Where Makeready Waste Actually Comes From
Makeready consumes substrate and press time while the press is brought to registration and color. The waste has recognizable sources. Plates mounted slightly off or with the wrong cushion tape produce impression problems and extra stops.
The wrong anilox volume for the ink and image shifts density and forces ink adjustments. Ink with unstable viscosity or temperature drifts during the run. Registration issues rise when web tension, material stretch (especially thin films) or die station alignment is not controlled.
And a cleanup or wash up between unrelated jobs adds both time and lost web. If you cannot say which of these dominates in your plant, the first job is to record the cause code with every makeready.
- Plate mounting and cushion tape accuracy on the proofer or mounter
- Anilox volume and cell count matched to the artwork and ink
- Ink viscosity, temperature and color measurement against the customer target
- Web tension and substrate stretch, especially on thin films
- Cleanups and changeovers between unrelated colors and substrates
Standardize the Setup
Plants that cut makeready usually do it through standard work rather than heroics. Build a setup sheet for each repeat job: plate position, anilox assignments, ink formulas, impression settings, tension, drying temperatures and die station notes. Use a plate mounting system with camera alignment so plates arrive on the press already registered.
Keep anilox rolls tracked with measured volume, since worn rolls give you color that the setup sheet cannot repeat. Color management with spectrophotometer measurement and ink formulation software shortens the match cycle. The aim is that the second operator on the second shift can reproduce the first operator's good setup.
Sequence Jobs to Avoid Color Changes
Scheduling can remove makeready entirely. Grouping jobs that share colors, substrate and web width, and running light colors before dark ones, reduces washups and ink changes. Gang running multiple labels or packaging items on one web can save setups when order quantities are small.
This only works if the scheduler can see the real changeover cost between jobs, not a flat setup time. If your scheduling is done on a whiteboard or in a spreadsheet that treats every job as equal, you have a measurable opportunity: look at last month's job order, calculate how many color changes could have been avoided, and test whether the due dates allowed a different sequence.
Try it here, free
Anilox BCM Ink Film Thickness and Consumption Calculator
Convert anilox volume to expected wet and dry ink film, then estimate ink kilograms and cost for a job.
Measure Makeready by Job, Press and Cause
Track at least these fields for every job: makeready start and end time, makeready meters or feet of substrate consumed, run meters, good meters out, and a short cause code for waste. Pull them from the press counter, your MIS shop floor module, or an operator entry screen. Then review by press, by substrate type (paper, film, foil) and by job type (new versus repeat).
The comparison with your estimated makeready is the most useful single report, because it shows which kinds of jobs are quoted too light. Without that feedback loop, the standard in the MIS stays fiction and you keep selling jobs that do not make money.
Where Data Analysis Helps, and When It Does Not
Once you have job-level makeready data in the ERP or MIS, an analysis assistant can answer plain questions: which customers' jobs run the highest makeready on press 3, whether film jobs over a certain color count consistently exceed standard, and how repeat jobs compare to their first run. That is retrieval and aggregation over your own data, and it should be read only. If you have only a few presses and rarely change substrates, a monthly spreadsheet review is enough.
The effort is better spent on operator training and standard setups than on analytics until the basic data is captured consistently.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal makeready waste for flexo label printing?
It varies widely by press, substrate and color count, so avoid quoting a single number. Narrow web label presses with automated registration can run modest makeready on repeat paper jobs, while multi-color film jobs with tight color targets run far higher. The right benchmark is your own history by press and job type.
Does a plate mounter with camera registration really reduce waste?
It reduces a common source of waste: plates that are positioned slightly off and must be corrected on press. The press still needs correct anilox, ink and tension, so it is one lever among several. Measure makeready before and after to confirm the effect in your own plant.
How can scheduling reduce makeready in a label plant?
By sequencing jobs with similar colors, substrates and web widths to avoid washups and material changes, and by grouping small orders where the die and web allow. The scheduler needs real changeover costs between jobs, not a flat setup time, to evaluate the tradeoff against due dates.
If makeready meters and cause codes sit in different systems, Netray can build a read-only view across them so your team can see waste by press, substrate and customer.