Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.24 2012.12.01 Takahashi Minoru

The illusion (or delusion) called paperless

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


How many decades has it been since the call for “going paperless” first began?
It seems like paper use has decreased in some areas,
when viewed from a societal perspective, not much has changed.
(You can see this if you look at consumption statistics.)


The reason for this is
it’s because “systems inherently come with functions that consume paper.”
By "functions that consume paper," I mean printing functions.
Printing capabilities are integral to functions such as printing slips and inventory tags, as well as generating lists, summary reports, statistical tables, and ledger entries.


Why do systems spit out such large amounts of paper?
It’s because there are still many people who find that “seeing things on paper rather than on a screen helps their brains work more actively and accurately.”


Systems are not introduced to reduce paper consumption,
but to help each employee’s brain function more actively and accurately.
Consequently, system specifications inevitably evolve toward making the brain work more actively and accurately,
in other words, toward spitting out large amounts of paper.


If you purchase a system based solely on the name
and purchase a system based solely on the label “paperless,”
employee efficiency will undoubtedly decline.


On the other hand, there are certain types of work where going paperless is guaranteed to be welcomed.
These are operations where the main pain point is that “paper-based communication is extremely cumbersome.”
・Sending data such as sales and inventory figures from each store to headquarters via fax
・Auditing sales histories and contract information for each customer at headquarters
・Transactions involving a very large number of items or orders that occur frequently
・Businesses that must release accurate monthly financial results to external parties at an early stage
These are the types of tasks involved,
these tasks involve more digitization than going paperless,
and even if the amount of paper is reduced, that is merely a secondary effect.


Rather than aiming for a completely paperless system, why not consider a system
rather than aiming for a "paperless" system.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

------------------------------

■ Previous / Next Column ■

＜＜＜ Next Column Vol.25 - The importance of having employees keep daily work logs 2013.01.01

＞＞＞ Previous Column Vol.23 - Presidents dismissed by staff with 'The boss doesn't understand PCs' 2012.11.01

Back to Column List