“Material loss comes from guessing. With ERP material tracking, you gain real-time visibility, so nothing disappears unnoticed.”
Ink and material tracking often fly under the radar in print operations, but their impact on costs and workflow is huge. Many shops still rely on Excel sheets or handwritten logs to track usage, and that’s a problem.
Tracking materials after the fact means you’re always guessing. Print plant Operators described how they would “run out of ink halfway through a job” because nobody knew the real-time levels. Emergency orders were common, costing extra money and causing downtime.
When materials aren’t tracked live, your press runs risk unexpected stops, and your purchasing team risks overbuying or underbuying. Both scenarios waste money.
Modern ERP systems like Odoo solve this by tracking every roll, sheet, and drop of ink as it’s used – automatically updating stock levels in real time. This visibility cuts waste, keeps machines running, and helps teams plan with confidence.
In this post, we’ll explore why manual tracking still fails many print shops and how real-time ERP tracking brings practical, measurable benefits to ink and material management.
Current Challenges in Ink & Material Tracking
Tracking ink and materials by hand or with spreadsheets sounds simple, but it rarely works out that way. The problem is, these methods don’t keep pace with the reality on the production floor.
1. Delays in Updating Records
Usually, the person running the machine isn’t the one updating stock levels. They might finish a job, but the inventory gets recorded later, sometimes hours or even days afterward. By then, the information is outdated. You think you have enough ink or paper, but you don’t – and the press stops in the middle of a run.
One plant’s supervisor explained how this happens constantly. “We’d run low on ink and not know until it was too late,” they said. “We ended up placing rush orders that cost us a lot more.”
2. Mistakes Are Inevitable
When updates are manual, errors creep in. Numbers get mistyped. Stock counts don’t match reality. Sometimes logs are forgotten entirely. One misplaced entry can throw off an entire week’s planning.
An operator shared, “We used to write down everything on sticky notes, but they’d get lost or damaged. That caused us to overorder and waste materials.”
3. Teams Aren’t on the Same Page
Without real-time updates, departments can’t rely on the same information. Purchasing doesn’t know how much ink is actually left. Production doesn’t know if materials are ready. Planning is done based on guesswork or old data.
One manager said it felt like “everyone was working in a fog.” The delays and miscommunications created bottlenecks that could’ve been avoided.
Why It’s Still This Way
The truth? People keep using spreadsheets and paper logs because that’s what they know. It’s familiar and seems easy. But it’s also a setup for confusion. As your plant handles more jobs and materials, the old ways can’t keep up.
Material tracking isn’t a side task – it’s the backbone of the whole production process. If you ignore it or treat it like an afterthought, problems only grow.
Picture This
Imagine a printing floor where no one really knows the exact ink or paper stock at any given moment. Each team works from their own guess or last update. Materials run out unexpectedly. Jobs get delayed. Everyone’s frustrated, trying to fix problems that could have been prevented.
Now think about what that looks like on a desk: piles of papers, scribbled notes, and half-filled spreadsheets. It’s messy. It slows everything down.
The Business Impact of Manual Tracking
If you think about it, every minute spent tracking materials manually costs more than just time. It’s an investment – but one that doesn’t pay off.
When you’re relying on Excel, sticky notes, or old-school paper logs to manage ink and material usage, you’re building in gaps. Gaps where mistakes slip through. Gaps where you’re either overstocking or understocking. And all that wasted material – it’s draining your bottom line without anyone even noticing.
1. Wasted Material and Ink
Imagine this: you’re trying to fill an order, but the material isn’t there because someone forgot to update the inventory spreadsheet. Now you have to rush order supplies at a higher cost.
On the flip side, if you overstock, you’re stuck with excess materials that could expire or just sit on a shelf until it’s time to dump them.
Here’s what happens next:
- Overstock means tied-up cash. Capital that could’ve been used for something else just sits there in unused ink or paper.
- Understock means panic. That ink shortage means ordering emergency stock at premium prices. Emergency orders always cost more, and you end up paying a premium for a rush job.
A packaging shop shared their experience of emergency ink purchases, which cost them 15–20% more than standard orders due to last-minute needs. Every month, that adds up to a hefty sum. Instead of saving money, they were wasting it.
2. Time Lost to Rework and Delays
Here’s another thing you might know all too well: delays. They happen when materials aren’t tracked properly. If you’re out of ink, it stops the press. If the wrong paper shows up, the whole run gets delayed. Then, time is lost.
And time equals money. A lot of it.
Real-life example:
In one plant, missed stock updates led to 12% of daily production being lost because operators had to wait for new materials to arrive or search for missing inventory [5]. That’s not just lost time. That’s lost opportunities. Jobs don’t finish on time, which pushes deadlines back and affects customer satisfaction.
3. The Hidden Financial Loss
If you keep manual logs and Excel sheets, those tiny errors add up fast.
A few missing updates here. A wrong ink order there. It all results in unnecessary spending – and not just on materials.
