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GAZIANTEP LOCAL SOFTWARE · PACKAGING AND PLASTICS

Gaziantep packaging software that keeps account of production from mould to carton

A packaging and plastics plant in Gaziantep gets squeezed from two directions at once: at the machine, and behind the promises made to customers. Injection and extrusion settings sit in the setter's notebook, nobody counts how many shots the mould has run, and how many pieces a reel will yield is talked through as a guess at quotation time. Without touching your accounting side (Logo, Mikro, Netsis), we build a layer that records the machine, mould, printing and scrap side. If your factory is in Başpınar, we come to you for the discovery visit.

The picture in Gaziantep
  • According to our own field research, 116 of the 1,108 companies registered in the Gaziantep organised industrial zone (OSB) produce on the plastics and packaging side; roughly 41 of them are direct packaging producers (this sub-segment figure is an estimate, not an exact count). Packaging here is not a side trade — it is one of the main arteries of the city's industry.
  • In the same research, textiles sit at the top of the list with 257 companies, food with 145 and carpet with 107. A Gaziantep packaging producer's customer is usually in the same organised industrial estate, a few kilometres away. That closeness looks like an advantage but lands on operations as pressure: a job requested in the morning is wanted by evening, and lot records and delivery promises are tested not on paper but by the neighbour at the gate.
  • Some of the packaging producers in Başpınar OSB run a single press, others dozens of machines. In our own data the size distribution is 236 micro, 413 small, 286 medium, 90 large and 83 very large companies. Selling a full enterprise production suite to a single-line packaging maker is as wrong as trying to run a fifty-machine plant on one Excel file; the machine park should set the scope.
  • Some of the packaging leaving Gaziantep is exported directly; some of it wraps the products of exporting food and textile producers and goes abroad that way. By our own data, roughly 26% of OSB companies are verified exporters. A packaging producer in the second group has to be ready not for its own buyer's audit, but for its customer's buyer's audit.
  • We carry out on-site discovery for plants in zones 1 to 5 of Başpınar OSB and in Şehitkamil. We do not write a quote without seeing the mould shop, the printing unit and the cutting line — because in this business, scope is set by the machine park, not by screens.

What actually happens on the floor

  • Injection and extrusion parameters (temperature profile, cycle time, cooling, line speed) live in the notebook by the machine or in the setter's memory. When the setter goes on leave, the same product cannot be run with the same settings, and the first lots go by trial and error.
  • Nobody counts how many shots a mould has run. Maintenance arrives by breakdown, not by schedule; the mould comes off the line mid-job and that day's planned orders slip.
  • How many pieces will come out of a reel or sheet width is roughly estimated at quotation time. Edge-trim waste never enters the costing at all, so on thin-margin jobs the real profit only becomes clear after the job is finished.
  • For printed jobs, the inventory of plates, cylinders and cutting dies lives on a physical shelf. With no record of which customer's job each belongs to or when it was last used, repeat orders carry the risk of having a new plate made unnecessarily.
  • Scrap arises in at least three separate places: setup scrap, production scrap and print make-ready scrap. When all of it is booked under a single "scrap" line, which machine lost what and for which reason never separates out — leaving nothing to act on.
  • The mix ratio of granule, masterbatch and regrind (recycled material) is fixed in the recipe but adjusted by eye on the floor. Which ratio was actually used per lot is not recorded; when a customer complains about colour or strength, there is no way to trace back.
  • If you supply packaging to a food producer in the same industrial zone, the traceability commitment that company has given its own buyers passes through to you. With lot records on paper and conformity certificates in a separate binder, the file has to be assembled by hand every time a customer audit turns up at the gate.
  • The ERP holds stock in kilograms while the customer orders in pieces, metres or cartons. Because the unit conversion is done by hand, system stock never matches the count, and month-end turns into correction entries.
  • With the customer a few kilometres away, the "will it be ready by tonight" phone call comes several times a day. Sales gives the delivery promise, production knows the machine and mould load; because the two are not on the same screen, the date given collides with the mould queue.
  • Because mould changeover time is not measured, the real cost of short-run jobs stays invisible. Whether taking the urgent little order from the factory next door is profitable or not is always answered by gut feel.

What we build

Our aim is not to install a second accounting system in the plant. Your accounting backbone stays in place; we build the operational layer it cannot see — recording the machines, the moulds, the plates and the scrap — and connect it to your existing system. Modules can go live separately; we decide together which comes first after the site visit.

Machine and mould cards

We open a digital card for every injection press, extrusion line and mould. The parameter recipe is stored with its versions; who changed what and when is visible. A shot counter runs on each mould, and when it reaches the threshold you set, a maintenance job drops onto the list by itself. Setting knowledge leaves the setter's notebook and becomes company property.

Recipe and mix records

A screen that records the granule, masterbatch, additive and regrind ratio per lot. The ratio written in the recipe and the amount actually weighed on the floor sit side by side. On a colour or strength complaint, which raw-material lot and which ratio that lot was produced with reads back from a single screen.

