The number on a VFFS quote is the bagger — the bagging machine itself. The film you buy every week, the product you give away over target weight, the shifts you lose to downtime: none of that is in the number. The real vffs cost per pack is the number to compare.
Key Takeaways
A quote shows the bagger. The line — film, commissioning, giveaway, downtime, spares — sits outside it.
Cost per pack: six items divided by packs run. Machine amortization, film, labor, energy, maintenance, giveaway.
Film passes the bagger. Three drivers: loss rate, minimum order quantity, film-change downtime.
Giveaway and downtime: the two leaks. No line item for either, and both grow with volume.
Compare on total cost. The cheaper bagger can cost more per pack.
The Five Lines Every VFFS Quote Hides
The quote shows a single machine price, and five cost streams sit behind it.
Film. The wrapping material, bought by the roll for the life of the line. It almost never appears in the machine quote. You pay it every day.
Commissioning. Installation, line integration, staff training, and the trial runs that prove the line hits spec on your product.
Giveaway. Product packed over target weight to stay legal, then never sold. Every shift, some of it walks out the door as cost.
Downtime. Unplanned stops and slow changeovers cut the packs you actually make. Gone for good.
Spares. Wear parts, service visits, consumables — reordered long after the warranty ends. A cheap machine with scarce parts costs more in wait time than a pricier one that stays running.
Build the Cost-per-Pack Formula
Compare quotes with one formula. Cost per pack is six items divided by the packs you run.
Cost per pack = (Machine amortization + Film + Labor + Energy + Maintenance + Giveaway) ÷ Packs run.
| Cost item | How to get the number |
|---|---|
| Machine amortization | Installed price of the , years in service, and annual pack count, then divide. |
| Film | Film meters per 1,000 packs on your pack, times film price per meter. |
| Labor | Heads per shift times wage, divided by packs per shift. |
| Energy | Machine kWh from the spec sheet times your rate, divided by packs. |
| Maintenance | Annual service contract or past spares spend, divided by annual packs. |
| Giveaway | Overfill per pack times product cost, measurable in a trial run. |
Two inputs to watch. Amortization swings with the years you spread the price and the packs you run — one shift a year is a different machine from three. Film is the guess. Ask for film meters per 1,000 packs on a pack like yours.
Every input is a question for the supplier, or a figure off your own operation. A per-pack cost you cannot rebuild from those inputs is a slogan. The six items set the price — the machine is one of the smaller ones. The bagger does not decide it. The running cost does. Build the sheet first. Two suppliers, same rows.
Film: The Cost That Passes the Machine Price
Film is the line item that quietly grows past the bagger price. You pay it every day. It is the line buyers get wrong. Three drivers, all measurable on your own pack:
Loss rate. Film wasted at the trim, the seal, and during registration when print drifts out of line. A few millimeters per pack, times a million packs, is a meaningful amount wasted.
Minimum order quantity. Film suppliers price by volume, so a small buyer pays more per meter or carries buffer stock nobody planned for.
Film-change downtime. Every switch between widths, materials, or print jobs stops the line. A fast machine that stops a lot runs slower than a steady one.
Run your actual pack, measure film meters per 1,000 packs, and multiply by film price per meter. That gives film cost per pack, the number for the formula above. Some suppliers claim film costs more than the machine within two years. The three drivers and the counting method are the check. Run them on your own pack and you will see whether the claim holds.
Giveaway and Downtime: The Two Leaks
Giveaway: Overfill You Pay For
Giveaway is product packed past target weight, to stay above the legal net weight. A coarse weigher leaves a wide safety margin. That margin is your product, leaving in the bin. A precise hits target weight with less overfill, so the margin shrinks — and the saving repeats on every pack. On a thin-margin product, a gram of overfill across millions of packs is real money.
Downtime: Packs You Never Make
Unplanned stops and slow changeovers cut the packs you produce each shift. Every item you do make costs more. A changeover that takes forty minutes instead of ten, done several times a week, removes hours you planned around. A catches those stops early — before they turn into output you cannot get back.
Both leaks scale with volume. Low output: an annoyance. Full production: the margin. The real vffs cost is decided here.
Compare Two Quotes on TCO, Not Price
With the formula, two quotes go through the same six items. Look at the per-pack result. The cheaper bagger can cost more per pack once film, giveaway, and downtime enter the sheet. Total cost is where a good buy parts from a cheap one.
A runs a different cost shape. This page is VFFS only.
The table below is an illustrative example. Assumed numbers, not a UMEO quote. A pricier machine can win on total cost of ownership when its film and giveaway are lower.
| Cost per pack | Quote A (lower machine price) | Quote B (higher machine price) |
|---|---|---|
| Machine amortization | 0.012 | 0.020 |
| Film | 0.045 | 0.030 |
| Labor | 0.030 | 0.030 |
| Energy | 0.008 | 0.008 |
| Maintenance | 0.010 | 0.012 |
| Giveaway | 0.025 | 0.008 |
| Total per pack | 0.130 | 0.108 |
Quote B costs more to buy and less to run. At one million packs a year, the gap is about 0.022 per pack — roughly 22,000 a year on the same volume. The example shows the shape of the decision. Your plant's answer comes from your own numbers. Quote B's higher machine price comes back through lower film and giveaway before the line is halfway through its life. The cheaper quote was the expensive one. Your film, your product, your volume — drop them into the same rows, and those are the vffs cost numbers that matter.
This line looks cheap on the quote and costly in film and giveaway once it runs. Ask for a running cost sheet.
FAQ
What Costs Sit Outside the VFFS Machine Quote?
Film, commissioning, giveaway from overfill, downtime, and spares. The quote shows only the bagger, so build the full line cost first, then compare two offers. The real vffs cost lives in those five streams.
How Do I Calculate the Cost per Pack?
Add machine amortization, film, labor, energy, maintenance, and giveaway, then divide by your yearly pack count. Ask each supplier for the inputs. Rebuild their per-pack figure from those numbers. A cost you cannot trace is not a cost to accept. Both quotes have to use the same six items, or the comparison means nothing.
How Large a Share Does Film Cost Take?
No fixed share. It depends on pack size, film price, and loss rate. Measure film meters per 1,000 packs on your actual pack, multiply by film price per meter, and you have the number. It shifts with every pack change.
When Does Upgrading Beat Repairing the Old Line?
When annual repair, downtime, and giveaway on the old line exceed the yearly amortization gap of a new one, upgrade. Run both on the same per-pack formula. The crossing point is the answer. A new line wins when its lower running cost clears the price difference.
Get a Cost Sheet Built on Your Line
The right VFFS line is the one whose per-pack cost holds up. Send us your pack, your film, and your target volume. We will build the same six-item sheet on your product.
