Sustaining Your Office Equipment The Right Way To Avoid Breakdowns

By Author: Jo Alelsto
Total Articles: 405
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Just like the machine that our human body is, your office equipment also suffers from downtime. And very much like an unwell body, when your copier or fax machine goes out of order, a lot of office tasks are put on hold. This means reduced productivity, not to mention stress and unmet deadlines. This can be avoided.

Downtime, whether for a short or long period of time, ultimately results in loss of revenue. There are techniques and tips which can be used to help you prevent downtime. There are many ways which you can avoid this:

1. Adequate practical knowledge of office staff - It doesn't really take a genius to troubleshoot common office equipment problems, especially when the staff have sufficient technical familiarity, common sense will also do, with these equipment.

2. Regular maintenance checks - Prevention is better than cure. Habitual check-ups of your office equipment keep them well-oiled, so to speak, and avoid any possible downtime. Although, of course, it doesn't really make it foolproof, you're definitely reducing any possible downtime.

3. Quality office equipment - Quality comes ...
... with a price, that's a fact. However, in the long run, it may prove to be a more practical choice than purchasing a lesser priced counterpart.
With these tips, you will be sure to have lesser occurrences of downtime and a longer life for your office equipment. You save money by not calling in maintenance for every little technical problem that arises. You can also save money when there is less downtime at the office.

What if your copier suddenly throws up all the papers you feed it and you need all the copies in the next 30 minutes for the upcoming board meeting? Can you possibly wait for the maintenance crew to show up and repair it?

When it's an emergency such as this, you will have little choice but to do the job yourself if you want to get your tasks done on time. And it really helps to have some knowledge on how to deal with urgent situations.

Here is a simple step by step procedure on resolving your copier emergency:

1. Try feeding the copier different sizes of paper. It might be because one of the paper sizes is jamming the machine. Is the paper simply stopping or is it crumpling up?
2. Listen to the machine. What kind of noise does it make- whining, does it seems to be spinning its rollers or does it seems off?
3. If only one size is jamming the copier, then it means that the trouble lies in one of the cassettes. All you need to do is switch the position of the cassette and there you go.
4. If possible, clean the cassette as well as the rollers which turn the paper.
5. However, if all cassettes seem to be jamming and the paper stops in the machine without crumpling, it's possibly because of worn out rollers. You can perform the same procedure as above to clean out the rollers.
6. If the machine is jamming and the paper is crumpling, then follow the path of the paper carefully and determine if there is something inside which causes the paper to stop.
7. Listen to your machine; it can save you a lot of time. If it appears like it is just spinning its rollers, then look at them since they move the paper through the machine. If the copier whines or if it groans just before jamming then you will have to call for service.

It will really help if you are able to address simple office equipment glitches on your own. Saves you a lot time and money, and helps you meet your deadlines without waiting for the maintenance crew to arrive and fix these downed equipment.
Jo is a content writer for ‘Sharples Group' (http://www.sharplesgroup.com), the leading independent supplier of office equipment in the North West of England. If your business searching for superior quality yet reasonably priced Toshiba Fax or has document management and solutions, printers, copiers, and scanners problems then you should have a look at Sharples Group.