Why standard ERP falls short in packaging
Because in packaging quantity is not one-dimensional: orders come in pieces, production runs in metres or kilograms, stock is held as reels or sheets, and invoices are sometimes issued by weight. When these conversions are not defined per product, stock, cost and invoicing stop agreeing with each other.
Critical processes
- Multi-unit conversion: conversion factors between pieces, metres, square metres and kilograms defined per product.
- Reel and sheet tracking: remnant reel management, stock by width, length and grammage, and partial consumption records.
- Cutting plans: waste-minimising layouts across order combinations, reflected into the work order.
- Plate and die management: customer-specific plate inventory, revision number, storage location and reuse records.
- Tolerance-based delivery: delivering within an agreed percentage band and invoicing the actual quantity.
- Print approval: customer artwork approval defined as a step that blocks production start.
Which solution maps to what
Multi-unit handling, bills of material, cutting plans and costing fall under [ERP consulting and development](/en/solutions/erp-consulting); non-standard nesting logic usually requires [custom software development](/en/solutions/custom-software-development). Customer ordering and approval flows use the [B2B dealer portal](/en/products/b2b-dealer-portal), and quotation tracking uses [CRM](/en/products/crm-software).
Mandatory integrations
Cutting and printing machine job lists, weighbridges, barcode and label printers, e-invoicing and e-dispatch, customer EDI channels, bank statements and accounting.
Where we start
The first finding at packaging manufacturers is usually a unit tangle: the same product is ordered in pieces, produced in metres, stocked in kilograms and invoiced in square metres, with the conversion factors living in people's heads. Stock reports and invoice reports then never agree.
The first exercise produces a unit conversion matrix: which units are valid per product, whether the factor between them is fixed or grammage-dependent, and which unit is the base. Choosing the base unit is hard to reverse; stock, costing and invoicing are all built on it.
What the data model must make explicit
- Base unit and conversions: fixed or formula-driven factors per product (width × length × grammage).
- Reel identity: width, length, grammage, remaining quantity and source reel — remnants need their own record.
- Cutting plan: which orders were cut from which reel in which layout, and the planned waste.
- Plate record: customer, revision number, storage location, ownership and last use date.
- Tolerance field: an under/over delivery percentage on the order line; a single global value detached from contracts is not enough.
- Approval record: the version, date and approver of the print approval.
Roll-out sequence
1. Units and product master data: conversion matrix, bills of material, reel and sheet stock structure.
2. Orders and approval: order line tolerance, plate relation and the approval-blocks-production rule.
3. Production and cutting: work orders, cutting plans, remnant creation and waste recording.
4. Dispatch and invoicing: invoicing actual quantities, EDI and e-document integrations.
What we measure
- Variance between planned and actual cutting waste
- Share and ageing of remnant reel stock within total inventory
- Which way the tolerance band is used (a tendency to under- or over-deliver)
- Number of jobs awaiting approval and how long they wait
- Reuse count per plate
Common mistakes
- Tracking remnants as total kilograms. A reel whose dimensions are unknown is never used and simply ages in stock.
- Keeping tolerance outside the system. Closing every shipment by hand makes the open order list unreliable.
- Burying the plate inside the product record. Reuse across products and revision history are both lost.
- Running print approval over e-mail. In a dispute, which version was approved cannot be proven.
Frequently asked questions
How does tolerance-based delivery affect invoicing?
If the difference between ordered and shipped quantity falls within the contractual tolerance, the order counts as closed and the invoice is issued for the actual quantity. Without this rule in the system, every shipment is closed by hand.
How is remnant reel stock managed?
Remnants must be held as separate stock records with their own dimensions. Remnant stock tracked only as total kilograms cannot be found when a job of matching width appears, so it is never actually used.
Who owns the printing plate?
That is a commercial decision, but it belongs in the system as an explicit field covering ownership, storage responsibility and revision history. Without an ownership record, disposing of long-unused plates becomes a dispute.
Should cutting-plan software sit inside the ERP?
Cutting optimisation is a separate calculation engine and usually runs outside the ERP. What matters is that the plan is bound to the work order and that consumed reels are deducted automatically; an optimisation output that is not integrated stays on paper.
Do customer EDI channels differ from each other?
Yes — field names, unit definitions and reference numbering vary by customer. An EDI connection should therefore be designed as a mapping table per customer rather than a single module.
How does grammage tolerance affect stock valuation?
Actual grammage of paper and film can deviate from the nominal value. When stock is held in kilograms while orders arrive in square metres, that deviation produces small differences at every cut. Defining it as a distinct "measurement deviation" line prevents constant manual corrections during stock counts.