Creating a Green, Efficient and Cost-Effective Print Environment at Amcor

About Amcor Flexibles

As a global leader in packaging, Amcor’s best-in-class innovation capabilities aim to satisfy the evolving needs of the packaging industry. Drawing on decades of experience in design, technology and manufacturing, Amcor constantly innovates new packaging materials and formats to better protect products while minimising environmental waste. In particular, the Flexibles arm of the Amcor business develops and produces plastic, aluminium and fibre-based flexible packaging for a wide variety of products including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, medical and home and personal care products. With a strong focus on sustainability, Amcor has pledged to champion recycling and make all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.

Low Visibility Over Print Expenditure

Amcor’s print environment did not have the functionality to track print volumes by department and user. Instead, all office printing costs were borne by the IT department and reported as a consolidated cost. Keeping track of print usage thus proved a challenge. Without identifying heavy print users, it was impossible to optimise print usage by department.

At the same time, staff with meetings and activities on different floors had to retrieve their prints from individually assigned devices. This rigidity resulted in frequent work interruptions and time wastages.

- Alex Koh, Manager of IT Ops, Amcor Flexibles SEA

Driving Efficiency

FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore is a preferred partner considering its comprehensive range of flexible workplace and digital printing solutions. Factors such as a strong track record in delivering consistent and reliable customer service as well as the swift and smooth deployment of workplace technologies were extremely critical to large global organisations like Amcor, which requires the highest standards in technology and customer support.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore’s first recommendation for Amcor was PaperCut, a smart and simple print management solution that provides insights on print and copy activity and costs by user, device and transaction. As a cost-effective and efficient software solution, PaperCut is ideal for managing the charging, tracking and monitoring of copy and print data across multi-function devices (MFDs) and printer fleets at Amcor.

PaperCut integrates seamlessly with any existing network and machine by detecting printer usage, calculating usage cost and automatically deducting the amount from user-tagged accounts. Device usage can be calculated on a cost-per-page basis, with advanced charging options available such as colour, size and double-sided printing. PaperCut also digitally logs details of Amcor’s print activities, including document name, cost, number of pages and from whom and where the document originated. These data can be viewed online or easily downloaded for further analysis to reduce paper and energy use, thereby enhancing Amcor’s sustainability initiatives.

Besides providing visibility over Amcor’s print costs, PaperCut also allows flexible user management. Users are able to track their own print activities and account balances in real-time via an intuitive user interface that provides advanced central management, control and configuration across all devices. PaperCut also drives print efficiency by analysing print jobs and applying rules to enforce print policies. For instance, administrators can create rules that steer printing to designated printers for load balancing or redirect print jobs based on a set of criteria through Follow-Me Printing. Network reliability can also be improved by implementing rules that prevent queue hogging or queue jams, as well as by filtering out duplicate or wasteful print jobs.

To prevent print abuse, PaperCut requires staff to be authorised using employee badges or usernames and passwords for control access to devices. Print jobs would only be released upon user authentication by swiping a card or entering a passcode, thereby increasing document security and eliminating the risk of leaving uncollected confidential prints exposed.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore also took great care in recommending MFDs that were most suitable for Amcor in line with the business’ sustainability focus. To meet Amcor’s increasing demands for high-speed printing, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore recommended the ApeosPort 5C 5576 and C3376 MFDs for Amcor’s printing environment.

This series was selected for its environmentally friendly performance capabilities powered via the use of advanced technologies such as Induction Heating-Fusers (IH Fusers) and LED print heads. The IH fusers, for instance, do not require preheating, which helps reduce power consumption. Besides being energy-efficient, the high-precision LED print head also achieves a high output print resolution of 1200 x 2400 dpi. This means that staff would be able to minimise their impact on their environment while enjoying sharp, high-quality prints.

Through Smart Energy Management, only functions requested by users will be powered on, thereby reducing power consumption and CO₂ emissions. Each ApeosPort-V MFD is also re-modelled using used components and parts. This eliminates waste while assuring Amcor of a quality equivalent to freshly manufactured equipment. By choosing these re-modelled ApeosPort models, Amcor can amass up to 77% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to purchasing newly manufactured devices, which further drives the business’ sustainability agenda.

Effective Cost Management

Since transitioning to a managed print environment with PaperCut, Amcor has embraced responsible printing while yielding 20% in cost savings. This was achieved by filtering through print jobs, enforcing print policies and creating environmental awareness by drawing attention to the impact of staff’s print requests via PaperCut. Through Follow-Me Printing, staff no longer had to retrieve prints from different floors, which was unproductive and a substantial waste of time. Instead, staff were now able to retrieve prints at the nearest device.

With PaperCut, Amcor has been able to easily identify print output costs down to the individual or department level.  This has given managers clear and summarised data about their printer use. The business has also been able to easily monitor and manage copying and printing using easy-to-use, web-based administrative and user tools, giving it greater control and visibility over print usage costs. PaperCut has also provided managers with access to a set of reporting options such as ad-hoc reports, real-time reports as well as scheduled reports. This has increased accountability and enabled the precise allocation of costs to internal cost centres instead of charging back print costs based on estimations. PaperCut is also designed for flexibility and scalability. As Amcor expands, PaperCut will be able to be easily configured to meet its future print management needs.

In terms of its print practices, Amcor has created a more economical and environmentally focused office using FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore’s innovative solutions. By harnessing advanced sustainability technology via the ApeosPort 5C 5576 and C3376, Amcor has managed to trim its environmental footprint while increasing workflow efficiency and producing superior prints. With print speeds of up to 55 pages per minute (ppm), these MFDs have elevated office productivity with their high output performance.

- Alex Koh, Manager of IT Ops, Amcor Flexibles SEA

Wasteful printing is automatically reduced by deleting any incorrect print jobs from the MFDs’ control panel, as well as by reducing forgotten prints. This reduces the misuse of resources, thereby enabling Amcor to not only reduce its environmental impact but also save money by operating more efficiently. This has bolstered green practices among staff, paving the way for an environmentally responsible future at Amcor.