Global company benefits from packaging re-design

Objectives:

• To increase line side packing efficiencies
• To decrease overall costs
• To remove the need to tape box bases prior to use by the customer

Design:

Our customer was reviewing the way in which the packing of product on its production line was undertaken and a significant part of this process was the way it used its corrugated packaging.

To support this, a review of the corrugated packaging was carried out and three lines identified where cost savings could be achieved by exchanging boxes that required taping across the bottom for ones that had a crash lock base.

A full product audit was undertaken with the customer and it was established that the board grade could not be amended due to the nature of the product, and therefore a re-design to reduce packing times was essential to drive the cost reduction.

Outcome:

The transfer from taped boxes to crash lock bases saved considerable time in our customer’s production facility whilst ensuring the products would remain protected through the global supply chain.

The box design was changed from an 0201 to an 0712, which are standard FEFCO designs. The same board grades of B150KT and B200KT were retained to ensure product safety was maintained after compression testing had been undertaken to ascertain board suitability.

Crash-lock style boxes bring many benefits and are designed for the base to simply fold out and click in place. With no additional tape needed for the bottom, much quicker packing and assembly line efficiencies are realised.
In addition to the assembly time savings our design team also reviewed the box size, palletisation and supply chain movements. This resulted in an increase in pallet yield of around 5% allowing more boxes to be transported on each pallet and in turn providing the customer with enhanced storage benefits.

Facts and Stats:

This style has been introduced on three of the customer’s high volume lines; circa 100,000 cartons.

Pallet yield increased by around 5%

The labour benefit delivered a 50% improvement, thereby delivering an overall cost saving to the customer