Plate inventory: receive, split, move, and use

Inventory tracks the physical plate material your organization has on hand. It is deliberately lightweight: there is no booking or reservation step. Each physical plate has a material, size, location, and activity history, while the main list combines matching plates into practical stock groups.

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Create a plate material

Organization administrators can create a material in Organization settings → Materials and service. In New material:

1. Enter the supplier or formal material name.
2. Optionally add an Internal label, such as Soft 5 mm. This is your organization’s shorthand and appears under the formal name in Inventory.
3. Choose the type Plate and complete the relevant price, distortion, and review fields.
4. Select Add material.

Only active, non-archived materials of type Plate appear in the material lookup when receiving new stock or in the material column filter. Archiving a material prevents new receipts but does not erase the identity or history of plates already recorded against it. Existing stock for an archived material can still appear when it matches the current Inventory view.

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Receive plates in one or many sizes

Open Inventory in the left navigation and select Receive plates. Then: A material does not have one fixed sheet size. Size belongs to each physical plate record, so the same material can arrive as 500 × 700 mm, 700 × 1,000 mm, or any other positive size. The suggested sizes come from receipt history; they are not a restriction and are not based on production consumption.

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Read the grouped inventory list

One Inventory row represents plates with the same:

• material;
• physical size;
• dimension unit; and
• current location.

Width and height are rotation-independent for grouping. For example, 500 × 700 mm and 700 × 500 mm at the same location appear in one row. Individual plate IDs are intentionally hidden. The columns have these meanings: Groups are always sorted by Updated, newest first. There is no separate sort control. Pagination starts after grouping and shows up to 50 groups per page.

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Find the stock you need

Use the global search for a material name, Internal label, location, batch reference, stock note, or—in views that include used stock—the associated job name. Search is case-insensitive; internal physical IDs are neither displayed nor searchable. The Plate, Location, and Status columns contain their own filters. Active filters appear as removable pills above the table. Search, filters, and page are stored in the URL, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or shared. In the example, the global search narrows the result while the material, location, and default status filters remain visible as pills. By default, the URL contains the statuses Available and Split. Used records are therefore hidden. Open the Status filter and choose Used when you need to audit consumed stock; clear Available and Split to see used records alone, or choose Select all to include every status. You can also select grouped rows for bulk actions. The selection survives searching, filtering, and paging; the bulk bar tells you when selected plates are outside the current view.

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Split one plate

Splitting represents one real straight cut through one available plate: After confirmation, the source becomes Split and remains in history. Two new child plates become Available at the same location, with the same material, unit, batch reference, and stock notes. The source can no longer be moved, split, or used. The split dialog models one straight cut, not two arbitrary free-form rectangles.

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Move several plates or record use in bulk

Select the checkbox for one or more groups to show Move selected and Mark selected used. In either dialog, choose the exact quantity to take from each selected group; a group can be set to zero. One bulk action can change up to 200 plates. A bulk move sends every chosen plate to one destination. A bulk use action attaches every chosen plate to one compatible production line. Both operations are atomic: if any chosen plate cannot be changed, none of them are changed. Select a non-interactive part of any row to open Group activity on the right. The drawer combines the Received, Transferred, Split, and Marked used events for the records currently in that group, including the actor, time, movement, production context, and notes.

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When a plate is considered used

A plate becomes Used only after someone explicitly selects Mark one plate used or Mark selected used and confirms a compatible Plate production line. Completing CDI work or changing the job stage does not automatically consume inventory. Recording use also does not change the job or CDI stage. The production line is compatible only when it:

• belongs to an unarchived job and still needs plate quantity;
• uses the same plate material;
• is at the same location as the inventory plate; and
• fits inside the physical stock, including the effective Plate buffer.

A 90-degree rotation is allowed when checking the fit. After confirmation, Flexoworks links the physical plate to the production line and records the person, time, and activity. The plate no longer counts as available, cannot be used again, and is hidden by the default status filter, but it remains available for audit.

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What a job shows when material is unavailable

Job details include a Material availability card for every Plate production line. It checks Available stock of the selected material at the job’s location. A plate counts only when its dimensions can contain the production line’s size plus its effective buffer; a 90-degree rotation is allowed. The same physical plate is never counted twice across the job’s production lines. If fitting stock exists elsewhere, the card names those locations and shows Transfer required. A local area total can be greater than zero while the status is still Out of stock when every local plate is too small.