Charge should be applicable only three times

Question

Dear all,
I have a scenario, where I need some advice.
A subcontracting scenario. Print Order is sent to a subcontractor for printing. Printing requires Plate, and subcontracting Vendor provides the plate by himself. However, the plate charges are applicable for only three order (Same book). For the subsequent order, system should apply new charge for plate.
Say Plate charges is 99. For three print it should divide as 33, 33, 33. I have planned to manually mention it in PO and when printing order for same book is given three times, system should give an error.
Any comments/solutions are welcome.
Regards,
Lakhya

Answer 1

As your subcontractor actually provides the plates, do you need to remind him that he has used them already 3 times and he needs to replace them?
We need to track it. Subcontractor does job work for many vendors. They might not track it properly and I may end up paying more. Actually a book printed now can be reprinted after 6 months or a year. Itself in the order I can say him "Hey, this is the third print, so do not charge for the plates" e.g
Or contrary, do you fear that your subcontractor will charge you too much plates e.g. for every 2nd order new plates?
That needs to be tracked. There are 100 of books for schools. I may forget sometimes, which book was printed how many times. Or, suppose I do it manually in a excel and the file got deleted somehow... whooo!!!
And, there are revision of Plates too. Say a book has 10 pages after revision the last 4 pages are to be revised. There will be new plates for the 4 pages and the earlier one are of no use. "Plates are like Film"
Or do you need to order the plates in an extra order?
No, it includes in the SC Charge
Can't you negotiate with your subcontractor that he adds 1/3 of the plate costs to each subcontracting invoice?
Negotiate - That I am not sure. SC Vendor makes a contract that he will print one books at $2 dollar (including Plate Charge $1). This Plate charge is applicable for three prints.
Can it be that you get charged for all plates with the first subcontract delivery, but you do not want all plate costs at this first order, instead you want just 1/3 on the first order?
Yes, this is exactly what is being followed now
What is your valuation? Standard price or moving average?
MA
Can you eventually create a virtual stock for the plates, where you consume 1/3 per order?
A good idea to think about it. 1 page will contain four plates, so stock can be brought to system (i believe non valuated) and consume it by mentioning in BOM.