Plain stick packets of different sizes beside a glass bowl of beige powder
A stick pack machine price depends on scope; missing dosing, format or site costs can leave the project underfunded. LINEVO does not publish a fixed price for this project scope: the amount must come from a dated configuration quotation. This guide helps you turn that quotation into an installed budget and a buyer-specific payback calculation. Unknown costs stay unknown until supported by a quote, site estimate or production record.
| Input | Typical value or condition | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Investment | Dated quote plus buyer site estimates | Establish the full one-time funding requirement |
| Production basis | Accepted sticks per period; product and format mix | Keep current and proposed operations comparable |
| Operating costs | Staffing, material use, utilities and maintenance records | Separate measurable savings from assumptions |
| Demand | Volume required or supported by sales planning | Extra capacity alone is not a cash benefit |
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What changes a stick pack machine quotation?
Define what the equipment must handle before comparing amounts. A powder, a free-flowing granule and a viscous gel can require different dosing arrangements. Finished stick dimensions, film, requested good output and format changes also belong in the specification. The stick pack machine family is the starting point for LINEVO’s published configurations.
| Variable | Record for your project | Budget question |
|---|---|---|
| Product and dose | Product description, fill amount and behavior at filling conditions | Which dosing and product-feed equipment is included? |
| Finished stick and film | Drawing or samples, film specification and every required format | Which forming parts and change parts are supplied? |
| Output and lane arrangement | Required accepted sticks per shift, shift length and format mix | What configuration and acceptance conditions support this requirement? |
| Cleaning and product contact | Cleaning method and product-contact requirements | What access, parts and cleaning work are in the offered scope? |
| Requested functions | Coding, inspection, dust extraction or gas flushing, where needed | Which functions are included, optional or buyer-supplied? |
Public manufacturer documentation shows why scope matters: IMA’s STICK Series description distinguishes dosing configurations, optional check-weighing and downstream integration. Those are examples of separate equipment functions, not LINEVO specifications or a basis for assigning a price premium. Use the existing quote-scope comparison guide to reconcile individual supplier inclusions.
How do you build the installed project budget?
Add the quoted equipment and the one-time costs needed to put that agreed scope into service. Keep a single currency, valuation date and responsibility list. An excluded item needs an owner and a separate estimate; an empty cell is not a zero.
| Budget line | Amount | Evidence and boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Quoted machine, dosing and first format | Unknown until quoted | Supplier quotation, revision, currency and included items |
| Additional formats and requested options | Unknown until quoted | Identify each option; exclude any already in the machine subtotal |
| Product feed and downstream handling | Unknown until scoped | Feeder, collection, counting or cartoning; identify supplier |
| Delivery and import-related charges | Unknown until destination and terms are confirmed | Transport, insurance and applicable destination charges; avoid overlap |
| Site preparation and utility connections | Unknown until site review | Buyer estimate for layout, connections and any required alterations |
| Installation, training and agreed acceptance work | Unknown until responsibilities are confirmed | Agreement, attendance scope, travel and test-material responsibilities |
| Start-up materials and initial parts | Unknown until planned | Film and product consumed before normal production, plus agreed parts |
Loose silver stick packets beside an open kraft carton containing stick packets
Decide where the finished product leaves the project: loose sticks, counted groups or loaded cartons. Price the equipment and labor needed to reach that same endpoint in both alternatives. The installation and training outline helps frame start-up responsibilities; it does not establish an installation fee or make that service part of every machine offer.
Installed investment I = equipment acquisition + separately funded one-time project costs. Count each item once. Record recoverable taxes separately from nonrecoverable charges using your finance team’s treatment. Keep working-capital needs visible in a separate funding line unless the investment model explicitly includes them.
Which operating costs belong in the comparison?
