I know about the NHS and some of their problems. I'm just wondering if your medium/large workplace does? If so, what for, and why?
Disclosure: this isn't exactly market research from a commercial standpoint, but I do have to give a presentation on business automation. Definitely don't tell me who you work for.
Do drawings count?
We get A0/A1 drawings printed out of everything.
Even if it's only a bit of ply with a hole in it. A0 drawing.
Ridiculous.
Yes, even in the NHS we are an outlier. Without wanting to name and shame the EPR has been 18-24 months away as long as I can remember.
Online radiology and electronic prescribing were both transformative when they came in, mind you.
I would say not as often as we did - some folk still like to print stuff off, but many of us haven't printed anything in a very long time.
Yup, have to fill in a vehicle sheet every week and also 1 a month for the round that we do in the summer. Although there is talk about going digital ( for about the last 5-7 yr)
Yes. We have to print out maintenance orders and all the associated risk assessments, method statements, COSHH assessments etc. etc.
Hundreds of thousands of pages per year that just get recycled at the end of each task.
Medium sized charity working in schools.
Very few is the answer. Safeguarding and HR both have Single Central Register which is more secure digitally. Vast majority of finance and delivery records are digital now.
I note that as our archive of required docs for Companies House, Charity Commission, HMRC are disposed of after 10 years, we are losing filing cabinets and cupboards. When I started each of the offices had 2-3 secure cabinets and a half dozen less secure cupboards. We now have one cupboard secure and two cupboards general. I think there's more stationary storage for running our training courses....
Yes and Fax! Railways
I think it's easily 10+ years since I printed anything at work, or was even handed a bit of paper with anything work related on it. There is a printer somewhere in the office but I'm not allowed to use it despite the fact I'm pretty senior. No idea who can use it
Bits and bobs but the worst part is filling in word and excel forms as though they're still paper docs. Unbelievably tedious.
No. Medium sized company. Very little paper. The only thing i print is the occasional poster for teaching, and a few bits and pieced if im hand dditing illustrations that will end up in electronic documents
Very much yes. Electrical drawings, mechanical drawings, delivery notes, receipts, etc, and that's just the Operations Department...
Our office is not so much paperless as clueless.
Yes but I work in social care. Very much doubt we'll ever move to paperless
Does anywhere not?
Even in a supposed paperless office I'll bet they still have plenty of printers.
I have no idea where the nearest printer is in our large office. There must be one somewhere but I don't know anybody that uses them.
Edit: And printing isn't enabled by default on your profile so you can tap your id to print. It is a temporary request that needs authorisation.
Higher education: almost all records are electronic, but some things are not, with in-person exams being the most obvious exception. Having said that, by the time they reach staff they are also electronic (scanned).
So much better having two decent screens and the laptop screen available (so three) - used to have to print out staffing lists and double check the budget each year - now just use the two screens - far quicker. I used to have shelves of files, I now have none !
I’ve been with my current employer for approaching two years and not used the printer once. But there’s a few senior individuals who still get board paper packs printed off for them to take to board meetings. Wouldn’t mind but it’s not uncommon for packs to run to 300+ pages so just a total waste of paper IMO. Local government for you.
Local government for you.
I just signed a lease on a council allotment. Had to go to the council building and fill out duplicates of the agreement. Are they doing it to justify the supply agreement with the local filing cabinet company?
Yes, although it is small. Previous medium and large companies did also.
It's probably a niche. Mainly production, occasionally labs. I work in coatings and adhesives.
I've seen a few attempts at moving to computer base systems but when dealing with solvents, I dusteial.coatings and structural adhesives they just don't survive..
Paper works.mainly because it gets used once and it doesn't matter if it gets contaminated as long as it isn't something nasty.
In a multi-billion worldwide engineering company.
Everything formal is electonic.
A few of us still print the occasional document or technical standard out though, as often it is still easier to flick from section to section and back again on paper, whereas it's a PITA to do electronically on a screen, when there's multiple cross references and call-ups to other docs or standards etc.
I have a pad of paper as a mouse mat that I scribble to do list and gossip from teams. Other than that, nope.
Our sister company does though, luddites
Yes. Small clothing manufacturer, I'm the accountant.