Cutting and trim plans

A screen that calculates the cutting layout from reel or sheet width, product dimensions, die arrangement and edge margins. It puts alternative layouts side by side, showing how many pieces each yields and how much edge waste it leaves. When quoting, you use a calculation instead of a guess — and the decision remains yours.

Plate and cutting-die management

Customer, job and plate/cylinder/die mapping, with shelf location, usage history and condition. When a repeat order arrives, where the plate is and whether it is fit for use is visible without a search. Print preparation rests on records, not memory.

Scrap breakdown and lot traceability

Scrap stops being a single line; setup scrap, production scrap, print scrap and returns are recorded under separate codes. Every entry is tied to a machine, a shift and a work order. Tracing runs on one lot number from raw-material lot to shipped carton; the file your food or pharmaceutical customer asks for is produced from this record.

Delivery and machine-load board

A board that reads orders from the ERP and places them on the machine and mould calendar. Sales sees which press frees up when, as it gives a delivery date. Because mould changeover times are recorded too, the true machine cost of short-run jobs becomes visible in its own right.

How we work

  1. 01

    Initial phone call

    We talk about your machine park (how many presses, how many extrusion lines, whether you print), your current accounting software and the point that hurts most. In this call we are not trying to sell, but to understand whether your problem is genuinely one that software can solve. No obligation.

  2. 02

    On-site discovery at the factory

    Whichever zone of Başpınar OSB or wherever in Şehitkamil you are, we come to your plant. We follow the flow in person from raw-material intake to the mould shop, from the printing unit to the cutting and packing line, and open the setter's notebook, your Excel files and your ERP screens together. The output is a written map of the broken links.

  3. 03

    Scope and roadmap

    We turn the findings into a prioritised plan: which module first, which next, which integration connects where, and the timeline and budget of each phase. We do not propose doing everything at once; we present a phased plan that starts where it hurts most.

  4. 04

    Module-by-module development

    We build the approved first module and show working versions at short intervals. We design the screens simple enough for an operator to use with gloves on; wherever the foreman on the floor objects, we change the design. Any request outside the scope is discussed separately — it is never quietly added to the invoice.

  5. 05

    Go-live, training and maintenance

    We install the system on the line and train operators and managers according to their roles. After go-live we continue under a maintenance and support agreement. The source code and data stay with you; if you ever want to work with another team, you hold a system that can be handed over.

Frequently asked questions

We use Logo or Netsis. Will we have to replace it?

No. Your accounting, receivables and e-invoicing setup stays exactly as it is; we do not touch it. The layer we build talks to your ERP through its database or API: it reads orders and stock items from there and writes production and scrap results back. We have built a production layer alongside Netsis before without touching it at all; that is our approach.

Can you pull data from our injection and extrusion machines?

It depends on what the machine offers. Newer machines carry an interface such as OPC UA or Euromap, or the maker's own database; where one exists, we read from it. If the machine is older, we set up simple counting from the cycle counter or a PLC signal and complete the rest with an operator terminal. During discovery we draw up the make-and-model list together and tell you in advance what can be captured from each; we do not write down something we do not know on the hope that it works.

Does your cutting-plan calculation find the most efficient layout?

We make no such claim. What it does is calculate alternative layouts within the die and edge-margin constraints you define, and show them side by side with piece counts and edge waste. Your setter makes the decision; the system simply grounds that decision in a visible calculation. What we say is that we move a job done on paper onto a screen — we promise nothing beyond that.

We are a small company. Won't this be too big for us?

By our own OSB research, the great majority of companies here are micro, small or medium-sized. That is why we do not sell this as a single piece. You can start with one module — say, just the mould cards and shot counters — and continue if you see it earning its keep. Moving phase by phase is healthier for both the budget and the team's adjustment.

Our food customer demands traceability. Do you cover that?

Yes — the tracing chain we build runs from raw-material lot to shipped carton: which granule lot, on which machine, in which shift, with which recipe it was produced, and on which dispatch note it left. But let us say this plainly: the software does not issue certificates, it keeps records. Responsibility for declarations of conformity and certification stays with you and your laboratory; we collect the production data that stands behind that declaration.

How long does it take and what will it cost?

It depends on the number of machines, whether printing is involved and the systems we will integrate with. That is why we do not quote a single figure and then grow the scope; after discovery we put each phase in writing with its own timeline and its own price. At the end of the first phase, you decide whether to continue. We also have a guide page explaining in detail how our pricing is built.

Who will own the software and the data?

The source code and database are yours. We talk about transfer of ownership, not a right to use, and we write it into the contract. We also deliver a handover file, so that if another team ever takes over, the knowledge needed to stand the system up is in your hands. Since part of our work is taking on and untangling software whose developers can no longer be reached, we take particular care never to put our own customers in that position.

Let's walk the mould shop and the cutting line together

Being in Gaziantep has one advantage: there is no need to guess from a distance. Tell us a day that suits you and we will come to your plant in Başpınar, follow the flow from raw-material intake to packing, and establish together which parts genuinely need software and which do not. This meeting is a discovery meeting; it can end without a quote.

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