New Ricoh C7100x page count issue

[DLeftakis]

I would like to get feedback from other ricoh c7100x owners.

We are a commercial printer with over 20 years experience with offset and digital print solutions for our customers. We have had and also owned from xerox to indigo equipement. My company has had a good working relationship for over 10 years with an assortment of ricoh machines. Recently (June 2016) we have purchased a new ricoh C7100x and really are happy with format sizes available and the 5th color feature. We print on average 50,000 copies per month.
But here is the issue and question that follows.
We have notice a glitch in page count which suddenly and while in production a jump in page count from 75,000 to 125,000 of phantom clicks. In the last 3 months it has occurred at least 4 times and no one knows why. We have had ricoh experts come look at it and they are still trying to get us some answers, they tell us they have never seen that before. To me it seems a software issue especially since this equipement does not have an analog counter. So my question is has any other ricoh C7100x owner been experiencing this page count issue.
Thanks

 

[namelessentity]

Talk to your sales person, but are you sure you're reading the counts right? Like maybe you're not aware that an 11x17 counts as 2 clicks in the counter or something? 75k clicks is a massive number to just glitch out, and that's a huge legal liability on their end if it's true. I feel like they'd be taking it more seriously if it was actually happening and not just a misunderstanding on your end.

 

[DLeftakis]

No Title

Thanks namelessentity for your response. We are fully aware of additional click counts for larger format.
this situation has been brought to sales and service departments and is being studied and researched with Ricoh Canada and our local distributor but no one understands why it is doing this. You are right it is a major issue for them and us but I wanted to see if I was the only customer with this issue or has it happened with other users. Take a look at photo that supports my claim 155,523 page count in 2 hours, it is impossible.

 

[MailGuru]

I hope they find the solution. Unfortunately, many users, regardless of which vendor they are using (Xerox, Ricoh, KM, Cannon, etc.), consider the page count as a "given". The count is, what it is. Letting the vendor have total control over the click count, is kind of like putting the rabbit in charge of the carrot garden.

All of our printers (and, we have 5 digital presses) have a manual operator log on top of each printer. The operator makes a manual entry in to this log at the beginning and the end of each job. Items recorded are: Operator's Initials, Job#, Job Name, Job Quantity, Job Type (B&W or Color), Paper Size, Click Start Number, Click End Number, Click Page Count (End Number minus Start Number), and any notes relative to waste or printer problems during the job. Given this information, it would be relatively easy to compare the Click Page Count to the original Job Quantity. It should match, or, be reasonably close (i.e.: +/- 20 pages)

This is done, not just for page count verification, but, for a myriad of other useful information:

1) Click Count Verification
2) Vendor Invoice Reconciliation
3) Waste Monitoring & Control
4) Quality Control for the print job (Job was 5,000, but, click count is only 4,000 - some pages didn't get printed. Job was 5,000, but, click count is 6,500 - there was a re-start, or, hiccup, and, some pages got printed more than once, etc.)
5) Unauthorized use of printers (one of the operators probably printed 1,000 flyers for a friend, etc.)
6) A specific printer is starting to have a pattern of mechanical issues.
7) Operator performance and productivity.

By posting your issue with the Ricoh, you've shed some light on issues other users (Ricoh or Not), need to be aware of. Hopefully, they take notice.

-Best

MailGuru

 

[msaeger]

I have never seen anything like that. The closest thing I have seen is the machine being set to double count instead of single count or developments instead of prints.

 

[DLeftakis]

Thanks mailguru for all this great info. We have implemented most of your recommendations last October once we realized the page count issue but we had not really realized the value in quality control advantages of monitoring per job performance. But my question still stands has anyone seen such page count jumps on any other digital equipement

 

[DLeftakis]

Hi msaeger I see you are based out in Minnesota. My local ricoh specialist are working with ricoh Canada and ricoh Usa to see what could be the solution or the problem. How many years have you been a tech and do you work on the c7100x series.

 

[[email protected]]

You can also export the Fiery job log which includes all page counts, might help you to reconcile your data.

 

[msaeger]

Hi msaeger I see you are based out in Minnesota. My local ricoh specialist are working with ricoh Canada and ricoh Usa to see what could be the solution or the problem. How many years have you been a tech and do you work on the c7100x series.

I have been a Ricoh direct tech for 20 years and work on the c7100x and other Ricoh production machines.

What were you running when the count jumped up?