{"id":1169,"date":"2022-07-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/processprimer.com\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2022-07-13T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:00:00","slug":"operational-process-death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/processprimer.com\/blog\/operational-process-death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Operational Process Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paper-dependency is killing operations in a technology world.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever stopped to think about the waste that comes from being too paper-driven in your day-to-day operations? The costs could be upwards of 20%<\/strong><\/span> of your company’s overall expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could it possibly add up to that much? Read on while I plead my case for a paperless tomorrow.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make a point, I’m not even going to include the additional waste on things like paper bills, direct mail and other customer-facing paper-driven activities – so I’m excluding areas like sales and marketing, advertising, customer support and human resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will focus on the internal operations of order fulfillment for this say-no-to-paper drive, so all the things a company needs to process an order, deliver the good or service and bill for it – I’m including administration, product\/service delivery, health and safety and accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paper-driven processes create waste and prevent multitasking efficiencies. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go on and on about the paper waste stats such as the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year, 50% of the waste of businesses is composed of paper, each organization\u2019s paper consumption grows an average of 22% per year (doubling costs every 3.3 years) and so on. But, instead, let’s get right into the problems with paper-driven processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is an insightful article to read<\/a> if you’re interested in those stats and other great tips to reduce paper consumption in the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two main cost disadvantages to relying on paper-driven processes.<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First, there are the obvious hard costs (office supplies)<\/strong>: paper, toner, printer hardware, printer support and maintenance, filing cabinets, file folders, staplers, staples, paper clips, hole punches and binders. Oh, and don’t forget about secure paper-shredding costs. If you would like a ballpark yearly dollar figure on the hard-costs of paper expenses, add together the following numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n