Packaging is often the forgotten expense of product manufacturing. Understanding the cost of your product's packaging and assembly process is important in manufacturing profitable goods.

Definitions:

• Packaging: List of packaging materials and material quantity

• Assembly: The process of producing your recipe + items + packaging (equals product)

This article will show you how to add packaging to your database that you'll use to connect to your products.

In this article:

1. Add your packaging name and materials

2. Add time to assemble your packaging

3. Add time to package your product

4. Save your packaging

Add your packaging name and materials

1. To add packaging, hover over Assembly in the side navigation bar and select Packaging

2. On the Packaging page, click on the New Packaging button

3. Enter in your packaging name

4. In the Packaging card, use the dropdown fields under Material to select a material from your materials database. Click here to learn how to add materials.

5. Enter the quantity of units in your packaging

6. Select your unit of measurement for each material. If you've chosen Each (ea) on your material's page, then the only option here will be Each (ea). If you've selected a measurement tied to a Length unit, you can select any unit of measurement tied to length here.

7. Enter in your packages weight, without the food portion, in pounds (lb) and ounces (oz)

Tip: Adding your packaging weight is optional, but we recommend adding it as it will help later when considering total order weight for shipping.

Add time to assemble your packaging

1. In the Time to Assemble Packaging card, enter each task required to assemble your packaging under the Task column

2. Enter the time it takes per tasks under the Time Per Package column. Time format is in hours, minutes, seconds (hh:mm:ss)

Note: Packaging assembly time does not include adding your product to the package. Read more about that below.

Tip: Recording the time for each task multiple times, and using the average will help you get a more accurate number for your true production time.

Add time to package your product

1. In the Time to Package Product card, enter each task required to pack your product in its packaging under the Task column

2. Enter the time it takes per tasks under the Time Per Package column. Time format is in hours, minutes, seconds (hh:mm:ss)

Tip: One package can be connected to multiple products. For example, if you have a similar product with a variety of flavors with the same package type. This makes it easy to update the cost and profit for an unlimited number of products.

Tip: Make your tasks as descriptive as possible. It will make handing-off production to a new team member that much easier.

Saving your packaging

Once you have entered all of your packaging information, make sure to click the Save button at the top-right. Once saved, your packaging will display on the Packaging page.