Sydney TAFE "saves millions" by bringing printing in-house with HP and Oce

The TAFE, which services over 60,000 students, turned to HP's managed print services division to help slash its fleet of light production printers from 2,200 to 1,020.

TAFE NSW's John Myles, who managed the project, said the overhaul has saved in waste and costs and created a "much more professional print experience".

"TAFE NSW's Sydney Institute is on target for savings of $7m in consumables and reduced replacement costs over a five-year period.

"We calculated an average of $1.3m per year. However, in the first six months of the current financial year we have already achieved $1m savings based on spending in previous years," added Myles.

The TAFE has merged its 3 high volume print rooms into a single unit kitted out with Océ production machines GMC finishing equipment and electronic job submission via Océ Printer Face software.

"We upgraded the equipment in the print cell with Océ gear and the efficiencies that we achieved meant that we could do a lot more with the same amount of staff," added Myles.

"The promotions department was spending around $250,000 a year on outsourced printing and we have brought it down to $70,000, which is quite a reduction."

Myles added that another major factor of the four-year project, which wrapped up last month, was to reduce the carbon impact from its paper usage.

"We were using 80gsm recycled stock and we switched to a 75gsm carbon neutral stock," he said.

"We estimate to save about $55,000, 175,000kg of carbon and the equivalent of 2 million sheets of A4 paper just by swapping stocks."