Machine compare · Cut compare · Combo planning

Find the cheapest way to produce all your parts.

Give it your parts and your machines. It compares every way to run them, groups the jobs that can share a setup, and shows you the lowest-cost plan. Fewer setups, less waste, quotes in minutes.

Book a 20-minute demo [email protected]

9→15

FORMS PER JOB: AS SET UP → RIGHT LAYOUT COUNT

$8,000 saved on one quote.

A job set up for 9 forms should have run 15.

A small print shop had a job set up to run 9 forms. The gang-run planner showed that 15 was the right layout count. Running the right number cut their overage and waste, and saved them $8,000 on that one quote.

That is the kind of number that hides in the layout count, and nobody checks it by hand.

Three comparisons, one answer.

Each shop loads its own machines, rates and rules. The planner runs the same part every way it can be made and keeps the cheapest.

01 MACHINE COMPARE

Which machine should run it

Every part is priced across every qualifying machine you own, using your run rates and setup times, so the cheapest machine is a result, not a habit.

02 CUT COMPARE

The cheapest way to cut it

Prices every cutting method that can make the part: digital cutting, a steel rule die, a rotary machine, or a guillotine shear when the corners are square. Each method has its own run rate and labor rate, and a die only pays off if it beats the others on cost, so you see the cheapest path to cut the parts out.

03 COMBO PLANNING

What should run together

Groups parts that share material, colors or setup onto one run, then checks the combined cost against running them one at a time.

Another job: 10 forms, or 16?

A different order, 115 designs. The planner checked every form count and priced each one. Its answer was 16 forms, which came out $3,387 cheaper than the 10 already set up, at the costs entered.

Chart of overrun pieces against number of forms, with the current 10 forms and the cheapest 16 forms marked — Overrun falls fast as forms are added. The planner marks the cheapest point once setup and material costs are in.

Drop in the order. Get the plan.

Upload your order sheet, say how many pieces fit on a press sheet, and pick the number of forms. Each form shows which designs go on it, the sheets off press, and the exact overrun.

Form planner showing 115 designs on 10 forms with 29,900 sheets off press and 5.8 percent overrun — 115 designs, 10 forms, 5.8% overrun. Every grouping is checked, not estimated.

Clark plans the whole order at once.

Clark prices every part, finds the parts that can share a sheet, and builds the combos. In this example company, 69 parts from one order sheet came out as 16 combos, with 6 parts left to run alone.

Clark production planning summary: 69 parts, 16 combos, 6 run alone, and a four-part combo that saves $132.55 — Example company data. Combo 1 puts 4 parts on one sheet and takes $132.55 out of the cost.

Combo layout of four parts nested on one sheet, with the cut plan for the stock sheet — The layout for that combo, with its cut plan: one sheet, run 90 times.

Scoring is planned into the layout.

Clark also places the score lines. That means backslitting the liner so your customer can peel and apply the decal more easily. The score stations are drawn in the layout and priced with it, so the scoring is part of the quote.

Combo of 5 parts costing $183.51 and saving $201.18, with each part's individual cost against its share of the combo — Example company data. Five parts share one sheet and take $201.18 out of the cost.

Combo layout of five parts with a dashed red line marking the score station — The dashed line is a score station, the same line the scorer is priced on.

Built by someone who has run the floor.

I'm Tom Sarenpa, a manufacturing engineer in Andover, Minnesota, with more than 22 years in print. I built this planning logic because I wanted a straight answer to one question: what is the cheapest way to make everything on the schedule?

I set it up for each shop myself. I put your routing and your rules into it, so it works the way your floor works.

22+ years in print manufacturing Works for print, plastics, assembly, metalworking Set up for your shop, by me Andover, MN

Want to see it on your parts?

Send me a few items you run together, or just tell me what you make. I'll show you a short demo with scrubbed data so you can see how the grouping and the waste numbers compare.

Book a 20-minute demo[email protected]