Notifies when a Supply Order is entered and calculates item copy yield versus meter clicks, and triggers if excessive toner usage is identified.
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Overview
Overview
Worried that your toner is for sale on eBay or that your toner is going into equipment not under contract with you? This process does the math for each sales order entered, checks how many toners are ordered against the clicks produced and averages the volume if more than one equipment on the contract could take that toner. If excessive, then it notifies whomever enters the order immediately, you decide what's excessive, our default is more than 8% fill.
Run Schedule: every 8-minutes
Type of Output: Email / Task App
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Sample
Sample
Email content explanation:
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Variables
Variables
Variable W: Service Code(s) on toner items (separated by commas)
VariableX: black fill % limit (minimum value to trigger-default/recommend is 8) - (please allow until next day for any changes on this variable to take effect)
VariableY: color fill % limit (minimum value to trigger-default/recommend is 8)
VariableZ: Enter '1' if your customers keep a spare toner 'on the shelf,' otherwise '0'. (By selecting ‘1’, this alert allows for this spare toner as part of its calculations.) This is referred to as ‘Toner Offset.’
Variable1: CLICK HERE to review these level definitions
0 - Fires at BillToCustomer level
1 - Fires at Customer level
2 - Fires at ShipTo Customer level
3 - Fires at Contract level
Variable2: ZCJTonerFillBlack of Customer or Contract Custom Prop for alternate B\W fill limit
Variable3: ZCJTonerFillColor of Customer or Contract Custom Prop for alternate Color fill limit
NOTE: The Custom Props per Variable2 and Variable3 will be created at EITHER the Contract or Customer level depending on how you are running the alert per Variable1. Changes made to those two Custom Props will not take affect until the next morning.
Variable4: Margin Percent - will trigger only if associated Margin Percentage for last 12 months under this value
Variable5: Enter Branch Number(s) to limit which branches this alert will fire on (separate multiple entries with comma)
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Alert Functionality
Alert Functionality
1. We show Profit% on the email for your reference. This is profit from the last completed 12 months and does NOT include any revenue from current month. The primary reason is the idea of 'margin for less than a full calendar month is not worth much because data is missing.' If you do a margin calculation early in the month, after the contract has billed but BEFORE most of the costs from later supply orders and service calls hit, you end up with a value which misrepresents the actual performance of that contract - you're essentially comparing twelve months of revenue against eleven months of cost.
2. Can Equipment ID# be added? We are not able to add the Equipment ID#. This alert is programmed to look at ModelGroup Level information which allows for other associated ModelGroups which might be consuming the same toner. We are definitely NOT saying that the equipment attached to the reporting Sales Order line item is the "offender", just that there's a problem at that level.
Fill%/Yield Definitions:
Fill% / Yield Definitions:
Fill % - The percentage of the page that is covered with toner. Manufacturers assume the average customer uses a 5% fill per color per standard page. Fill % is separate for each color of toner, so a full-page print of the night sky (using all four toners) would be 100% Black, 100% Cyan, 100% Magenta and 100% Yellow.
Yield – The number of copies/prints on a single toner cartridge before it must be replaced. Manufacturers quote their yields assuming a 5% fill. Therefore the higher the fill %; the lower the yield of each toner cartridge. (A published yield of 3,000 clicks is based on filling 5% of an 8.5 x 11 page with toner. So that same cartridge being used for 10% fill will only yield 1,500 copies/prints.)
Column Definitions
Column Definitions:
SO Number – Sales Order Number alert was triggered from
Toner Type – Indicates if line item on Sales Order is for BW or CLR toner
Model – Model number of the machine/ID the toner is linked to
#Models – The number of models in contract group using this same toner
QTY Ordered – Quantity of this toner item ordered on this specific sales order
Total Copies – Estimated total meter (over lifetime of the contract) of all equipment eligible for this toner
Please note:
It is important you know whether you have set this alert up based on Contract, Location, Customer or Bill To, as this is how alert will consider meter info.
Calculation is NOT based on estimate settings in eAuto.
Estimation is based on billed clicks via contract only.
