How integrating ink data into Brazil’s ERP systems boosts performance in package printing

PRESS RELEASE

GSE helps Brazil’s packaging converters integrate ink data with diverse customised ERP systems – improving response times, efficiency, compliance and planning.

Brummen, the Netherlands, 18 March, 2026: In an increasingly fast-paced and regulated packaging and label supply chain, ERP systems play a central role in maintaining efficient, smooth-flowing production. By integrating data across departments, they provide a unified, real-time source of information covering every stage of the manufacturing cycle. This helps eliminate data silos, reduce manual data entry and minimise administrative burdens that can otherwise prove costly.

The need for accurate, accessible data has grown as converters face higher quantities of orders and tighter deadlines. Whether tracing materials during food-safety audits or aligning inventories with fluctuating demand that is harder to predict, real-time visibility across operations has become essential.

Even so, one critical resource has often remained outside ERP’s digital ‘ecosystem’: inks.

The challenges of tracking ink data

In flexographic and gravure printing, where spot colours are widely used to ensure brand consistency, ink follows a non-linear path through production. Base colours and varnishes are blended to create the required shade, while unused ink from the press may be returned to stock and reused later in other jobs. This circular flow makes inks difficult to track through conventional ERP systems alone.

Specialised software is therefore often required to connect inks to individual jobs, formulations and stock movements throughout their lifecycle.

While some converters operate global ERP platforms such as SAP, many Brazilian packaging companies rely on locally developed or in-house systems designed to meet the country’s complex fiscal, tax and operational requirements. This diversity raises a practical challenge: how can specialised production software integrate effectively with such varied infrastructures?

The strategic importance of ink data visibility

“For many converters, ink logistics is still viewed primarily as a dispensing function,” says Maarten Hummelen, marketing director, GSE. “But in today’s fast-response manufacturing environment, ink data has become far more strategic. Real-time insight into ink consumption, stock levels, formulation adjustments, press returns and job costing can inform purchasing decisions, sustainability reporting, regulatory compliance and long-term planning.”

In an increasingly regulated and data-driven supply chain, integrating ink data into ERP systems is becoming essential for competitiveness.

Overcoming integration challenges

Drawing on its global experience, GSE Dispensing has developed a flexible integration approach that allows its GSE Ink manager software to connect with both international ERP platforms and bespoke systems commonly used in Brazil.

In several Brazilian installations, integration required close collaboration between converters’ IT teams and GSE specialists in the Netherlands. Practical challenges sometimes included aligning data structures between legacy or home-made ERP systems and modern ink management software, integrating manual production tracking into digital workflows, and establishing reliable communication protocols before system commissioning.

Support from GSE’s headquarters team proved crucial in resolving these issues. Rather than requiring converters to adapt their ERP platforms, the aim was to ensure that the ink management software could seamlessly integrate into the converter’s existing environment. To achieve this, GSE developed a standard protocol with three predefined formats, from which the appropriate interface and workflow can be configured. The result is the GSE MIS connect module, optionally available within the GSE Ink manager software suite.