Office Automation Equipments / Machines

Office Automation Equipments / Machines

Office automation indicates the use of computer hardware and software to automate the daily tasks and processes accomplished at organizations. According to (Grantham, 2011) Office automation equipment includes but not limited to the following:  printers, scanners, fax machine, photocopiers, computers and others.

1. Photocopiers: This is a machine used to copy from original documents. The original document may be handwritten, printed or typewritten. Photocopiers are used to prepare extra copies of documents.
2. Facsimile (Fax) Machine: This machine scans printed, typewritten texts and images and transmits them through telephone lines to a receiving fax machine that converts the electronic signals back to the original text or image. The machine converts printed material or images into electronic signals suitable for transmission through telephone lines, cables or satellite networks, facsimile machines could store messages and transmit them later at a time when transmission costs are cheaper.
3. Calculating Machine: This is used mainly in the office for calculations and complex computations
4. Scanners: Used for scanning images of documents to computers for printing, storage, display or communication via the internet.
5. Computers: Perhaps the most common equipment in modern offices, it is used for data and word processing, document storage, communication, presentation etc.
6. Dictation Machines: One piece of equipment that may not seem essential to many people is the dictation machine. Although speech recognition software continues to evolve, it is not without pitfalls. Executives who need to draft letters, memos, and reports are best off dictating the copy and recording it, since speaking is much faster than writing and can be done while performing other tasks. However the audio is recorded, this file is then processed by another employee, who transcribes the audio into a written document and saves, emails, or prints it.
7. Printers: Any office that runs even one PC needs a printer to create hard copies of electronic documents and files. Despite the promises of paperless offices in the future, that era has not yet arrived. All sorts of business documentation needs to be printed, whether the business is a product- or service-oriented industry. Examples of common office documents include invoices, packing slips, flyers, and letters. Printers can be used not just to generate transfer electronic files to paper but also to create composite documents containing digital information and scanned images.
8. Laminating Machines: Laminating machines are generally underutilized in most offices. When someone has gone to the trouble to print or copy a document, that document can be preserved by heat-sealing two thin layers of clear plastic over each side.
9. Label Makers: Like a laminating machine, a label maker might seem more like an extra than a needed piece of office equipment, but if this is the case, then it may be that one simply does not realize the scope of what can be done with such a handy gadget. The following list is just a handful of the many wonderful ways in which a business office can be better organized by using a label maker:

• To create file folder labels
• To label three-ring binders
• To assign mail cubbies
• To make “out of order” signage
• To leave brief instructions on breakroom appliances, such as “Please clean after each use” on a microwave or “Please remove items each Friday” on a refrigerator
• To stick an important number on a phone extension
• To identify computer hardware
• To create name tags
• To label cords and wires (“monitor to power,” “tower to monitor,” “router to modem,” and so forth)

1. Shredders: In a world where identity theft runs rampant, one of the most important pieces of equipment for any office to own is, ironically, the one that destroys all of the documents that the employees work so hard to produce. Tearing papers into bits by hand is not only time-consuming and tiring but is not always as effective as it needs to be. Paper shredders cut a sheet of paper into so many pieces that it is extremely difficult or even impossible to put them back together and recover the lost information. A shredder is a necessity in any business where confidentiality is a legal requirement, such as law, medicine, and education. Of course, any office that has employees keeps documentation on human resources, and much of this information is confidential as well.