Two polybag quotes on your desk. One says “MOQ 20,000 pcs.” The other says “MOQ 100 kg.” The question looks simple: which one is smaller?
You can’t answer it yet. Not for lack of care — those two numbers genuinely aren’t comparable.
The reason sits in the machine: what we run is film, and film is measured by weight. Why the unit is kilograms, and what that tells you about a supplier, is covered in how to choose a polybag factory. What isn’t covered anywhere: how many pieces actually come out of a given tonnage. That’s what this is.
Our MOQ, so you’re not guessing
Our polybag MOQ moves — and what moves it isn’t bag size. It’s whether the bag is printed.
| Type | MOQ | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Unprinted | 300 kg | Down to 100 kg when the spec is one we run commonly |
| Printed | 200 kg | For a regular design; a new design has its cylinder cost quoted separately |
Note the unprinted row: 300 kg is the usual number, 100 kg is the specific route to it. Both are written here deliberately. Advertising only “from 100 kg” reads better, but you’d discover the real figure after sending your spec — which is not how a working relationship should open.
How many pieces come out of 100 kg
The formula is simple, and it works on anyone’s quote, not just ours:
Weight of one bag = 2 × length × width × thickness × density
Times two because a bag has two walls. PE density is about 0.92 g/cm³ (PP is slightly lighter). Convert thickness to centimetres first — 50 microns is 0.005 cm.
Small bag, 30 × 20 cm, 50 micron: 2 × 30 × 20 × 0.005 = 6 cm³ → × 0.92 = 5.5 grams per bag 100 kg ÷ 5.5 g ≈ 18,000 pcs
Large bag, 60 × 40 cm, 100 micron: 2 × 60 × 40 × 0.01 = 48 cm³ → × 0.92 = 44 grams per bag 100 kg ÷ 44 g ≈ 2,300 pcs
Identical tonnage. Eight times the difference in pieces.
That is exactly why a quote written in pieces, with no size and no micron attached, can mean almost anything.
One honest caveat: the figures above are arithmetic on paper. Real production runs slightly lower — seal allowance consumes material, and a gusset adds more. Use this to compare quotes, not as a promised piece count. If you need a binding number, send us a confirmed size and micron and we’ll calculate from your actual spec.
Getting two quotes onto the same footing
Three steps, and you can do all of them before contacting anyone:
- Ask for every quote in the same unit. Simplest: price per kilogram. It’s the unit the machine works in, so nothing needs interpreting.
- If a supplier answers in pieces, ask for the size and the micron. Without both, a per-piece price can’t be compared. A supplier unwilling to state the micron has told you something in itself.
- Convert using the formula above. Now both quotes sit in the same unit and you can see which is genuinely cheaper.
How to read and write micron correctly — including the mistake that shows up most often on spec sheets — is in the Polybag 101 guide.
If 300 kg is more than you need
There is one lever genuinely worth pulling: use a specification we already run regularly. That is what takes unprinted MOQ from 300 kg down to 100 kg.
The range we cover is wide enough to make that likely:
- Width 5–100 cm, cut or roll length 5–70 cm
- Thickness 30–120 micron
- Flexo print up to 3 colours, front and back
So before you fix a size yourself, send the part. Often the dimension you need only has to shift a centimetre or two to land on a spec we run routinely — and the MOQ drops with it. That’s a ten-minute conversation, not a design revision.
To be straight about why the number can’t keep falling: changing size and colour on the line takes roughly the same time whether you order 100 kg or two tonnes. The changeover cost is fixed, and spread across too small a tonnage it lands in your price per kilogram. It isn’t a question of willingness.
Regular usage doesn’t have to sit in your warehouse
MOQ and stock get conflated constantly. You can order a tonnage that makes sense for the machine without all of it arriving at your warehouse at once.
The pattern we run through Flex-Stock: we produce ahead and hold a buffer of roughly four weeks of your consumption, you call off twice a week, and the delivery leaves the following morning. Because carton box and polybag are made under the same roof, one call-off can carry both.
What we need in order to calculate
So the answer is a number rather than a range:
- Bag size (length × width), or the part’s weight and shape if the size isn’t fixed yet
- Rough monthly requirement
- Printed or plain — and if printed, how many colours
- PE or PP, if already decided (the difference)
No firm dimensions yet? A photo of the part is enough to start. Send us the spec — we’ll calculate it first, including how many pieces that tonnage yields, and then you decide.
Source: PT Jaya Mandiri Packaging (JMP) — carton box & polybag manufacturer for the automotive industry since 1990. jayamandiripackaging.com
