Written by: Chuck Schneider, CEO, Amtech Software

I’ve been in rooms with packaging manufacturers for a long time. No surprise that in the last few years conversations eventually turn to AI.

Not questions about what AI is, mind you. These are sharp operators who understand their business at a level most technology companies never fully appreciate. The question I’ve been hearing is simpler and harder at the same time: When are you going to help us with this?

That question is why we launched Amtech Intelligence and it’s why we acquired Clarico Systems.

Let me tell you the real story behind both.

About a year ago, we formalized something we’d been doing informally for a while. We created an AI Council of packaging manufacturers who were willing to get into the details with us. Not just telling us what they want, but real working sessions about where AI could move the needle in their daily operations.

What they told us surprised me some and confirmed a lot.

Our council of operators didn’t want AI for its own sake. They weren’t asking for a demo of something impressive that they’d have to figure out how to apply. They wanted AI that was mapped to specific workflows where they were losing time, margin, or both. They needed proof before promises. It had to be secure and built for packaging and not retrofitted from some other industry.

Two use cases became a regular topic in these meetings. Scheduling and shipment planning, where the complexity of managing production across a converting operation still burns a disproportionate amount of time. The second was around quoting, where the gap between how long it takes to produce an estimate and how fast customers now expect one has become a real competitive disadvantage for a lot of shops.

Those two pain points became the foundation of Amtech Intelligence.

Quoting was a harder problem to solve.

Scheduling is hard, but it’s a problem we’ve been living with for years and have the infrastructure to address. Quoting is different. For most of the last decade, estimating in corrugated and folding carton has been almost entirely manual, built on the institutional knowledge of experienced estimators who are, frankly, not easy to replace. It also relies on a quite a bit of back and forth between multiple departments. It’s not uncommon sales and estimators spend hours on RFQ, with the working knowledge that they might only win 20% of what they bid.

The margin pressure for packaging today doesn’t leave a lot of room for error on a bid. You must know which jobs to win aggressively and which ones to price protectively. That judgment, historically, lives in someone’s head. It doesn’t scale. It doesn’t transfer easily. When that person is out sick or moves on, you feel it immediately.

I knew we needed to solve this. What I wasn’t sure of was whether we should build it ourselves or find someone who had already done it right.

Welcoming Clarico Systems

When we started looking seriously at AI quoting solutions, Clarico continued to come up. Mainly because packaging manufacturers were starting to use them and singing their praise.

That’s the part that matters. Clarico took the hard problem of packaging quoting and built something that worked. Their AI powered estimating and quoting software helps manufacturers generate faster, more accurate estimates with better insight into bid strategy. It’s built for corrugated and folding carton environments.

When we looked at Clarico’s customer base and our own, we found they were already engaged with many of our existing customers. That’s the kind of market validation that is hard to argue with. We didn’t have to imagine whether it would work for Amtech customers, we had early evidence.

It was an easy decision to ask Clarico to join Amtech and we’re pleased to announce this acquisition.

For existing Clarico customers

Nothing changes about your product, your team or your support. The only thing that changes is that you now have Amtech’s engineering resources, our global customer network, and the Amtech Intelligence strategy behind what you’re already using. We’re not going to disrupt something that’s working.

For our Amtech customers

We’re adding AI powered estimating and quoting software to our ERP offerings as a core part of Amtech Intelligence. If you want to be among the first to explore what this looks like for your operation, reach out to your account team.

Ok, what’s next?

Amtech serves 1250+ packaging and label manufacturers across four continents. Amtech Intelligence is being built for all of them, with capabilities that are industry-specific, customer-validated, and designed for real operational impact.

Clarico is a major step forward, one of many to come.

The question our customers were asking me was when are you going to help us with this?

The answer is now.

 

 

To learn more, read the full press release or reach out to your Amtech account team. Follow Amtech Software on LinkedIn for updates as we expand the Amtech Intelligence.