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USITC Publishes Report on US Remanufacturing

Posted on January 15, 2013 by by  

Normally we focus on remanufacturing as it pertains to printers and ink, but it is also important from time to time to take a step back and examine the overall industry. The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) recently published a report which examined the state of the industry in the United States and worldwide. The report is entitled Remanufactured Goods: An Overview of the U.S. and Global Industries, Markets, and Trade”. They estimate the value of the market grew 15% from 2009 to 2011 and accounted for at least 180,000 jobs.

Interestingly enough while the report demonstrated that the United States and Europe remain the unquestioned majority of remanufacturing activities, countries located elsewhere are beginning to join in the movement. Trade of remanufactured goods between countries is still somewhat problematic. The report attributes this to “regulatory barriers, import bans and a lack of a common definition of what counts as remanufactured goods”. Perhaps in time, if remanufacturing efforts continue, BAN, ETIRA, and some of the other large organizations will be able to sit down and agree on common standards that can be applied worldwide.

As far as some of the data goes, the USITC found that although the remanufactured products only make up 0.5% of total IT product sales here in the United States, the market itself has grown a solid 17% from a $4.4 billion industry in 2009 to a $5.2 billion industry in 2011. Believers in the value of remanufacturing can also take heart in the fact “the IT remanufacturing industry in the US consists of thousands of firms, mostly SMBs, with fewer than 500 businesses employing more than 20 members of staff.” Of the firms in the industry, 2,000 of them deal with some type of printer cartridge remanufacturing. Employment has also seen a very respectable job growth rate to 15,500 in 2011, up from 11,500 in 2009. Industry representatives have suggested that it may be even higher.

Most firms (approx. 90%) that sell remanufactured goods also sell new products. The same cannot be said for companies that produce the materials themselves. That number is said by the USITC to be closer to 40%. They report also notes that most remanufactured products are made very close to the markets in which they are sold as compared towards new products which tend to be sold globally.

Lastly, the USITC discovered that while the annual investment in remanufacturing has risen 18% from 2009 to 2011, the actual number of products produced has not in fact changed that much. Further, the production capacity of 44% of these companies has not changed during the time span of the report.

While the situation is not exactly ideal as of yet, it does appear as though some traction is being made to get recognition for remanufacturing as a real industry.

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Tuskegee University and Xerox: Another Win for MPS

Posted on January 15, 2013 by by  

We recently reported on a story about Canada’s McGill University and what Xerox’s MPS team was able to accomplish on their campus. That is just one of many examples where Xerox has provided a money saving solution to a college. In today’s piece, we explore another success of Xerox, this time at Alabama’s famous Tuskegee University.

As with many educational settings, Tuskegee had over time acquired a lot of printing devices of all different types which had to be managed. The case study notes that overall, there existed more than 1,000 employees and 3,200 students, and their IT department consisted of two people (yes, that’s two) and was still growing.

The first thing Xerox provides for any of its clients is an assessment of the infrastructure in place. According to the report, Tuskegee’s CIO Fred Judkins had told the OEM that printing was a “‘thorn in our side’” which was exacerbated by “resource cutbacks and a fleet of non-networked, multi-vendor devices”. Xerox came in and looked at each and every office on campus and developed a plan for Tuskegee to determine what people were printing and where they were printing from.

Xerox today manages all of Tuskegee’s print infrastructure for students, faculty, and administrators across its five colleges. With the solution in place, Tuskegee is able to recoup back an additional $10,000 each and every month which can then be redeployed. Judkins gets a report each month which tracks what users are printing, how much it is costing, and what machines are being used. For instance, with the reports Tuskegee was able to see that color printing rises in the summer, so the budget can be adjusted to meet that trend. Judkins says, “We’re seeing a lot of benefit from managed print.”

As with any change, sometimes acceptance is hard at first. Judkins said that it was very difficult for some of the users to give up their personal printers. Xerox helped with this aspect of the transition as well by putting a new multifunction device in the dean’s office first. Xerox says, “We began by proving the value of a managed print solution to the department heads and the deans. To do that, we had to make sure they understood they were getting a better value.”

Some of the new features, says Xerox, including things like digital signatures, print security codes, Follow-You Printing over the entire network, and more efficient color output. The Follw-You technology allows users to print a job to a secure server, and then release the jobs by authenticating at any other Xerox device on the network. Overall, the small IT staff at Tuskegee is now free to focus on other things besides printing. They say they are getting more done and saving money at the same time.

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N.C. State Has Students Printing in 3-D

Posted on January 15, 2013 by by  

We have long talked about the growing impact of 3-D printers in the world around us. Sometimes the uses have been good, with potential scientific advancements, interesting culinary creations, and more. There have also been instances where 3-D printing appears as though it could be abused, like with the creation of firearms. What is not debatable any longer is that 3-D printing is a technology which is only going to grow.

In an article which appeared this week in the NC State student newspaper, The Technician reported on 3-D printers which are available to students at new Hunt Library at the university’s campus in Raleigh, NC.

The library owns printers, both of which are located on the fourth floor of the library: a consumer-level Makerbot and a professional-grade uPrint machine. The staff there, including Adam Rogers, an emerging technology services librarian, is available to help students learn about the technology and obtain 3-D prints of their designs.

The 3-D printers are available for use each day between 2pm and 8pm, and according to the article, any student with an STL file of their design can come in and get help with the machines. Once the file is handed over to a library staff member, the student and staff member will talk about the process and then agree on a price. It should be noted that it is not instantaneous, either, and will typically take between 24-48 hours for the finished object to be ready. The cost of the object is based on the amount of material which will be used.

The original article was written by Young Lee, Associate Features Editor of The Technician.

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