LSG Sky Chefs is the world’s leading supplier of airline catering and other on-board services. LSG Sky Chefs supplies more than 300 airlines from around 200 companies in 52 countries and produces 490 million in-flight meals every year. In 2011, the LSG Sky Chefs group of companies recorded a consolidated turnover of EUR 2.3 billion.

LSG Sky Chefs has obtained extensive know-how and expertise on in-flight service management based on nearly 70 years of experience in the business. The company was formed following the takeover of Sky Chefs, a catering subsidiary of American Airlines, by Lufthansa catering subsidiary LSG (Lufthansa Service GmbH). Since then, LSG Sky Chefs has been continuously expanding its global network, developing into the global market leader in the airline catering sector.

Objective Reduce printer fleet costs by standardising products, services and processes and reduce environmental impact with a Managed Print Services (MPS) contract

ApproachCompare MPS packages from various providers to reduce costs and increase focus on environmental aspects

IT improvements• Taking the strain off IT staff thanks to the

full-service concept, including automatic delivery of consumables, online reporting and monitoring system

Business benefits • Reduced costs by around 40 per cent by

implementing multifunction products, a consumption-based payment model and internal process improvements

• Reduced paper consumption by around 15 per cent by centralising printers and functions such as HP Private Print and scan-to-email

• Reduced support and service costs by replacing old, high-maintenance printers with no-maintenance devices

• Integrated services into existing IT outsourcing contract for LSG Sky Chefs

HP customer case study LSG Sky Chefs standardises its entire print output environment

Industry Airline Catering, In-flight management

LSG Sky Chefs fly high with transparent printing costs and value-added services

“The consumption-based payment model gives us maximum transparency on print costs. The Managed Print Services (MPS) contract has enabled us to make our processes more streamlined and more efficient. The standardised fleet of printers is an important element of our global IT outsourcing strategy, which began back in late 2006.” —Dirk Kröning, vice president, Global IT Infrastructure, LSG Sky Chefs

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As well as its extensive airline catering expertise, LSG Sky Chefs also has detailed knowledge about the planning, implementation and management of all on-board services. These include design, development, purchasing and logistics of on-board service equipment, on-board sales programmes, management of on- board services and other airport services. Today, the company offers a wide range of in-flight products and services with high levels of quality and reliability.

As a logical extension of its airline catering services, LSG Sky Chefs has also begun to tap into adjacent markets such as train and school catering as well as catering in the health system and the retail sector.

“Finely tuned working schedules and processes within the logistically demanding catering sector require a stable, efficient yet cost-effective IT infrastructure,” explains Dirk Kröning, vice president of Global IT infrastructure at LSG Sky Chefs. “This is why we began outsourcing the global IT infrastructure to a professional partner back in late 2006. In 2010, we started looking in detail at the various printers in use at LSG Sky Chefs and came to the conclusion that there was significant potential here in terms of both servicing and cost. This is why we only considered an HP Managed Print Services (MPS) contract where we could concentrate on managing the printer fleet.”

The company then did a stock-take and drew up target specifications for the printer fleet. Those involved felt that as well as reducing costs, improving environmental factors was also a key consideration. In order to reduce paper consumption, the devices needed to support functionalities to improve digital document workflow, such as scan-to-email, scan-to-folder and secure PIN printing. At the same time, those responsible for the project wanted to ensure low emission levels to avoid pollution for the employees. “HP scored well, as the emissions from the devices were well below the thresholds specified,” Kröning explains.

The project managers were also interested to find out how toner return and recycling worked. “HP was out ahead here too, thanks to its Planet Partner Program,” reported Kröning.

The HP Planet Partner Program is a free return and recycling programme for HP LaserJet toners and inkjet printer cartridges. They are fed back in to a recycling process where the majority of the plastics and metals used are extracted to produce new materials used in new products. All the remaining materials are incinerated, with the maximum possible energy extraction.

Environmental considerations are part of the company philosophy Kröning: “These green IT aspects put HP top of our ranking. This was important to us, as environmental considerations are a fixed part of LSG Sky Chefs’ company philosophy.” He quotes two examples: In terms of waste avoidance, the company works on lean principles in all areas and provides continuous training. The service-provider also uses environmentally-friendly products. Trays and disposable cutlery are made of biodegradable materials.