Total Toner – Total quantity of this toner (for all applicable models) ordered for the lifetime of the machines while on contract
Actual Yield – Formula uses the Total Copies divided by Total Toner
BW Actual = (Total BW copies + Total Color copies)/Total BW toners because black toner is used on BW and color pages
(Essentially the logic is that every click has some black ink, but not every click has color ink (i.e. Black/White print/copy selection). If we were to only consider BLK clicks when reporting on potential excessive BLK toner, then the logic wouldn't be including BLK toner used on color prints/copies.)
Color Actual = (Total Color copies/Total Color toners) * 3 because each color toner counts as a third as the device uses three color toner cartridges to produce one color click
Mfg Yield – This value is the average of all toner items shipped against this model group. For instance, if you have shipped 3 standard toners of yield = 10,000 and 2 ExtendedYield toners of yield = 15,000 then this value would be reported as 12,000. If you have only ever shipped multiples of the same items then this value will equal the yield of that toner item.
Fill % - Fill % calculated based on Total Copies and Total Toner shipped
Note: fill rates will not be accurate for 11X17 single click and should be approximately doubled. Please see THIS POST on how to track 11x17 single click in eAutomate.
(Fill is MfgYield/ActualYield * 5 and is expressed as a percent (5 because 5% is the baseline used by the manufacturers to determine their yield). So if you've shipped 100,000 clicks and used 100,000 clicks fill is 5%, what the manufacturers say it should be. If you've shipped 100,000 but only run 50,000 you're getting 50% from your cartridges and so your fill is 10%. It's a geometrical progression, not a linear one. 10% isn't a little bad, it's VERY bad.)
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Best Practices & Tips
Best Practices & Tips
1. Companion alert is ID316. Maintaining missing info shown on ID316 output is vital to your excessive toner alert ID315. Instructions HERE on updating item records shown on ID316.
Bulk Update Yields
Bulk Update Yields
Attached below is a modified version of DGI's Inventory Item Utility spreadsheet, it will allow you to update the Yields in Item Records in bulk. You were provided a copy of this with your original DGI e-automate install (or can request it from Customer Care), but we have added the Yield functionality to this version. We suggest you request that your suppliers provide you their catalogue in spreadsheet format, with both item # and yield in separate columns, and you can use Excel to copy that information into this spreadsheet, which can in turn copy the information up to your e-automate database. Contact us if you want further instruction, a walkthrough or any other help to use this tool.
-Set Custom Property on Contract Record to override default Fill% listed on your Variables X & Y:
Creating Custom Property in eAuto
Creating Custom Property in eAuto:
Step 1:
Go to Tools / Lists & Codes / Attributes to create two attributes:
Attribute name: ZCJTonerFillBlack
Description: Override the default Black Toner fill%
Date type: Numeric
Attribute name: ZCJTonerFillColor
Description: Override the default Color Toner fill%
Date type: Numeric
Step 2:
Go to Tools / Lists & Codes / Configurations (custom properties) to add those two attributes to Contract Custom Properties:
Select Contract Configuration from drop down list, use Quick Add to add both ZCJTonerFillBlack and ZCJTonerFillColor (with no default value):
-See this link for suggestions on how to approach abusers.
-If you are monitoring Service Codes which also contain non-toner items, it is important that those items DO NOT have a Meter Type (of BW or Color MeterTypeCategory) set, otherwise the alert will become confused when trying to determine total toner usage
-Fill rates will not be accurate for 11X17 single click and should be approximately doubled
-We are happy to validate a few examples so you are comfortable the data is accurate. Typically the problems we see that cause this report to be inaccurate are the following: Wrong yield on the item AND/OR wrong Usage Limit Meter Type (i.e. waste toner with a ULMT of Color), OR estimated meters
We recommend not spending too much time taking this data apart and proving it but checking the profitability of the contract (use ID150/Contract Profitability Custom Report). Then ensure you have a solid process for what your team should do when the alert triggers, click here for more.
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Related Alerts
Related Alerts
ID215 - Possible Duplicate Toner Order
ID316 - Toner Items Missing Copy Yields or Usage Limit Meter Types
ID350 - Supply Order Entry App
ID571 - Items with Incorrect/Missing Yields
ID758 - Biggest toner problems
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Task App
Task App
Please see THIS LINK for review.
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