Where the estimate is the product, and make-ready is most of the cost on a short run.
Early accessCubeERP for print & packaging
ERP for printers and packaging converters - estimating that reflects make-ready, substrate stock, artwork approval and waste that is measured.
- UK hosted, implemented on site
- 01234 672 617
Print and packaging estimating is unusually unforgiving: run length, substrate, colours, finishing and make-ready interact, and a rule of thumb that works at ten thousand loses money at five hundred.
CubeERP models the job properly - substrate by area or weight, make-ready separated from run, finishing operations sequenced, waste captured as a real figure rather than a percentage assumption - and then reports what the job actually cost against the estimate that won it.
- Separated
Make-ready priced apart from run
- Per reel
Substrate and remnant tracking
- Measured
Waste against estimate, by job
What goes wrong
The recurring problems in print
Not every business has all five. Almost every business we speak to has three.
Estimates that ignore run length
Make-ready is a fixed cost spread over the run. Applying an average rate makes short runs quietly unprofitable and long runs uncompetitive.
Substrate stock in reels and sheets
Part reels and part pallets are physically present and systemically invisible, so material is bought that already exists in the racking.
Artwork approval by email
Proof approvals sit in inboxes. When a job is printed to an unapproved version, the cost of the reprint is entirely avoidable and entirely borne by you.
Waste as an assumption
A standard waste percentage is applied at estimate and never compared with actual. The gap between the two is real money and nobody is measuring it.
Finishing planned separately
Print is scheduled properly and finishing is planned informally, so the constraint moves to the department nobody is looking at.
What we do about it
How CubeERP is set up for print
Configuration, not a separate edition. Everything here is in the same product - it is switched on and shaped during implementation.
Estimating that models the job
Substrate by area or weight, colours, plates, make-ready separated from run speed, finishing operations and outwork - priced per quantity break automatically.
Reels, sheets and remnants
Substrate tracked by reel and pallet with part-reel management, so usable stock is found before more is ordered.
Artwork and approvals
Artwork versions held against the job with a recorded approval, so what goes to plate is what the customer signed off, with a timestamp to prove it.
Scheduling through finishing
Press and finishing scheduled together, with sequencing by substrate and colour to cut make-ready across the whole route rather than one department.
Waste actually captured
Set-up waste and run waste booked at the press with a reason, then compared with the estimate so the standard can be corrected with evidence.
Job cost against estimate
Every job reports material, make-ready, run, finishing and outwork against what was quoted, by customer and by product type.
In practice
Two situations from this sector
Anonymised, but not invented. These are the situations businesses describe before they change anything.
Short runs winning and losing
The situation
A label printer used an average hourly rate covering make-ready and run together. Short-run work was easy to win and, once measured, largely unprofitable.
What changed
Make-ready was separated from run time in estimating. Short-run pricing rose, some work was lost, and gross margin improved because the work retained was worth having.
A reprint that was nobody’s fault
The situation
A job was printed from an artwork version superseded two days earlier. The approval email existed; the version on the plate did not match it.
What changed
Artwork versions and approvals are held on the job and plating requires the approved version. Reprints caused by version confusion stopped.
How it happens
What implementation involves
The same five stages whatever you make. Discovery, training and go-live are done on your site, because most of what the system needs to know is learned in the building.
- 1
Discovery
A structured session mapping how you work now - the systems, the spreadsheets and the bits held together by one person’s memory. We come back with what the platform covers as standard, what needs configuration, and what needs building.
- 2
Configuration
Your sites, warehouses, price lists, approval limits, document templates, workflows and permissions set up to match the business - not a demo tenant with your logo dropped on it.
- 3
Data migration
Customers, suppliers, parts, bills of materials, price lists, open orders and stock balances brought across and reconciled. We migrate, you check the numbers against the old system, and only then do we cut over.
- 4
Training & rollout
Role-based training so the order desk learns the order desk and the warehouse learns the warehouse, with a pilot group first where it makes sense. Documentation and short screen recordings left behind for new starters.
- 5
Ongoing support
UK support from the people who built the platform, with a named contact, agreed response times, and a product roadmap you can influence.
Questions
What this sector asks first
Both, in the sense that matters: estimating, scheduling and job costing sit alongside stock, purchasing and invoicing in one system, so there is no interface between the print side and the commercial side.
Yes. A single estimate produces prices across quantity breaks with make-ready correctly spread, so the customer gets a proper price ladder rather than a linear guess.
Yes. Outwork is a routing operation with its own purchase order and lead time, tracked on the job so the schedule reflects it.
Batch traceability through substrate, ink and finished product is supported, including certification where food-contact packaging requires it.
Yes, via the API - impressions, waste and downtime can be posted directly from press systems rather than transcribed from a sheet.
Where to start
The parts that usually matter most here
Quoting & Estimating Software
Build quotes from live material costs, labour rates and real availability - then convert the winners to orders without retyping them.
Read moreJob Costing Software
Know what every job actually cost - materials, labour, sub-contract and overhead - while it is running, not six weeks later.
Read moreProduction Planning Software
Schedule works orders against real capacity - people, machines and shifts - and see the effect of a rush job before you accept it.
Read moreStock Control Software
Multi-location stock with bin locations, barcode scanning, batch and serial traceability, and figures that are right first time.
Read more
Related
Sectors with similar problems
- Food & Drink ManufacturingERP for food and drink manufacturers - batch traceability, shelf life, allergens, yields and recall readiness that survives an audit.
- Plastics & Rubber MouldingERP for moulders and extruders - tooling, cycle times, cavity counts, regrind and machine data from the shop floor.
- Engineering & FabricationERP for subcontract machinists, fabricators and engineering firms working to drawing, to order and to a promised date.
If your process really is unusual
Some requirements are specific to one business rather than one sector. Those get built against the same documented API everybody else uses - not bolted on to the side of a database nobody is allowed to look at.
Show us a real job from your print operation
Bring one order that went wrong and the paperwork that went with it. That tells us more about whether this fits than any list of features.