A production scanner can help your business create efficient workflows, free up physical space, and retrieve data more quickly

If your business deals with thousands of paper documents, a production scanner could be a gamechanger. While regular office scanners can digitize a handful of documents in a batch, production scanners can process hundreds. With a powerful scanner at your disposal, you can free up physical storage space, streamline tedious data entry work, and make your overall workflows more efficient. You can even reduce your labor costs by refining current processes.

Consider how a production scanner can improve your current data storage and retrieval practices. You should also know how these devices differ from typical office scanners, as well as which features to look for when you purchase one. From speeding up everyday tasks to future proofing your records, a production document scanner can be a vital tool in digitalizing your business.

Need more advice on how to manage large paper workloads? Read A Guide to Bulk Scanning With High Volume Scanners for more information.

What is a production scanner?

Production scanners are high speed, high volume models optimized for companies that scan huge quantities of documents each day. Whereas a typical office scanner might handle a few dozen pages per minute, a production scanner can handle thousands. They also have much larger automatic document feeders (ADFs), so they can scan bigger batches and employees spend less time on manual oversight.

Benefits of a production scanner

A production scanner can do your business a world of good. High quality scanners can preserve old documents and save you physical storage space. But these devices can also help you create streamlined, modern workflows. Scanned documents are easy to parse, easy to retrieve, and hard to lose.

Less physical storage space

A single sheet of paper is small and light, but hundreds — or thousands — of sheets can be big and heavy. Paper records require large, unwieldy filing cabinets, to say nothing of all the folders, binders, staples, clips, and labels you need to keep everything organized. If you have a large office, you might sacrifice a considerable chunk of your floor space to storage. If you have a small office, you may have to pay recurring fees for offsite storage instead.

By contrast, digital documents take up essentially no space. With a physical server, your entire records department could fit inside a closet. If you opt for cloud storage instead, you don’t need any on-premises space at all. Digitizing your records may also save your company money, as you won’t need to pay for huge office spaces or offsite physical storage.

Streamlined data entry and retrieval

Turning a physical form into a digital record without a scanner can be daunting and tedious. An employee must first access a digital database. Then, they need to fill in every field by hand, constantly shifting their attention between the computer screen and the form. They need to manually name and organize each file.

Now, consider how the process would look with a production scanner. An employee could load hundreds of forms into a scanner’s document feeder. The device could scan these records in minutes, using optical character recognition (OCR) to digitize the text. Intuitive software could automatically name and sort these files. The employee, meanwhile, is free to focus on more demanding assignments.

Afterward, employees can find records without leaving their desks. They can search for relevant keywords if they don’t know the file name offhand. Furthermore, multiple workers can access a record at the same time, making workflows faster and more collaborative.

Better document backups

Paper documents — no matter how vital they are to your business — are relatively easy to lose or damage. Keeping backups is a good idea, but physical copies can take up a lot of space. They’ll also degrade over time, particularly if they’re exposed to air or light.

Digital documents can last much longer — and stay in much better condition. Once you scan a record, its quality won’t degrade over time. Files on a computer aren’t easy to lose or damage, particularly if you make backups on another storage drive or in a cloud server. Scanning records can keep your records in pristine shape indefinitely and ensure that they stay where they’re supposed to.

Did You Know?:The RICOH fi-8950 production scanner can scan up to 150 double-sided pages per minute. With a 750-page document feeder and double-sided scanning, the fi-8950 is ideal for large-scale digitization projects. Click here to learn more.

Standard office scanners vs. production scanners

Before you buy a production document scanner, it’s worth considering whether a standard desktop scanner might meet your needs instead. While production scanners and desktop scanners can both digitize documents effectively, the two categories tend to have different feature sets, target audiences, and price ranges.

Generally speaking, small businesses with relatively few documents to scan should be fine with standard office scanners. Midsize and enterprise-level businesses with thousands of documents to digitize may be better off with production scanners. The best production scanner for your business will depend on how many records you have, how tight your timeline is, and how much money you can comfortably invest.

Production scanner key features

As you research devices for your business, there are a few indispensable characteristics you’ll want to keep in mind. A good production scanner should offer the following features:

• Fast scanning speed: The biggest advantage of a production scanner over a standard office model is that it can handle thousands of additional pages per day. Look for a scanning speed between 100 and 150 pages per minute.
• Large ADF capacity: Since production scanners can handle thousands of pages in 10 minutes (or less), you’ll want an ADF capacity of at least a few hundred pages. This way, employees can minimize the amount of time they spend adding new sheets.
• High quality images: If you intend to use electronic records as your primary method of storage, those records need to be flawless. Choose a scanner with between 300 and 600 dots per inch (DPI) resolution, and other features that preserve color and detail.
• Intuitive interface: Look for a scanner with simple, intuitive controls — and a manufacturer with active customer support, in case you have questions.
• Robust software: Good software should make it easy to scan files, but it should also simplify data extraction and organization. Look for software that offers accurate optical character recognition (OCR) features and straightforward file sorting and naming options.

Did You Know?:When documents scan properly the first time, your team can save time and effort. The RICOH fi-8950 offers automatic skew correction to keep pages straight, as well as proprietary Clear Image Capture (CIC) technology to preserve color and detail. Learn more here.

Our recommendation: RICOH fi-8950

Those in the market for a production scanner have no shortage of options. We take great pride in having spent the last 50+ years researching, designing, and developing some of the most advanced and powerful electronics in the world, including our professional grade fi and SP series of scanners.

Built to purpose for the most demanding document handling jobs, fi and SP scanners are capable of processing tens of thousands of pages per day at the highest levels of accuracy. Their intuitive integration capabilities with all existing work suites minimize time-to-value for businesses looking to invest in tools that will pay dividends for years to come.

The RICOH fi-8950 offers the features that midsize and enterprise-level businesses need to digitize tens of thousands of documents every day. With a scanning speed of up to 150 double-sided pages per minute and an ADF capacity of 750, your business could easily scan tens of thousands of sheets each day. Proprietary Clear Image Capture (CIC) technology and up to 600 DPI image resolution ensure that records scan with high levels of clarity and detail. Sophisticated PaperStream software offers precise OCR, as well as simple options for naming and sorting files. Click here to learn more or shop the rest of our production scanner line.

Note: Information and external links are provided for your convenience and for educational purposes only, and shall not be construed, or relied upon, as legal or financial advice. PFU America, Inc. makes no representations about the contents, features, or specifications on such third-party sites, software, and/or offerings (collectively “Third-Party Offerings”) and shall not be responsible for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of such Third-Party Offerings. Please consult with a licensed professional regarding your specific situation as regulations may be subject to change.