Compare the cost of delivering the same quantity of accepted sticks, in the same products and finished packaging. Record the time window and where costs begin and end. A cost-per-stick figure for loose packets cannot be compared directly with one that includes retail cartons.
| Cost item | Current operation | Proposed operation |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | Paid hours by task and actual labor cost | Expected staffing, cleaning, replenishment and packing tasks; validate |
| Film and packaging | Total material cost consumed, including scrap | Film, cartons and other materials for the same output; validate yield |
| Product loss or overfill | Measured product issued and accepted filled output | Trial or production evidence under the proposed dose conditions |
| Utilities and consumables | Site metering or attributable usage and rates | Supplier requirements plus site rates; estimate separately if unmeasured |
| Maintenance and service | Parts, planned work and service records | Quoted parts and a maintenance plan; unknown until supported |
| Changeovers and stops | Recorded time and its actual economic effect | Expected schedule and observations; do not assume all downtime disappears |
A group of intact silver stick packets beside crumpled silver film offcuts
Operating cost per accepted stick = total operating cost for the period ÷ accepted sticks for that period. Include material spent on rejects in the numerator and exclude rejected packs from the denominator. If reject material is already in total consumption, do not add the same scrap cost again.
For a proposed line, label unmeasured consumption and output as assumptions. A sample test can address agreed product, film, dose and sealing questions. A short observation is not an annual reliability record. Keep its run conditions and the limits of what it measured.
How do you calculate payback without overstating savings?
For an initial screen, compare the installed investment with annual net cash benefit relative to the stated alternative. The baseline might be your current process or continued contract packing; it must deliver the same sellable output and packaging scope.
Annual net cash benefit B = annual avoidable cash costs of the baseline − annual cash operating costs of the proposed operation + separately justified incremental contribution. If no extra sales are supported, leave incremental contribution out. Use contribution after the extra costs of those sales, never gross sales revenue.
Simple payback in years = I ÷ B, where I is the installed investment and B is a positive, steady annual net cash benefit. If B is zero or negative, there is no finite positive payback on that basis. If benefits vary by year, track cumulative annual net cash flows until they recover I rather than dividing by one favorable year.
Removing a manual task is not automatically a payroll saving. Count reduced paid hours only when the staffing plan supports them; otherwise describe redeployed time as a capacity benefit. Likewise, unused rated capacity earns no sales contribution. Do not count the same labor saving both in lower operating costs and as another benefit.
A simple, undiscounted project ROI over a stated horizon can be defined as (cumulative net operating cash benefits over that horizon − I) ÷ I × 100%. Label that definition and horizon explicitly. It is not annual accounting ROI. State how taxes, financing, residual value and working capital are handled; the screening formulas here exclude them unless you deliberately add them to a consistent cash-flow model.
Payback alone omits the time value of money and the value of benefits after recovery. The Department of Energy-hosted webinar, Energy Cost Control: How the Money Works discusses these limitations. Use your organization’s finance method for the final investment decision, particularly when comparing alternatives with different useful lives.
What would make the investment case fail?
Test the assumptions that determine annual cash benefit. Use a conservative case based on the lower supported demand and less favorable supported operating conditions, then compare it with your central plan. Do not attach probability labels or savings percentages without evidence.
| Uncertainty | Change in the conservative case | Decision to record |
|---|---|---|
| Demand or operating hours | Use less of the available capacity | Can required output and cash benefit still be supported? |
| Accepted output and rejects | Use the lower supported output or higher observed losses | Does the period cost per accepted stick still fit the plan? |
| Product and format mix | Allow the cleaning and changeovers your schedule requires | Is expected output based on a realistic mix? |
| Labor | Retain tasks that the staffing plan does not remove | Which benefits are cash savings and which are released time? |
| Start-up | Allow the site work and ramp-up identified in the project plan | Is funding available before steady production begins? |
If the proposal only works when every unknown takes its most favorable value, gather evidence before treating the return as established. First reconcile the equipment scope; then improve the demand, staffing and operating assumptions that actually change the result.
Method, sources and boundaries
Updated October 15, 2026. The budget and operating tables are buyer preparation worksheets, not market price data or a LINEVO performance forecast. They require your quotations, site estimates, demand plan and production records. No equipment price, percentage saving or payback period is claimed for a LINEVO configuration.
The equipment discussion uses LINEVO’s published family and service scope plus the manufacturer documentation linked above. The financial discussion uses elementary cash-flow arithmetic and the payback limitations in the linked government-hosted webinar. External manufacturer features do not establish what LINEVO supplies. The photos depict packaging objects; they are not records of a customer installation, acceptance test or measured waste result.
Prepare a configuration quotation
For a quotation discussion, send the product and fill amount, finished stick drawing or sample, film information, required accepted output and shift pattern, format mix, downstream endpoint and destination. Mark any unresolved input. Discuss your stick pack project on WhatsApp.