Packaging unit

The unit runs on batches. Each order for cartons, film, or printed board becomes a production batch that moves through the floor from raw stock to finished goods and out for dispatch. The raw material behind those batches, paper, board, ink, and film, is bought at rates that move every day. Those purchase rates sat in one place, the buying records and Tally, while what happened on the floor sat in separate production sheets. Costing got done later, by hand, often close to month-end.

Because the two never met until someone sat down to add it all up, the real cost of a batch was known only well after it had shipped. By then the price had already been quoted to the party and the batch was gone. When a board or film rate jumped mid-week, the cost climbed but the price was locked, and nobody caught it in time. Margins were a guess, and at month-end there were long arguments about which batches had made money and which had lost it. The owner was pricing today’s work on last week’s numbers.

Now every batch is tracked from raw stock to dispatch, from the raw stock issued to the finished cartons ready for dispatch. The daily raw-material rates feed straight into that batch as it is made, so the paper, board, and ink are costed at what they cost that day. The real margin shows on the batch while it is still on the floor, not weeks later. The owner and the floor supervisor can open a batch and see the number the same day it runs.

This changes how pricing works. When a party asks for a rate, the owner is looking at the real cost of the last batch, not a guess, and can hold the price or move it knowing where the margin sits. When a raw-material rate shifts, costing shifts with it, so the cost is known before the price is set. The month-end arguments about which batch made money are gone, because the answer is already sitting on the batch. Costing is current instead of a week old.