Here’s the kicker:
When you don’t have real-time tracking, you’re not just losing time and materials. You’re also losing client trust. Late orders, missed deliveries, reprints – it all compounds. And eventually, customers get frustrated.
When one print shop switched from Excel to an ERP system, they realized they were losing $351/month due to inefficient material tracking. But more than the money, the delays hurt their client relationships.
4. More Than Wasted Material – It’s Wasted Trust
Your clients don’t know about the issues on your shop floor. They just know when their orders are late. And when that happens often, you risk losing business. In industries like packaging, late orders can cost you the contract. If you can’t deliver on time, a competitor will.
5. The Real Cost Breakdown
Now, let’s break it down:
Imagine you’re printing 100 jobs a month, and 10% of those need to be reprinted because of material issues – whether it’s missing ink or incorrect paper.
- Cost per reprint: $58
- Total reprint costs: $585/month
- Lost material costs: $351/month
- Total loss due to inefficiency: $936/month – gone.
And this doesn’t even include the hidden cost of overtime, or the loss of client trust.
The Good News?
This doesn’t have to keep happening. In fact, you can stop it now. ERP isn’t just a tool for organizing your data. It’s a system that prevents these issues before they start.
With real-time material tracking, automatic updates, and integrated production workflows, ERP systems like Odoo connect every part of your operation. Visibility becomes instant. Updates happen automatically. Errors are flagged before they cause problems.
How ERP Changes Everything – Real-Time Tracking
Tracking ink and materials by hand isn’t just slow. It’s costly. It leaves too much room for error. And every error hits your production and your budget.
ERP changes that. But not by magic – by making your material tracking visible and automatic.
Here’s how it works.
1. Real-Time Updates That Actually Work
With Odoo ERP, you don’t wait for someone to type numbers into a spreadsheet. Every time an operator scans a roll of paper or uses a bottle of ink, the system updates inventory right away.
No delays. No guesswork.
This means when the ink bottle is half empty, or when a roll of board is running low, the system flags it immediately. Your purchasing team sees these alerts and acts before production stops.
2. Barcode Scanning Takes the Guessing Out of Stock
Forget manual counts. Using barcodes, every material – from paper rolls to ink cartridges – is tracked as it moves.
An operator scans the barcode before use, and the stock level adjusts automatically. If something’s missing or used up, it shows instantly on dashboards across the plant.
This way, no one has to rely on memory, sticky notes, or late Excel updates. The right material is always at the right place, at the right time.
3. Smarter Forecasting Means Smarter Buying
ERP doesn’t just track what you have. It looks ahead.
Based on your past job sizes, ink usage, and scheduled orders, it predicts how much material you’ll need in the coming days or weeks. When stock levels drop near those forecasts, the system prompts reordering.
This reduces last-minute emergency orders and cuts costs. Plus, it prevents material shortages that can stall entire print runs.
4. Everything Linked Together
Odoo connects sales, production, inventory, and purchasing.
When a sales order comes in, ERP knows what materials it will consume. As production starts, inventory adjusts. When materials run low, purchasing is notified – automatically.
That means fewer surprises, smoother runs, and less downtime.
Real Benefits, Real Impact
- Waste drops because you only order what you need, when you need it.
- Machine uptime improves – no more waiting on missing ink or paper.
- Purchasing costs shrink thanks to fewer rush orders.
- Operators focus on printing, not inventory counting.
The Real Benefits of Real-Time Tracking
Switching to real-time tracking isn’t just about neat spreadsheets. It changes how your whole shop runs.
1. Waste goes down – money stays in your pocket
When you know what you have, you stop ordering stuff you don’t need. No more ink or paper sitting around until it dries up or gets tossed. That’s real savings, month after month.
One plant we know slashed their waste by nearly 25% just by switching to real-time tracking.
2. Machines run longer, downtime drops
Nothing kills productivity like running out of ink or paper mid-job. With real-time tracking, operators get the heads-up early. They reorder before you hit empty.
Less waiting around means more jobs done on time. Simple as that.
3. Operators spend time printing, not searching
Instead of looking for materials or double-checking logs, operators scan their supplies as they use them. Inventory updates instantly.
Fewer guesses and fewer mistakes. More focus on running presses.
4. Buying gets smarter, no more panic orders
Nobody likes last-minute orders. They cost extra and mess with budgets.
Real-time data helps you to plan better. When stock runs low, the system flags it early.
Take Control of Your Ink and Material Tracking Today
If you’re still tracking ink and materials manually, you’re leaving time and money on the table. But fixing it doesn’t have to be complicated.
FAQ
With Odoo’s ERP material tracking, each roll gets a unique barcode or RFID tag. You scan the roll at receipt, at press setup, and at consumption—no manual counts. The system logs usage in real time, so you always know exactly which roll is on which job.
Absolutely. Odoo recalculates your Bill of Materials the moment you start or adjust a job. If you change paper grade or ink type, the BOM – and your stock reservations – update instantly, preventing stockouts and over-ordering. Learn more about real-time inventory control in our Inventory & Waste Reduction guide.
