager

raised concerns about a regular monthly charge-back of $3,000. “It

was all to do with the printing of large reports that were distributed

throughout the business,” she says. “When we explained that the unit

was receiving the charge-back only because the Ricoh solution now

gave us that ability, those reports were no longer printed. Instead, it

was decided to distribute them via email.

“And even while some of the recipients might opt to print the report

rather than reading it online, they’re few in number, and the business

unit has saved itself over $35,000 per year.”

Support and training on demandGetting the job finished and delivered on time, whether it’s a set of

business cards or a large run of perfect-bound training manuals, is

one of the Print Centre’s standard imperatives. According to Cathy,

while the speed, versatility and reliability of the Ricoh solution is the

foundation for achieving that, the on-site support and training given

by Ricoh specialists are main contributing factors.

“We’re constantly exploring ways and means of using our Ricoh

production environment to do things better and more efficiently,”

Cathy explains. “So whenever anyone from Ricoh comes on site we

always take advantage and start asking questions.

“One of the things that has constantly impressed us is that whether

it’s a technician conducting a regular service or our account manager,

all the Ricoh people have an excellent understanding of the hardware

and software, and are able to give us the advice and support we need

on the spot.”

In commenting on how support from Ricoh is helping the Print Centre

meet the production deadlines of the McDonald’s business units,

Cathy is quick to point out that on-site service and support were

among the most critical requirements of the entire solution. “In most

cases, it’s a maximum of two hours from the time of submitting a

support request to having a Ricoh specialist on site and a resolution

reached,” she states.

“Compare that to the three or four days we had with our previous

vendor and system, and it’s easy to see how we’re now a more

efficient part of the McDonald’s business than ever before.

“Overall, the Ricoh solution and the Ricoh people who work with us

have meant our Print Centre now has the print production capabilities

that can easily keep pace with the demands of one of the country’s

most rapidly growing businesses.”

Waste reduction and accurate charge-backLike many businesses, McDonald’s strives to ensure each of its

business units is fully accountable for their expenditure; and with the

introduction of the Ricoh solution, the Print Centre is at last in the

position of being able to introduce charge-backs to the units for their

print production jobs.

Where it used to be the case that the Print Centre would have to

absorb all print production costs, business unit usage reports are now

being generated each month, detailing the number of impressions,

finishes and even stock involved in each job.

With those reports, which are generated in a matter of minutes,

the Print Centre has introduced a monthly charge-back schedule,

accounting for every black-and-white impression made for each

business unit. Quite aside from the fact that the Print Centre is

no longer a money-pit, the charge-back capabilities enabled by the

Ricoh solution has brought about major cost and paper savings for

business units.

Ricoh Australia Pty. Ltd. 8 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone: 1800 181 002 Fax: 02 8977 1100 Web: ricoh.com.auRicoh New Zealand Pty. 60 Stanley Street, Parnell, Auckland New Zealand. Phone 0800 2 Ricoh (0800 2 74264) Fax: 09 915 1401 Web: ricoh.co.nz

Product code: 950518 Printed on a Ricoh colour production device