Verity for packaging companies
Packaging is made to a customer’s artwork, on a customer’s tooling, at a setup cost the run has to absorb. Verity holds all three against the job.
Verity runs the plant and the order book. Prepress and press controls stay where they are.
Verity / Plant
LiveJobs run
218
Make-ready waste
6.8%
Jobs below viable run
41
Artwork versions in use
3
Needs attention
Illustrative figures. Verity shows your own plant in this shape.
How the business runs
A packaging company converts substrate into a customer’s specific product, which means every job carries a setup: plates or dies mounted, colours matched, registration achieved, and substrate wasted before the first good unit. Six point eight per cent make-ready waste against a four per cent target is material bought and destroyed, and it concentrates on specific presses and specific job types rather than spreading evenly.
The second characteristic is that setup cost is fixed per job and recovered per unit. Forty-one jobs below viable run length is a set of orders accepted at prices that never covered their own setup, and that only becomes visible when setup is costed against the run rather than absorbed as overhead.
The third is artwork. The product is defined by a customer file that changes, and three live versions on one product is the condition in which a large run gets printed to a superseded design. Which version was approved, by whom and when is the difference between a reprint the customer pays for and one the company absorbs.
The fourth is tooling. Dies, plates and cylinders are often customer-owned, have a life, and need to be located before a job can run. Seven tools past service or unlocated is seven jobs that cannot start on time.
Verity holds artwork versions and approvals, tooling location and life, and setup against run economics on the job record.
What Verity calls these things
What gets in the way
Packaging difficulties come from making a customer’s design on a customer’s tooling.
Superseded artwork gets printed
A version changes and the job runs on the file already at the press.
In Verity Artwork carries versions and approvals, with the approved version bound to the job.
Setup cost is absorbed rather than costed
Short runs are priced on material and per-unit rate with make-ready treated as overhead.
In Verity Setup is costed against the job, so viable run length is known before acceptance.
Make-ready waste has no owner
Waste is measured in total and not attributed to press, operator or job type.
In Verity Waste is recorded per job with press, operator and cause.
Tooling cannot be found or is out of life
Customer-owned dies and plates are stored, borrowed and worn without a location record.
In Verity Tooling carries location, ownership, impressions run and service state.
Repeat jobs are re-estimated from scratch
A job that ran last year is quoted again without reference to what it actually consumed.
In Verity Actual consumption and waste from previous runs sit against the repeat.
Colour matching consumes unrecorded time
Achieving an approved match takes press time nobody bills or measures.
In Verity Colour approval time is recorded against the job as part of setup.
The complete system
One system across jobs, artwork, tooling and consumption.
Work
Each job carries its artwork version, tooling, substrate, run length, setup cost, actual consumption and margin, linked to previous runs of the same product.
Why it matters here A repeat job’s best estimate is what the last one actually consumed.
In practice Forty-one jobs below viable run length.
Records
Artwork carries version, approver, approval date and the jobs bound to it, with superseded versions marked.
Why it matters here Printing a superseded version is the most expensive error in the business.
In practice Three artwork versions live on one product.
Inventory
Tools carry ownership, location, impressions run, service state and the jobs that need them.
Why it matters here Customer-owned tooling has to be findable and fit before a job can be scheduled.
In practice Seven tools past service or unlocated.
Workflows
Setup time, colour approval, waste before first good unit and changeover are recorded per job and press.
Why it matters here The setup is the cost that decides whether a run was worth taking.
In practice Make-ready waste concentrated on two presses.
Orders
Estimates carry setup, substrate, run rate and margin, compared with actual consumption at job close.
Why it matters here The gap between estimate and actual is the pricing correction.
In practice Estimated against actual consumption per job.
Relationships
Customers carry their products, artwork, tooling, run patterns and approval contacts.
Why it matters here Approval authority sits with a specific person on the customer’s side.
In practice Approval chain by customer and product.
People
Staff carry shift, press assignment, jobs run, setup times and waste.
Why it matters here Make-ready performance varies by operator and is improvable once measured.
In practice Setup time and waste by operator and press.
Reports and analytics
Waste by press and job type, setup recovery, viable run length, tooling utilisation and repeat accuracy come from the records.
Why it matters here The business is a setup-cost business and needs to measure setup.
In practice Setup recovery by customer and run length.
Verity AI
Verity AI answers from your own job, artwork, tooling and consumption records, respects permissions, and can create assigned follow-ups.
Why it matters here The questions that matter are about which jobs lose money and which artwork is live.
