Fire Industry Association: Freeing Up the Training Team with Mimeo

CHALLENGE

Before partnering with Mimeo, the majority of the Fire Industry Association’s (FIA) training books were printed in-house using office-based printers, then assembled and bound internally before being distributed to training venues. As the number of courses grew, this approach became increasingly difficult to sustain.

This created several key challenges:

Keeping up with growing demand placed pressure on internal printing and production
Reliability of office printers became critical, as any issues could delay course preparation
Printer rental, paper, consumables and staff time all added up, with cost per book closely monitored
Office space had to be set aside for both finished training books and printing supplies
Materials had to be shipped to training venues using external couriers such as DHL

PROBLEM SOLVING

The FIA partnered with Mimeo to move a significant proportion of its training book production to an on-demand, professionally managed model. The Head of Training reviews requirements and places an order approximately once a month, based on upcoming training activity and anticipated stock levels. Mimeo then manages the printing and production of the materials, removing a significant amount of manual work from the Training team. In-house printing hasn't been eliminated entirely, but outsourcing larger quantities to Mimeo has significantly reduced reliance on internal printing and binding. The FIA has also made use of digital versions of its training books, something that became particularly important from the COVID period onwards.

THE RESULT

Since implementing Mimeo, the FIA has seen improvements across time, quality and scalability:

Significant time savings, freeing the Training team to focus on delivering and administering training rather than producing materials
Reduced pressure on internal resources and better allocation of staff time
A clear improvement in the quality and consistency of finished materials, with a more professional overall finish
Greater scalability, allowing the team to grow training volumes without increasing printing capacity, equipment or internal resources
Better use of office space, with less need to store paper stock and finished materials on-site

"Mimeo has allowed us to take a time-consuming part of our training operation and place it with a specialist provider, giving us greater scalability and consistently professional training materials."

— Michael Gregg, Head of Training, Fire Industry Association

Key Takeaways

Time Savings: Reduced time spent printing, assembling and binding training materials
Scalability: Training volumes can grow without adding internal printing capacity or resources
Quality Improvement: Professional, consistent finish across all training materials
Team Focus: More time for the Training team to concentrate on learners and course delivery
Resource Efficiency: Reduced office space and stock management burden
Flexible Access: Combination of print and digital training materials supports different delivery needs

Download Case Study

The Fire Industry Association (FIA) is a trade association representing organisations and professionals working across the UK fire safety sector. The organisation has 26 employees, operating from two main office locations, and delivers training at a range of external venues across the UK, typically using hotels and other suitable training locations. Mimeo is used primarily for the production of training materials and course books used across the FIA's training programmes.

Visit FIA's website