A: There are two reasons and both are economical. First, each process to produce a finished package requires setting up machines. These setups are required to ready the machinery to produce each component of the packaging. Score wheels need to be set. Slots are positioned. Dies are attached to the press. Plates are mounted to the printing station. Each setup also requires additional material to be run through the machine that generally becomes scrap or collateral of the initial run. All of this requires additional labor and material. Second, the market has traditionally supported higher prices for shorter runs. This is due to several factors one of which is an effort by packaging companies to steer their customers toward longer runs. If a manufacturer has nothing but small runs the machinery is not being run economically and profits are reduced. So the manufacturer will establish margins that increase dramatically as the value of the order is reduced.

 

 

A: At Ire-Tex we have equipment to assist with short runs and we also have the ability to design your package for shorter runs. Many of our machines are equipped with computer aided setup. We will buy equipment and then toss out the original computer and install one that works for us. That way we can design the software and install some of our better ideas into the machine. For example, our two color printer can now be set up for printing another job while it's running. The same machine will hold over a thousand jobs in its memory that will allow us to simply add a code and be on to the next order. We also have a machine that is strictly made for small orders and sets itself up through a software program that we wrote. There is give and take for more complicated orders, however. If you are realistic about your run quantities, we are happy to assist you with packaging designs that can be run economically.