Flexible packaging films are expensive, and margins are under pressure. When your slitter runs 12 different laminate structures in a week with no width optimization system, a 3–5% waste rate is normal and directly erodes margin on products already selling at competitive prices.
Flexible packaging converters deal with some of the most expensive converting materials: imported BOPP films, metallized polyester, PE-coated substrates, and multi-layer laminates. A 3% waste rate on a 15 t/day converter running high-cost film can cost over $30,000 per month. Yet most flexible packaging plants still match customer widths to deckle widths using experience and mental arithmetic.
A flexible packaging converter produced laminated rolls for the FMCG sector: BOPP/BOPP laminates for snack packaging, PET/PE laminates for edible oil pouches, and metallized BOPP rolls for confectionery. The plant ran a 1600mm slitter and a 2400mm slitter simultaneously, with different laminate structures loaded on each machine depending on the week's order mix.
The planning challenge was structure management. Each laminate combination had a different cost per metre, different yield per roll, and different customer width specification. The production manager kept three separate Excel files: one for orders, one for material consumption estimates, and one for dispatch records. When a customer called to ask how much edible oil pouch material was available for a rush order, the answer required cross-referencing all three files and was usually wrong by the time the call ended.
After deploying Deckle Plus, each laminate structure was configured as a paper type with its own GSM value and cost. Customer orders were entered once in the order management screen. Production runs were assigned per machine and per structure. Yield per structure (metres produced per kg of film consumed) was calculated automatically from the run's weight and length data. The dispatch packing list was generated in one click from the closed run.
Result
Material consumption estimation errors dropped to zero. Dispatch documentation time fell from 45 minutes per shipment to 3 minutes.
Each laminate combination (BOPP/BOPP, PET/PE, metallized BOPP) is configured as a named paper type in Deckle Plus with its own GSM and cost per kg. Orders are assigned to the correct structure, and consumption is tracked per structure per run.
The optimizer finds the combination of customer widths that minimizes trim waste on your slitter's deckle, critical when film costs are high. Even saving 1% of trim on 15 t/day can save $10,000+ per month depending on material cost.
Run yield (metres of finished roll produced per kg of input film) is calculated from production data logged during floor execution. This is the key efficiency metric for flexible packaging and is available per run and as a trend in the analytics screen.
Each customer's width specification and tolerance is stored in the order record. The system validates finished roll widths against the spec before the challan is generated, flagging any deviations before goods leave the floor.
Closed production runs generate a packing list showing laminate structure, finished roll width, roll weight (calculated from yield data), core spec, and order reference. This replaces the manual packing list process and eliminates shipment documentation errors.
Specific questions about how Deckle Plus handles this use case.
In Deckle Plus, each laminate structure is configured as a separate paper type with its own GSM, cost, and name. Orders are assigned to the correct structure. Each production run is assigned to one structure: the material loaded on the slitter for that run. When you switch from BOPP/BOPP to PET/PE on the same slitter, you simply close the first run and start a new one for the different structure. All runs appear in the machine history, giving you a complete picture of which structure ran when and at what yield.
Customer width specifications and tolerances are stored in the order record in Deckle Plus. The optimizer targets the exact width specified. Width tolerance validation is performed at order entry: if the width is outside the machine's capability (e.g., exceeds the deckle width), the system flags it before the run starts. Finished roll widths recorded on the run are compared to the specified width and tolerance, and deviations are flagged in the run summary before challan generation.
Yes. Yield per run (metres of finished roll per kg of input film) is calculated from the roll weight and length data logged during floor execution. The production run summary shows total input weight, total output metres, yield per structure, and trim waste percentage separately. Yield trends per structure are visible in the analytics screen over time, giving production managers the data to identify which structure combinations produce the best yield on each machine.
Deckle Plus provides a REST API on the Suite plan that enables data exchange with ERP systems including SAP S/4HANA, TallyPrime, and custom systems. The API supports order creation, run status updates, and dispatch confirmation. Native ERP connectors are on the product roadmap for Q3 2026. Until then, the REST API is the integration path for large flexible packaging operations that require system-to-system data flows.
Deckle Plus has no hard limit on the number of paper types (laminate structures) or pending customer orders. Typical flexible packaging converters configure 10–25 laminate structures and manage 50–200 active customer orders per month. The optimizer handles up to 50+ order lines in a single run optimization. The system is cloud-based and scales with your order volume without performance degradation.
Book a 20-minute call. We'll confirm Deckle Plus fits your specific workflow and show you a live optimization on your order data before you invest any further time.