Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Maybe it's the paper

I just walked by the copier in the coffee room, the copier that is broken about 45% of the time.

Seriously, its either jamming up in five different places or there is some serious mechanical problem.

Yesterday, a technician spent a few hours with the insides pulled out and disassembled, repairing I don't know what. But after lunchtime it was fine.

When I walked past the copier seven minutes ago, it looked innocent enough, but there was a piece of 11 x 17 piece of paper sitting on the counter, crumpled up like an accordion and a few bits of torn paper as well. That is a sure fire sign that a paper jam has recently occurred and is sure to occur again. Sure enough, when I walked by the copier again five minutes ago, there was an innocent employee crouching down, copier door open, peering into the machine's guts, trying to figure out what went wrong.

So, let's recap. The machine is individually serviced for hours yesterday and this morning, it is screwing up again.

The machine might be old, but maybe it is something simple. Maybe it's the paper that is causing the jams. For whatever reason, maybe the brand of paper we buy is curling at the edges, reacting adversely to the humidity, fraying at a microscopic level.

Has someone considered this? It makes me wonder, given the multiple problems that we all encounter at home, at life, at work. We all find complicated reasons for why things go wrong. Maybe its a simple, but big reason that is staring us in the face.

Consider it.

1 comment:

Sven Golly said...

I bet everyone has their own photocopying stories. The other day during a paper jam, the little screen told me to CLOSE FRONT DOOR, which I did, then it told me to OPEN FRONT DOOR, which I did...and I won't disclose how many times that infinite loop recurred.