The decision in favour of HP was based on both environmental and economical factors: HP offered to incorporate the 130 HP printers already in use at LSG Sky Chefs into the MPS contract. “This meant we could include our existing devices in the new contract,” explains Kröning.

Customer solution at a glance

Hardware

• HP LaserJet P2055dn

• HP LaserJet P3005n

• HP LaserJet P3005dn

• HP LaserJet P4015x

• HP LaserJet P4515n

• HP LaserJet M2727NF MFP

• HP LaserJet M2727NFS MFP

• HP LaserJet M3035xs MFP

• HP LaserJet 4345 MFP

• HP LaserJet M4345x MFP

• HP LaserJet M4345xs MFP

• HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn

• HP Color LaserJet 4700dn

• HP Color LaserJet CP4525dn

• HP Color LaserJet CM3530fs MFP

• HP Color LaserJet 4730MFPx

• HP Color LaserJet CM4730FM MFP

• HP Color LaserJet CM6040f MFP

Software

• HP Service Portal

• HP Digital Sending Software

• HP Private Print

• HP Web Jetadmin

• HP Universal Printer Driver

HP Services

• HP Managed Print Services

Together with HP, LSG Sky Chefs decided on a fleet of printers consisting of just 13 models. The number of printers installed was reduced by 37 per cent to 830. This consolidation process largely involved doing away with large numbers of desktop printers. The company leased all the new computers. HP is responsible for support and maintenance. LSG Sky Chefs pays a fixed monthly fee for each device, with only the costs of the actual toner used payable on top. “The consumption-based payment model gives us maximum transparency on print costs,” Kröning is pleased to report.

This is largely a result of simplifying processes in many areas of the company. For example, in purchasing: they do not need to worry about replacing printers or ordering toner cartridges. These are automatically delivered to the right place at the right time by the HP regional office. As soon as the toner falls below a level defined by us, the devices report to HP via a secure connection. The invoices are sent from HP via the outsourcing provider to LSG Sky Chefs.

The company is now also more efficient when it comes to problem-solving. The global IT service desk utilises automated interfaces with the HP Service Portal as the central starting point for maintenance of the fleet of printers and for first and second level support. The service tickets generated are then forwarded directly to HP. “We don’t want to wait for the end-users to call us with printer problems. We can now detect some problems even before the end-users notice them,” reports Kröning. “As in many IT projects, there were a few teething problems to begin with, but everything is now under control. The overall result is clear to see.”

HP Web Jetadmin monitors printers capacityThe HP Service Portal docked in to the company network allows the outsourcing provider to monitor the functionality and usage of every single device. The HP Web Jetadmin software gives those responsible an insight into print activities and indicates, for example, which devices are being over or underused. This means the printers can be relocated if necessary to meet the wide-ranging requirements of LSG Sky Chefs in the various areas of production and administration.

The MPS contract also reduces the environmental impact, thanks in part to the HP Private Print functionality, which allows employees to set a password or PIN to be entered into the printer to receive their document. Kröning: “By using the HP Private Print functionality, we can do without a series of desktop printers in employee offices. This also ensures that no confidential information gets into the wrong hands. At the same time, the users only specifically print out the information they actually need. There often used to be documents in the printers that nobody had picked up. This caused unnecessary paper consumption and thus had an impact on the environment.”

Functionalities support digital documentThere are also new functionalities such as scan-to-OCR and scan-to-email, which ensure that documents are only transferred in electronic form either within the company or to partners. This is made possible by HP Digital Sending Software (DSS) which improves the functionality of multifunction products by adding functions such as user authentication, connection to LAN fax solutions, scan-to-folder, colour copies via network printer, encrypted emails and connection to the DMS and archive system. The software acts as middleware and as an interface, which allows the documents digitalised by the multifunction printers to be converted, distributed, saved or archived.

This is a first sensible step but a long way from the finish line. The Vice President of Global IT Infrastructure is convinced that “we will be able to identify further potential for optimisation in the fleet by working with HP in the future, as we keep in regular contact.”

For more informationTo read more about HP Managed Print Services, go to hp.com/go/mps

© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA4-0685EEW, Created December 2012

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