Printing and packaging businesses often handle multiple customer orders, changing production requirements and job-wise costing simultaneously. Managing these activities through separate systems or manual processes can make it difficult to track production progress, monitor costs and maintain operational visibility.
Choosing the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can bring together order tracking, inventory, finance and compliance within one system, helping businesses improve operational visibility and make more informed decisions.
Which ERP is suitable for Indian printing and packaging businesses?
There is no single ERP that suits every printing and packaging business. The right choice depends on factors such as business size, production complexity, operational requirements, deployment preference and budget. Printing and packaging businesses generally choose from different types of ERP solutions based on their requirements. The main types of ERP solutions include:
- Industry-specific ERP: Tailored for printing and packaging businesses with features such as job costing, bill of materials (BOM), production planning and shop floor tracking built specifically for these operations.
- Generic manufacturing ERP: Built for general accounting, inventory and manufacturing capabilities while supporting additional modules or customisation for printing and packaging operations.
- Cloud ERP: Designed for decentralised teams requiring remote access, automatic software updates and lower upfront infrastructure costs.
- On-premise ERP: Hosted on internal company servers for businesses that prefer to keep greater control over data and system management.
Regardless of the type of ERP chosen, businesses should evaluate whether it supports production tracking, job costing, inventory management and statutory compliance.
Why order tracking and cost analysis are especially hard in this industry
Printing and packaging businesses deal with different job specifications, multiple production stages and material wastage, making manual tracking difficult. These factors can make accurate order tracking and cost analysis harder without an ERP. The key challenges are as follows:
- Every order has different specifications, such as paper grade, ink, die size or finishing, so no two jobs are identical in cost.
- Production moves through multiple stages, including pre-press, press, lamination, cutting and dispatch. Delays or unexpected cost increases at any stage can affect the overall job.
- Wastage during printing and trimming is unavoidable, but untracked wastage may not be reflected in the job cost.
- Customers may request specification changes mid-job, and without a system tracking versions and approvals, those changes go unbilled.
A business running 10 jobs simultaneously across these stages, without a system connecting order status to real-time costs, may find it difficult to monitor production status and job costs efficiently.
What features to look for in an ERP for printing and packaging businesses?
Once businesses understand the different ERP options available, the next step is to evaluate the features each solution offers. Solutions such as TallyPrime’s ERP software bring these capabilities together within a single system, helping businesses manage operations more efficiently. Some of the features that make such solutions suitable include:
- Production management support: Tracks job cards, multi-stage production, BOM configuration and wastage capture without extensive customisation.
- Built-in regulatory compliance: Automates localised tax needs including Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) codes, e-invoicing, e-way bills and Goods and Services Tax (GST) reporting to simplify compliance requirements.
- User-friendly experience: Simplifies daily data entry so shop floor supervisors, purchase managers and accountants can work with minimal training.
- Cost-effective implementation: Offers flexible, transparent pricing that helps businesses gain predictability across setup, licensing and future expansions.
- Business reporting capabilities: Provides deep financial and operational visibility by consolidating data for cash flow, material inventory levels, accounts receivable and individual job-wise profitability.
What should a good ERP do for order tracking?
Order tracking in the printing and packaging industry means more than knowing an order exists. A good ERP should track each job through every production stage and flag delays before they affect delivery. Specifically, it should:
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Manage job cards
A good ERP should maintain a job card for every order containing artwork approvals, revision history, material requirements and production status. It should also provide complete visibility from artwork approval to dispatch while handling multiple orders simultaneously.
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Track production stages
The ERP should be able to record real-time progress across pre-press, press, lamination, cutting, finishing and packing. Managers should be able to view the current stage of every order without relying on manual updates from the shop floor.
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Monitor production delays
It should provide real-time visibility into production progress, highlight delays and help teams plan deliveries while keeping customer updates aligned with the latest production information.
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Manage artwork approvals
The ERP should digitally record artwork approvals and revision history, reducing reliance on email and linking every approved version directly to the production timeline.
What should a good ERP do for cost analysis?
Cost analysis in printing and packaging means tracking the actual resources used for each job to understand its true production cost. A good ERP should support this through the following capabilities:
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Calculate job costs
The ERP should determine per-job costs by considering material costs, machine hours, wastage percentages and labour. This helps businesses prepare quotations with greater accuracy.
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Track material consumption
It should deploy a configurable bill of materials (BOM) to define the required paper, ink, plates, consumables and expected scrap for each product. It should also record actual material usage so any variation can be reviewed.
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Capture wastage records
The ERP should log trimming losses, printing spoilage and finishing rejections against the relevant order. This helps include wastage when calculating overall production costs.
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Compare estimated and actual costs
A good ERP should evaluate estimated and actual production costs to help businesses review quotation accuracy and identify areas that may require improvement for future orders.
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Generate profitability reports
The ERP should assess reports showing the profitability of different orders, customers and product categories. These insights help businesses evaluate performance and support future pricing and operational planning.
Conclusion
For Indian printing and packaging units, selecting an ERP involves more than comparing features. Businesses should also evaluate implementation requirements, scalability and support for industry-specific processes. While many ERP solutions offer order tracking, job costing, inventory management and GST compliance, some may require additional customisation or separate applications depending on the business’s needs. TallyPrime brings these capabilities together within a unified platform, helping simplify operational workflows.