Huge pieces of paper on the enormous printer in the warehouse, for the patterns. For documents, not much
I've got a notepad, I occasionally need to print letters to customers who haven't paid, followed by some paper court forms if they still don't cough up. Emails first, but a threatening letter arriving by recorded post often yields results. Currently chasing a Canadian wholesaler and the Canadian court, or at least the one in Quebec, requires me to post them copies of all emails correspondence I've had with the customer and the agent. I have one folder of important documents. I sometimes print stuff, monthly trial.balance for instance, as I find it much easier to proof read and write notes on stuff when it's on paper. Just shredded the last of the paper invoices this year though, so it's seven years since we stopped doing that.
Yes. Small clothing manufacturer, I'm the accountant.
Huge pieces of paper on the enormous printer in the warehouse, for the patterns. For documents, not much
I've got a notepad, I occasionally need to print letters to customers who haven't paid, followed by some paper court forms if they still don't cough up. Emails first, but a threatening letter arriving by recorded post often yields results. Currently chasing a Canadian wholesaler and the Canadian court, or at least the one in Quebec, requires me to post them copies of all emails correspondence I've had with the customer and the agent. I have one folder of important documents. I sometimes print stuff, monthly trial.balance for instance, as I find it much easier to proof read and write notes on stuff when it's on paper. Just shredded the last of the paper invoices this year though, so it's seven years since we stopped doing that.
Yes. Small clothing manufacturer, I'm the accountant.
Huge pieces of paper on the enormous printer in the warehouse, for the patterns. For documents, not much
I've got a notepad, I occasionally need to print letters to customers who haven't paid, followed by some paper court forms if they still don't cough up. Emails first, but a threatening letter arriving by recorded post often yields results. Currently chasing a Canadian wholesaler and the Canadian court, or at least the one in Quebec, requires me to post them copies of all emails correspondence I've had with the customer and the agent. I have one folder of important documents. I sometimes print stuff, monthly trial.balance for instance, as I find it much easier to proof read and write notes on stuff when it's on paper. Just shredded the last of the paper invoices this year though, so it's seven years since we stopped doing that.
My college apparently uses 6 million sheets of A4 per year. While exams are writing on paper that’s what we need to do.
We still have paper for loads of admin. Return to work, time off site, applying for courses etc. But that is me being addressed
My nhs blood tests need a physical letter to be sent off with the sample
Yup. Periodic testing of subsurface safety valves and other critical safety equipment is recorded on paper with multiple signatures then stuck in filling cabinets for a few years.
With the ability to use .pdf + digital signatures, docusign, etc. I'm not sure it's needed anymore but it's the way it's always been done so that's the way we do it 🤷🏻♂️
Yup. Periodic testing of subsurface safety valves and other critical safety equipment is recorded on paper with multiple signatures then stuck in filling cabinets for a few years.
With the ability to use .pdf + digital signatures, docusign, etc. I'm not sure it's needed anymore but it's the way it's always been done so that's the way we do it 🤷🏻♂️
Having made an effort to digitise a lot of what we do where I work they recently spotted something that wasn't being covered so it now has a paper form to fill in with the contractor and then take a photo of it to put it in the digital form. It's also spread across multiple platforms that won't speak to each other.
Otherwise it's mostly just site maps for older non digital contractors.
Yes, even in the NHS we are an outlier. Without wanting to name and shame the EPR has been 18-24 months away as long as I can remember.
NHS lothian went paper light with an EPR a decade or more ago. Very little kept on paper now - some bedside records and drug MARs and thats about it. Even letters from hospitals are usually email now but not by default. My GP texts me. All ordering of tests and stuff is electronic. The daft bit tho is GPs will not use the hospital system so hospitals and GPs cannot see each others full records
I worked on my health district's integrated electronic medical record project in 2018. This doesn't include primary care (GPs). As a broader network we were told we would be the world's first public health jurisdiction to all be on one integrated system.* This should mean all 106 hospitals records are linked and who knows how many health centres. Patients would have a single id# (rather than a new one for each place they visit), medication errors would be a thing of the past, etc, etc, etc.
Last year we got the final of our district's five hospitals on.
Getting patient letters emailed has been talked about for over ten years... still not there. The database is from 1992 and doesn't have an email field apparently. So that means a LOT of paper is used for letters. We have something like 700 appointments a week (can't remember if that's just one site), so that's at least 1500 letters for appointments once GPs are included, but for many there will be multiple letters per appointment. And there are plenty of other things that need paper.
