UK housebuilders have had a good year so far, according to a recent report in the Financial Times (September 25th 2015). Three of the largest – Barrett Developments, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon – are now among the top ten of construction companies by revenue, for the first time since 2008 thanks to ‘booming house prices, low interest rates and government support for buyers’.
News for the rest of the construction industry has not been so rosy. Delays to public sector work and lossmaking contracts during the recession have taken their toll. And yet, profitability is steadily improving. The housebuilders’ top ten positions are by no means guaranteed – especially as supplies of cheap land bought during the recession begin to dwindle.
Which all suggests that caution will remain the byword when it comes to internal operations despite current buoyant pre-tax profits from housing. Memories of 2007 still leave their mark and those preparing for further growth will aim to do so steadily and sustainably. Operational efficiency will play a key role in maintaining their high flying status.
As a result, housebuilders will still be looking for ways to work smarter and ultimately achieve more with less. They will want to continue to drive down costs and time overheads as low as possible, to free up money and resources to help drive the business forwards.
With this in mind, the results of recent survey by OKI has made some timely discoveries for the housebuilding sector. OKI discovered that printing costs are still out of control in the majority of businesses. Over half of those polled (52%) still didn’t know how much they were spending on printing – and this figure rose to 66% of the larger businesses who took part. Some 39% said that believed their company was overspending because of unnecessary printing by employees.
For any company this figure is worrying. For any firm in the construction sector where a large proportion of the print budget might be spent on printing large plans, drawings, maps and the outsourcing of high-end glossy promotional materials, this overspend may be even more significant.
So OKI has devised a four-step plan to help housebuilders and other businesses in the construction industry overhaul their print strategy. Any one of these steps will bring results – but taken together, they will help maintain the growth momentum.
1 – Audit your print volumes and costs across the business. Knowledge is power in this case – understanding what is being printed, why, where and by whom is a major step in the right direction. Ideally you will work with a managed print services provider who can give advice on optimising the way current printers are positioned and set up and moving to a service-orientated set up where hardware, maintenance and consumables are included in the one contract paid for on a regular basis.
2 – Consider workflow across the entire organisation including site offices. Invest in new multifunction printers (MFPs) to cut out the amount of times documentation, invoices, timesheets, bills of materials and other admin is printed. For example, OKI’s MC800 range are 4 in 1 devices including printer, scanner, fax and copier consolidated into one small footprint with a scan-to-email facility that enables on-site teams to send drawings and other documents directly to head office.
3 – Provide improved flexibility by ensuring it’s possible to print from mobile devices while on-site. Mobile printing brings incremental gains such as time-savings and convenience which add up across an entire organisation.
4 – Monitor the expensive outsourcing of colour printing and consider the potential return on investing in new, high quality colour printers to enable in-house, on-demand development of brochures, reports, banners, stationery and other documents. In particular, the OKI C931 is ideal for producing high end graphics for client approval in house. It has the added bonus of being able to print down to a 1 point font level of detail – perfect for complex drawings – and on a wide range of media including gloss, film, transfer and waterproof paper.
Andrew Hall, Oki Systems UK
For further details contact OKI now at http://www.okismartprinters.co.uk/contact-us.aspx.
For more information see www.oki.co.uk
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