Operator using the National/AZON Zero Turn Scanning Productivity Center with a Contex scanner
By Ed Avis
The webinar this week about scanning markets (click here to view the recording) got a lot of APDSP members thinking about making more money from scanning. But another side of that situation is that making your scanning department more efficient also can improve profits.
And here’s the thing: While scanner speed is important, just having a faster scanner doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have a more efficient scanning department.
“Speed and productivity are not the same,” explains Steve Blanken, general manager of Contex Americas. “Productivity makes money and saves time.”
With that in mind, here are five tips for increasing scanning productivity:
1) Ergonomics. Make sure your scanner operator can efficiently and smoothly handle the documents going into and coming out of the scanner. Basically this means positioning a table or shelf in such a way that the operator can smoothly feed the documents with minimal extra movement, and a catch table or bin to stack the scanned prints neatly.
“The less an operator has to turn away from the device, the more productive they will be and the less fatigued they will be,” Blanken says.
National/AZON recently introduced a third-party scanner add-on that includes a feed table above the scanner, a catch table behind it, and an adjustable monitor and keyboard. Click here to see a video the Zero Turn Scanning Productivity Center.
The National/AZON product is designed to with Contex scanners, but a similar arrangement could be set-up for other scanners.
“You can position the scanner strategically next to a two-shelf table where you can stack originals on one shelf, and have the documents come off the scanner onto the bottom shelf,” explains Steve Andrikut, North American sales director for Image Access.
Andrikut adds that another efficiency-adding device available with Image Access scanners is a high-capacity stacker available from Tameran Corp. that will stack up to 300 scanned engineering drawings. In addition, some Image Access customers have discovered that the stackers from old TDS 800s and Oce 9800s work well with Image Access scanners. Click here to see a video of someone using a TDS 800 stacker with a scanner.
2) Connections. How your scanner connects with output devices, external computers, or the cloud is another productivity issue. Some scanners connect via a USB port, while others connect directly to the network.
“A connection directly to a network is always the fastest,” Blanken says. “That way you have immediate access to the scans and it’s faster than other connections.”
A gigabit network connection, for example, will transfer files more than twice as quickly as a USB 2.0 connection. That means the files are printed, stored, or ready to view much more quickly.
3) Computer Hardware: Naturally, the computer connected to your printer plays a key role in productivity. Questions to consider are the age of the computer and its operating system, how much RAM is available, and does it have a solid state or spinning hard drive.
“If you’re scanning full-color documents, if you don’t have enough RAM the scanner will stop and wait for the buffer to empty out, so the more RAM you have the faster it works,” Blanken says. “I would say you should have a minimum of 4GB.”
Andrikut notes that Image Access scanners feature built-in computers, ensuring compatibility and a dedicated processor. “Our scanners don’t require an external PC workstation for operation,” he says.
4) Software. The software you’re using to process the scans also plays a key role in scanning productivity. This article can’t provide all the information regarding scanning software, but key points to consider when you’re evaluating scanner software are:
- Does the software perform image quality corrections on the fly?
- Does it auto-rotate, auto-align, and auto-deskew?
- Does in include production tools such as color management and file indexing?
- Does it address printer functions in the native printer language?
- Does it capture 48-bit color and deliver back 48-bit raw files?
5) Batch scanning capability. The ability for a scanner to handle large batches of documents is essential to productivity.
“Batch scanning means you are able to feed in the originals and have the scanner and software do everything else without delays,” Blanken says. “So if I have 100 drawings, I want to be able to feed them in one after another without stopping.”
Among the things a good batch system does is identify the separate drawings and automatically name or number them as they are scanned. That way the operator doesn’t have to step in and tell the system whenever a new document is being scanned. Batch software also should allow the operator to preset parameters such as brightness, contrast and color mode, but also optimize those characteristics on each scanned image afterwards without the necessity of rescanning.
These are just a few tips on increasing the efficiency of your scanning operation. Contex and Image Access offer valuable white papers on this and related scanner topics:
Click here to read the Wide Format Scanner Buyer’s Guide from Image Access