If you need to create high volumes of printed media, your production printer is probably a cornerstone of your operations.
Whether you’re creating assets for the next big marketing campaign, publishing books, or creating large signs, your printer can make or break the success of your project. If you don’t keep it updated and in good working order—and if you don’t know when to replace it with a newer model—your productivity could plummet.
How do you know when to upgrade your production printer? Below, we’ll tackle six of the most important production printer KPIs to track.
Why Production Printer KPIs Matter
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to measure progress toward goals. They’re often used in business environments to analyze campaign performance and guide operational performance.
Like in other parts of the business, KPIs can measure your production printer’s overall effectiveness—its speed, cost, quality, efficiency, and more. These insights can tell you a lot about what your printer needs, whether an update, a repair, or even a replacement.
6 Essential Production Printer KPIs to Monitor
Set yourself up for success by deciding how to measure your production printer’s effectiveness early—well before you need to consider upgrading. This will give you the data you need to diagnose printer issues and identify better replacements when it comes time to upgrade.
Here are six production printer KPIs to measure.
1. Print Quality
In production printing, consistency and accuracy are paramount, meaning you need to know how to measure them.
To get a comprehensive picture of your production printer’s print quality, set quality standards for these industry benchmarks:
- Color accuracy and consistency (e.g., Delta E values)
- Image resolution and clarity (measured in dots per inch or DPI)
- Registration accuracy (usually measured in micrometers)
- Printing defects (banding, moiré patterns, etc.)
- Finishing quality (cutting, folding, binding precision)
Then, transform your quality standards into measurable metrics with this formula:
(Number of Prints Meeting Quality Standards / Total Prints) x 100
In most production environments, you’ll want to set a high standard. For example, if print quality–overall or for a specific high-priority benchmark–drops below 95% for a month and cannot be fixed, it might be time for an upgrade.
2. Print Speed and Volume
Print speed and volume can often make or break tight deadlines. If you have large printing jobs or quick turnaround, this production printer KPI is especially important.
Measure overall Print Speed with this formula:
Pages Printed / Time in Minutes = Print Speed (Pages Per Minute or PPM)
For a more comprehensive understanding, you may also want to track these related metrics:
- Monthly print volume
- Actual speed vs. rated speed
- Time to first page out
- Warm-up time
Compare these metrics to the printer's rated duty cycle and manufacturer specifications. Track trends over time to identify declining performance.
Compare each metric to your established benchmarks, previous months, and your manufacturer specifications. This will help you identify downward print speed trends and either resolve them quickly or begin your search for a replacement machine.
3. Efficiency and Uptime
If you have a high volume of assets to print and a fast-approaching deadline, the last thing you want is downtime. Setting uptime targets can help ensure your production printer is available when your team needs it. For example, you may need your printer to be functional 98% of the time.
By tracking your uptime percentage, you’ll quickly spot when your equipment falls below that important target.
Calculate uptime percentage with the following formula:
(Total Operational Time/Total Available Time) x 100 = Uptime Percentage
Other related metrics include:
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): Total Operational Time / Number of Failures
- Mean Time To Repair (MTTR): Total Repair Time / Number of Repairs
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): Availability x Performance x Quality
4. Cost Per Print
Cost per Print is another important production printer KPI. While having a high-quality production printer that works efficiently and consistently is important, you also need to consider costs. If your printer is too expensive to maintain, it could drain resources unnecessarily.
Assess this with Cost per Print:
Total Costs / Number of Prints = Cost Per Print
When calculating total costs, include things like:
- Consumables such as ink and toner
- Maintenance costs
- Labor costs, including how much time your employees spend operating it
- Other equipment and materials, such as replacement parts
For more details, you can modify your total costs and re-calculate this metric for different types of jobs. For example, if one team regularly prints large signage and another prints flyers at high volume, you could compare the cost per print between each type and make informed decisions about which jobs you prioritize and which materials you invest in.
5. Cycle Time
Cycle Time refers to the duration of the entire process from the start of a job—when you receive the file that needs to be printed—to the finished product.
Track this production printer KPI using the following formula:
Time of Job Completion - Time of Job Submission = Cycle Time
You can break it down further by calculating it in increments, such as prepress time, print and finishing time, to find out which parts of the printing process cause the most delays.
6. User Feedback
Unlike the other production printer KPIs, user feedback is not a quantitative metric, making it a little more complicated to measure objectively. However, collecting it is still important because it gives valuable insights into your production printer’s performance from those directly interacting with it.
You can collect this information through interviews, casual conversations, and pulse surveys—whichever method(s) works best for your team. Involve people from every phase of the production process, including production managers, press operators, quality control, and even clients.
As you discover issues, resolve them before they become too significant. This can help extend the life of your printer and save you money in the long run. You can use your other metrics to evaluate when to stop fixing and start replacing.
The Impact of Outdated Print Equipment
It may be tempting to hang onto your equipment long after your production printer KPIs have sunk below your established replacement threshold. After all, production printers are a big investment. But this decision can have consequences.
For example, let’s say you run a publishing company that relies on a production printer to produce high-quality client materials quickly. As the printer ages, the quality of the assets you produce slowly drops, and breakdowns become more frequent. You eventually begin to miss deadlines, resulting in wasted materials and unhappy clients.
Tracking your production printer KPIs diligently is a simple way to avoid this scenario, enabling you to catch and resolve production printer problems early and plan ahead for their replacement.
When to Upgrade: Putting Your Production Printer KPIs Into Action
How do you know when to replace your printer? Set replacement thresholds for each production printer KPI you track. When your printer dips below the threshold and becomes too difficult to fix, it’s time to start shopping around.
Here are some examples to get you started:
- Print Quality: Dropping below 95% consistently
- Print Speed: 10% below the typical or manufacturer’s quoted print speed
- Uptime: Under 98% uptime over a month
- Cost Per Print: A 10% increase in costs
- Cycle Time: An increase of 15%
And remember, you don’t need to weigh each KPI equally. Instead, carefully evaluate which ones are the highest priority and give these the strictest scrutiny. Some organizations may also set a quota for failed benchmarks—e.g., at least two subpar production printer KPIs to consider replacement.
Make Sure Your Team Has The Best Printer for the Job with Production Printer KPIs
It may feel superfluous to track performance metrics for a brand-new machine—but the earlier you start, the easier it will be to know when to start shopping for a new production printer. By measuring these six production printer KPIs, you’ll make equipping your team with the best tech easier.
An experienced print specialist from SymQuest can help you make that decision. We’ll consider your team’s production challenges, costs and opportunities and help you find a production printer that can keep up and keep performing, no matter how intense your print queue can be.