In Part 1, we explored how template-based product design eliminates specification errors in sales quotations. Your sales team created a perfectly defined inquiry item with complete film layer structures through dropdown selections instead of manual data entry. But creating accurate specifications is only half the challenge. The real question every salesperson faces is: What price should I quote to win this deal while protecting our margins?

This is where most flexible packaging ERP systems fail. They might capture specifications adequately, but calculating costs for multi-layer lamination, multi-color printing, cylinder specifications, ink consumption, and converting processes requires complex mathematics that generic software simply cannot handle. Sales teams resort to spreadsheets, rough estimates, or passing every quote to engineering for detailed costing, all of which slow down response times and introduce errors.

Samadhan Flexible Packaging ERP (also certified and listed on  Microsoft Appsource), its Pre-Sales Costing feature automates the entire calculation process. In Part 2, we’ll walk through how the system transforms your inquiry item specifications into accurate, profitable pricing recommendations. 

Intelligent Printing Cost Calculation

Once your film layer bill of materials is defined from Part 1, the system guides you through printing specifications. This is where flexible packaging costing becomes genuinely complex. A three-layer laminated structure with five-color printing on the outside surface involves dozens of interdependent calculations, ink consumption based on coverage percentage, anilox specifications, plate dimensions based on cylinder circumference, and cost allocations across print stations.

Defining Print Layers and Surfaces

The system first asks which film layer receives printing. For a three-layer structure with layers A, B, and C, you might select layer A for printing. The moment you select the print layer, the system automatically generates two options: inside surface and outside surface. This distinction matters because ink formulations, adhesion requirements, and even plate specifications can differ between surfaces.

Selecting outside surface printing, you now define ink requirements. If your standard inks are already in the system, you simply select them from the dropdown along with the number of colors needed. But here’s where ERP for flexible packaging shows its industry-specific intelligence: if you need a custom ink formulation that doesn’t exist in your master data, you don’t need to exit the quotation screen and create a separate item. The system allows you to create an inquiry ink item right within the costing interface.

Automatic Ink Consumption Calculations

After selecting or creating your ink items, you define the anilox specification. Anilox rolls determine ink transfer volume, and specifying the anilox automatically populates the ink GSM (grams per square meter) based on predefined relationships in your system. Next, you enter the ink coverage percentage for each color. A simple logo might cover 15% of the surface area, while a full-coverage design might use 85%.

The system now performs calculations that would take a cost accountant 10-15 minutes manually. Based on the anilox GSM, coverage percentage, and substrate area, it calculates dry ink GSM after solvent evaporation. It retrieves current ink costs per kilogram from your purchasing data. It computes total ink requirement for the batch quantity. And it calculates total ink cost, all in real-time as you enter specifications.

Plate Specifications and Vendor Management

Printing plates represent another cost component requiring precise calculation. The system first asks you to specify the plate vendor, critical information because plate pricing, lead times, and technical specifications vary significantly between suppliers. Some customers require specific plate suppliers for quality consistency, making vendor selection part of the quotation itself.

Clicking into plate details opens a dedicated interface for comprehensive specification. Like ink items, you can select existing plate inventory or create inquiry plate items through the attribute system. The critical specifications, plate width, sleeve size, cylinder around (circumference), stagger, and across flow directly from your inquiry item dimensions and printing repeat length.

Here’s where automation delivers exceptional value: the system automatically calculates plate width in both millimeters and inches based on substrate width and print repeat. It determines cylinder size based on the around specification. For multi-color printing requiring multiple plates, you define second and third plate specifications, and the system maintains all details in an organized view where you can verify accuracy at a glance.

Lamination and Converting Process Costing

With printing costs calculated, the system moves to lamination details. Remember that in Part 1, you defined a three-layer structure: layers A, B, and C. The flexible packaging software now shows you the lamination sequence and automatically identifies work-in-progress items.

WIP Item Generation

When layer A laminates with layer B, the system creates a WIP (work-in-progress) item labeled “AB.” This two-layer laminate becomes inventory after the first lamination station but before final lamination. When AB then laminates with layer C, the final product becomes “CAB”, a three-layer structure with the specified layer sequence. This WIP tracking might seem like a technical detail, but it’s essential for production planning, inventory management, and cost allocation across multiple process steps.

Core Specifications for Each Process

Converting flexible packaging involves rewinding material onto cores multiple times after printing, after each lamination step, and after slitting to final width. Each process step might use different core sizes based on the material structure and subsequent handling requirements.

The system provides a dedicated core detail interface where you specify which core size to use for each process. Printing might use a 6-inch core, lamination an 8-inch core, and final slitting a 3-inch core for customer requirements. These specifications flow directly into production planning, ensuring the shop floor has the correct cores staged for each operation.

Complete Cost Breakdown and Profit Margin Management

With all specifications defined, the system performs comprehensive cost calculations that transform individual component costs into a complete quotation.

Material and Process Cost Summary

The material cost summary aggregates film costs (from your defined layers A, B, C), ink costs (from the printing calculations), adhesive costs (from lamination specifications), and any additional materials like cores or packaging. Each cost traces back to current pricing in your ERP system, ensuring quotes reflect real material costs rather than outdated estimates.

Process cost summary calculates machine time, labor, energy consumption, and overhead allocation for printing, lamination, slitting, and any finishing operations. These calculations use the batch quantity defined earlier and your configured process rates, delivering accurate production cost estimates.

If customers specify additional requirements, special packaging, expedited delivery, freight to a specific location you can add these costs directly in the other costs section, with the option to include them in the quoted price or track them separately for margin analysis.

Automated Pricing and Margin Control

Clicking “Calculate Material Summary” followed by “Calculate Price” triggers the final computation. The system presents total cost broken down by material and process components. Now comes the critical business decision: what profit margin do you need?

Enter your target profit margin percentage perhaps 30% for a standard product, or 45% for a complex, low-volume specialty item. The system immediately calculates your quoted price by applying this margin to total cost. You now know exactly what price achieves your profitability target, eliminating the guesswork and lengthy approval cycles that plague manual quoting processes.

Production Planning Intelligence

Beyond pricing, the system provides required weight calculations based on your batch quantity. For a quote of 500,000 pouches, it calculates exactly how many kilograms of each film layer, how much ink, how much adhesive, and how many linear meters of material are required. This detailed BOM feeds directly into production planning when the quote converts to an order, eliminating the re-entry and recalculation that wastes production planning time.

The system even allows you to attach reference images for each process step, the customer’s artwork for printing, the layer structure diagram for lamination, the finished product appearance for quality control. These images flow through to shop floor screens, giving operators visual references that reduce errors and improve first-time quality.

The Real ROI of Automated Costing

Consider the transformation in your quotation process. Traditional manual costing for a complex multi-layer, multi-color flexible packaging item requires 2-3 hours of engineering time, involves multiple spreadsheets prone to formula errors, and often produces quotes that are either too high (losing deals) or too low (winning unprofitable business).

With automated flexible packaging costing in Samadhan ERP, that same quote is completed in 15-20 minutes with higher accuracy, complete traceability of every cost component, and built-in margin management that protects profitability. Your sales team responds faster, quotes more accurately, and wins more profitable business.

Watch our detailed video demonstration of the Pre-Sales Costing ⇩