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Tracking printer up-time with the embedded server?

Lindquist

New Member
I am trying to track how many hours of the day our HP Scitex FB700 is used. We have a lot of work, but the printer is frequently not printing due to personnel and work flow issues.

I am trying to build a clear understanding of how much the printer is used so that we can set goals to improve.

The embedded server tracks every print job that is sent, and I can export extensive details about each one. Unfortunately, I cannot export an entire day's worth of jobs, so this information is not particularly useful. Some days I may spend the entire day printing 1 job (or multiple days) and other days I may have 30 different jobs that all get completed.

The printer also provides log files. I thought the log file had the information I want, but after using it for a couple of weeks I am no longer certain. I am using data labeled "elapased time = ### secs".

Sometimes these numbers seem correct. For example, if I have a job for 1 4' x 8' print on Indoor Plus quality, I expect that print to take around 15 minutes. If I convert the seconds listed in the log file to minutes, I receive a number that sounds realistic. But a lot of times (especially on low quality / high quantity orders), the numbers just do not make any sense - the time doesn't add up to what we would realistically spend printing.

As a result of the odd numbers, my tracking has shown that we have only had up-time on the printer for 2 hours max on any day this month...and that is far lower than I expected to find. Some days show less than 1 hour spend printing. We have personnel here as early as 6am and as late as 8pm some days.

Does anyone have experience trying to track printer usage in this way? Am I misunderstanding this data?
 
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