SMS is used a fair bit now, which is good. GPs kind of have viewing access, but it's asynchronous so communication issues are still rife. "I don't know anything about a surgical procedure you had last week Mrs Johnson?"
Some of the other districts haven't even started yet - I think 2028 is the start date for some of them.
*Except ICU because they wanted to use something else, and maternity because... something something something. And the largest district in the state because they don't think it's safe.
Im working with a software company offering a digital solution for pharma and chemical global industries. Meets all current legal and production regs for Europe / US, digital signatures, mobile platform etc etc. It pretty much replaces every bit of paper in a business across every department.
Does anywhere not?
Even in a supposed paperless office I'll bet they still have plenty of printers.
We have a general printer and a large format plotter.
The printer very seldom gets used.
The large format gets used so infrequently its comedy watching everyone trying to work it.
I know how to work it, i never get involved 🤣
Certain clients require QC packs for client rubber stamp are still printed. In excess of 400 pages at times when you have a complex tool with 60-80 parts each with a. Material certs a ndt cert , hardness testing a micrograph and the dimensional inspection , at heat treatment or coating certification and a CoC
Oh yeah and once it's rubber stamped and wet ink signed. What do we do with it. - scan it into the client's online system for record keeping.
It's the like the dark ages.
A fair bit of printing but it's a minefield in education.
Kids have iPads, so we're meant to use those more than jotter work but also reduced screen time and there's concerns that literacy is falling and handwriting is poor.
Exams are still written so they need those skills to pass.
Even senior pupil projects can be done as electronic documents but we have to guarantee exam like conditions so no Access outside the machine to internet etc, which being mere teachers we can't do so back to paper. Even if we get someone to agree to isolate an iPad we then have to print it. But budget constraints mean I buy 2or3 reams of paper out of my own pocket so our kids can pass exams.
my dace piece of IT idiocy from a good few years ago in a private care home:
regional manager emailed a form to the home which was then printed off for the home manager to fill in by hand taking all the info off the homes computer then the completed form which was many pages was faxed back to the regional manager. It took the home manager a day to complete and i doubt anyone looked at it. This was done weekly
Although sometimes think this forum would work better printed
A few of us still print the occasional document or technical standard out though, as often it is still easier to flick from section to section and back again on paper, whereas it's a PITA to do electronically on a screen, when there's multiple cross references and call-ups to other docs or standards etc.
That's about all I use a printer for too. The last set of stuff was submissions to tender for a Business Case which I printed off and went through manually because it was a carefully defined process. Get it wrong and not be able to show due diligence and a supplier could potentially sue if it wasn't crystal clear why they didn't get the job.
Very rare though, everything is run off two screens plus laptop normally.
The stuff I do, processing DNA and RNA so that it can be sequenced, generally involves protocols that can be 30-40 double sided pages long. I have many, many folders of printed protocols and each new variation on the process will require another. Paper doesn't really get all that bothered if you spill concentrated acid or alkali on it, and never runs out of battery mid way through a critical step!
Yes. My boss prints out emails and gives them to me rather than forwarding.... I'm very much fighting a losing battle.
The stuff I do, processing DNA and RNA so that it can be sequenced, generally involves protocols that can be 30-40 double sided pages long. I have many, many folders of printed protocols and each new variation on the process will require another. Paper doesn't really get all that bothered if you spill concentrated acid or alkali on it, and never runs out of battery mid way through a critical step!
I'm not a cheerleader for wearable technology or have any laboratory experience, but isn't this one of the genuine use cases for augmented reality headsets? Your instructions superimposed directly into your field of view without messing about with folders full of print outs.
Obviously the tech sales pitch vs the annoying, janky reality that leads you to drop them in an acid bath in a fit of rage, will be worlds apart.
Small software business of 45 odd people, no paper at all.
We recently did all the 'paperwork' for a share scheme profit sharing payout, all handled seamlessly by our EO advisor/solicitor via Docusign.
Almost entirely electronic and paperless now. Have been for years.
We have a printer, but I haven't even configured it in the laptop. More likely to use it to scan something to PDF than to print.
I've pretty much forgotten how to use a pen.
I would say not as often as we did - some folk still like to print stuff off, but many of us haven't printed anything in a very long time.
Pretty much this. Office with up to 60 people. Lockdown really helped for us to go mostly paperless (which i'd been pushing for for years). Though I did hear recently the last office fax machine was only turned off last year!
