Print Orders Getting Delayed? Here’s What’s Breaking and How ERP Fixes It

Most print delays don’t happen on the machines. They start before the job even hits production.

It happens when job status lives on a whiteboard, not a system. When approvals sit in someone’s inbox or bounce around in a WhatsApp thread. When job cards are copied from Excel, not generated by a structured system.

And when that happens, delays don’t just become likely  –  they become constant.

In most small and mid-sized print and packaging facilities, teams rely on manual job tracking, email-based artwork approvals, and disconnected scheduling tools. One study found that even modern plants still use Excel to manage daily production flow, risking duplication, miscommunication, and missed machine slots [1]. Another noted that artwork approval often involves more than 18 touchpoints, and delays there directly impact the entire workflow [2].

These inefficiencies pile up:

• Jobs start late
  
• Machines sit idle
  
• Reprints increase
  
• Dispatch gets rushed
  
• Clients wait longer
  

This isn’t a team issue. It’s a workflow issue.

That’s where ERP steps in. A connected ERP like Odoo replaces manual systems with one shared source of truth  –  linking approvals, job cards, materials, and dispatch into a live, trackable workflow.

In this blog, you’ll see exactly where print order delays begin and how ERP closes those gaps. Every example is backed by real industry data and shop-floor scenarios.

What’s Really Causing Print Order Delays?

Most production managers already know when a job is late. What’s harder to figure out is why.

The reasons are rarely obvious. A late job doesn’t always mean someone messed up. Often, it starts much earlier, with the way information moves (or doesn’t move) across the shop.

Here’s what we’ve found in most plants:

• The sales team confirms the order
  
• The prepress team waits on an approval
  
• Production doesn’t get a green light until someone updates a whiteboard
  
• Dispatch relies on the last PDF someone remembered to print
  

Each team does their job. But they’re not working from the same system.

That’s the real problem. And it’s not just inefficient  –  it’s expensive.

Common Delay Scenarios

These issues aren’t just hypothetical.

According to interviews with multiple print operators in South Asia, jobs frequently go on hold because status was never updated on the job board or spreadsheet [1]. Artwork approvals often happen through WhatsApp, leading to missed feedback or version confusion that causes misprints [2]. In some plants, dispatch teams still rely on sticky notes or manual labels, which often result in delivery errors [3].

These aren’t edge cases  –  they’re standard. And they cost hours per shift.

Without a connected system, you don’t just lose time  –  you lose visibility. Nobody can act fast when every update depends on asking someone else.

In the next section, we’ll look at how these delays translate into lost revenue  –  and why ERP isn’t just a tech upgrade, but a business fix.

What Delays Are Really Costing You

Delays don’t just slow your production  –  they punch holes in your bottom line.

A press sits idle because no one updated the job board. A reprint happens because someone printed an outdated file. A shipment goes wrong because the label was filled out manually, late in the shift, when everyone was rushing.

Now multiply that across 20 jobs a day. That’s your margin  –  gone.

Common Loss Points (That Add Up Every Week)

• Idle Press Time
  The moment a job stalls  –  because a job card wasn’t ready or no one knew if it was cleared  –  that’s $12.20–$24.40 per hour burned [1].
  Many shops lose 30 to 60 minutes per press, per shift, just waiting.
  
• Reprints and Setup Loss
  One press run with the wrong plate or outdated proof can burn ₹3,000–₹6,000 worth of materials and setup time. On multicolor or carton jobs, it’s worse [2].
  
• Dispatch Errors
  Without proper linking between QC, job IDs, and dispatch, labeling often becomes a guessing game. When that fails, the result is delivery errors  –  sometimes with entire client lots needing rework or redelivery [3].
  
• Overtime Pay for Recovery
  One mistake up top (in status or approval) gets paid for later, during evening shifts or weekends. But it’s not a one-time thing. For many plants, overtime becomes routine because jobs are always catching up [4].
  
• Customer Churn
  You don’t always lose clients with one delay. But miss three, and they’ll go elsewhere. You’ll still be running at capacity, just on lower-margin jobs.
  

Real Numbers: 2 Shifts, 2 Presses, 20 Lost Hours/Month

Let’s say:

• 2 presses lose 30 minutes/day waiting on job approval
  
• That’s 1 hour/day = 26 hours/month
  
• At $18.29/hour → $473.17/month in lost production
  
• Add 2 reprints ($121.95) + OT ($121.95+)
  → You’re bleeding $727.93+ per month.
  

And it’s all preventable.

You don’t need more hands  –  you need a system that connects the ones you already have.

ERP doesn’t just make things digital. It closes loops. Removes silence from workflows. It shows what’s waiting, what’s missing, and what needs to move  –  without chasing five people for an update.

In the next section, we’ll map exactly how ERP (specifically Odoo) addresses each one of these bottlenecks, from approval to dispatch.

How ERP Actually Solves the Delay Problem

If your jobs keep getting delayed, it’s probably not a speed issue. It’s a sync issue.

Someone’s waiting on an approval that no one signed off. The plate got made using an older proof. The press operator doesn’t have the job card because it’s still being edited  –  or worse, someone printed the wrong one off Excel.