In practice "Which jobs ran below viable length?" returns forty-one with customers and setup cost.
Suppliers
Suppliers carry substrate specifications, lot behaviour on press, lead times and pricing.
Why it matters here Substrate that runs badly costs more than its price difference in waste.
In practice Waste rate by substrate lot and supplier.
Control
One permission model and one audit trail covering artwork release, specification change and job start authority.
Why it matters here A job started without a bound approved version is an avoidable liability.
In practice Job start blocked without an approved artwork version.
Logistics
Dispatch records carry pallet configuration, quantities, date and customer receipt.
Why it matters here Packaging is delivered in configurations that customers’ lines depend on.
In practice Delivered configuration recorded against the order.
Work in motion
These already happen. Recorded, setup stops being invisible.
Comparing enquiry length with viable length before quoting is what prevents an unrecoverable job.
Binding the approved version to the job is what stops a superseded print run.
Recording waste before the first good unit is where the improvable number lives.
The reconciliation at close is what corrects the next estimate.
Customer-owned tooling is an obligation as well as an asset.
Verity AI
Verity AI reads the same job, artwork, tooling and consumption records the plant creates as it runs. It answers from your own plant, respects permissions, and can turn an answer into a pricing or scheduling decision.
Verity / Ask
Verity AI only returns what the person asking has permission to see.
Without chasing
Each runs from the plant’s own records at the point the condition is met.
When
A job is scheduled without an approved artwork version
When
An enquiry falls below viable run length
When
Make-ready waste exceeds target on a job
When
A tool reaches its impression threshold
When
Actual consumption exceeds estimate
What you can understand
Setup, waste and margin from job records.
Verity records the plant’s operations. Prepress and press control systems continue as they are.
One system, different ways of seeing it
Everyone works from the same records.
Managing director
Which jobs are worth running?
Setup recovery, margin by job and customer, waste against target, viable run lengths.
Production planner
What can I schedule?
Approved artwork, tooling availability, press capacity, changeover sequence.
Prepress
Which version is approved?
Artwork versions, approval chain, proofs issued, jobs bound to versions.
Estimator
What should this job cost?
Setup and run rates, previous actual consumption, substrate pricing, viable quantity.
Where it is used
Versions with approver and date, bound to the job before it starts, so a large run cannot be printed to a superseded design.
Make-ready costed per job rather than absorbed as overhead, which makes viable run length a number the estimator can use.
Waste before the first good unit recorded with press, operator, substrate and cause, so improvement has a target.
Dies, plates and cylinders with ownership, location, impressions and service state, so a job is not delayed looking for a tool.
Previous consumption and waste attached to the product, so a repeat job is quoted from what it really used.
Waste rates recorded by substrate lot and supplier, because material that runs badly costs more than its price advantage.
Plain-language questions across jobs, artwork, tooling and waste, with pricing and scheduling decisions raised in the same step.
Getting there
Prepress and press control systems continue and are mapped during implementation. Customers and products, artwork versions and approval history, tooling registers, job history with actual consumption, substrate records and estimates are brought across.
Implementation runs about four weeks: discovery and mapping, configuration, migration, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Questions
Verity AI answers questions from your own job, artwork, tooling and consumption records: which jobs ran below viable run length, which products have more than one live artwork version, what make-ready waste is by press and operator, which tools are past service. Each answer can become a pricing or scheduling decision.
Artwork carries versions with the approver and approval date, and the approved version is bound to the job. A job scheduled without a bound approved version is blocked, and superseded versions are marked when a new one is approved.
Because setup is fixed per job and recovered per unit. Treating make-ready as overhead hides the fact that short runs can be accepted at prices that never covered their own setup, which is only visible when the cost sits on the job.
Waste before the first good unit is recorded per job with the press, operator, substrate and cause, which turns a plant-wide percentage into a specific and addressable pattern.
Tools carry ownership, location, impressions run and service state, with the jobs that need them attached, so tooling is findable and fit before a job is scheduled.
Actual consumption, waste and setup time from previous runs sit against the product, so a repeat is estimated from what it really used rather than re-estimated from assumptions.
No. Prepress and press control systems continue as they are. Verity holds the plant and the order book around them — jobs, artwork versions, tooling, setup, consumption and margin.
About four weeks: discovery and mapping of job types, setup structures, artwork approval chains and tooling registers, configuration, migration of job and artwork history, then an ongoing operations partnership.
They are the ones the setup ate. Tell us how setup is costed today.