This happens because your tools aren’t talking to each other. ERP makes them talk.

Let’s take a typical job. It starts with a quote, runs through approval, enters production, and finally lands at dispatch. But in most shops, that journey is broken into pieces.

Odoo ERP keeps that entire chain connected.

1. Approval delays? Gone.

Instead of chasing someone on WhatsApp or wondering which PDF is “final,” the artwork approval lives right inside the quote. Everyone sees the same thing. Comments are logged. There’s no need to guess.

In one setup, approvals went from 3 days to 1  –  not by rushing anyone, just by removing confusion [1].

2. Job cards that don’t get missed or miswritten

Odoo pulls job specs directly from the approved quote. No retyping. No extra steps. Operators stop calling upstairs to ask, “Is this CMYK or spot varnish?” It’s already there  –  every time.

One print plant cut reprints by 40% after ditching manual card creation [2].

3. Scheduling that isn’t on a whiteboard

When jobs live on a whiteboard, no one knows what’s actually running  –  or worse, what’s supposed to run next. With Odoo, jobs stack on a timeline. If something gets delayed, schedulers move it. No markers, no mess.

4. Material gaps caught early

You shouldn’t find out you’re out of board stock when the press is ready. Odoo shows stock levels at the quote stage. If you’re low, the system raises a flag. If you’re about to run out, it triggers a reorder. No one needs to remember  –  the system already knows.  [3] 

5. Labels that match what was actually printed

Odoo ties barcodes to jobs. Labels get printed from the same record that produced the job. So dispatch doesn’t guess which box goes where. It’s all connected.

ERP doesn’t automate your people. It frees them up from chasing things.

Once everything’s in one system, approvals move, jobs flow, and output goes up  –  without changing your team. Just the way they work.

What Actually Improves When ERP Kicks In

You don’t need a pitch. You need to know if it actually works  –  and what changes once it’s in place.

Here’s what we’ve seen in packaging and print plants that moved their job tracking and approvals to ERP:

1. Jobs start faster

No one waits on an email or WhatsApp message to confirm the file. The approval lives inside the system. When it’s cleared, it shows up in real time.

You don’t just cut delays. You cut uncertainty.

2. Presses stay busy, not idle

When job cards, materials, and schedules are all linked, presses don’t have to wait for the next green light. Teams can line up the next job before the current one ends. That means less lag, fewer gaps.

3. Reprints drop  –  fast

Most reprints happen because someone used the wrong proof or a missing job detail. With ERP, that’s hard to do. Everyone pulls from the same job record, the same artwork version, the same label data.

In plants using Odoo, we’ve seen rework fall by 30–50% in the first 2 months [1].

4. Teams don’t waste time checking status

Nobody calls the prepress desk to ask, “Is this job approved?”
Nobody checks the whiteboard.
Nobody sends a follow-up email “just in case.”

That’s the real shift. Less checking. More doing.

Why This Works Better with Softeko

ERP alone doesn’t solve much. The modules are just tools.

Softeko maps the real way your jobs move, then configures ERP to fit that  –  not the other way around. No bloated rollout. No generic templates. Just an ERP system shaped around your actual plant flow.

What Operators and Plant Leads Are Saying

ERP sounds great on paper. But what happens when it hits the shop floor?

Here’s what we’ve heard  –  not from ERP vendors, but from production teams who’ve lived both sides of the workflow.

“Before ERP, we used to lose half a shift waiting on approvals.”

That’s a quote from a supervisor in a mid-sized folding carton unit in Gujarat. They used to send PDF proofs on email, wait for someone to reply, and then pass the word down verbally. By the time the press operator got the all-clear, it was often too late to start the job on time.

After they moved to ERP with approval logging, artwork status was visible to everyone in real time. One shift supervisor could check it without picking up the phone.

30% improvement in daily start time was reported within two weeks of full adoption [1].

“We didn’t know a job was stuck until the customer called.”

A commercial print shop shared how they’d rely on whiteboards and Google Sheets to manage daily jobs. If someone forgot to update status or missed an entry, a job could sit for hours without anyone noticing.

With ERP in place, they could spot bottlenecks before they became problems. Job dashboards replaced verbal updates. No more guesswork.

What the Experts Recommend

Many ERP rollouts fail because they focus too much on modules and not enough on process. What successful print shops do instead:

• Map their actual job lifecycle  –  from sales to delivery
  
• Identify handoff points where delays happen
  
• Plug in ERP only where it replaces a broken link
  

This isn’t about “automating” people out of the process. It’s about giving them clarity, so fewer mistakes happen in the first place.

As one plant manager said, “We didn’t need more staff  –  we just needed to stop asking each other for updates.”

Ready to Stop Delays Before They Start?

You already know what’s going wrong  –  the late starts, the idle presses, the endless approvals. Now you know why: your workflow isn’t connected.

You don’t need to change your entire system tomorrow. But you can start by mapping the workflow you already have – and seeing where the time leaks are.

We’ve helped packaging and print shops replace delays with clarity. Not through one-size-fits-all software, but by shaping ERP around how jobs really move.

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