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Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Web-to-pack : Solution to calculate corrugated packaging online

Country of Origin: Germany
Reference Number: TODE20180405001
Publication Date: 6 April 2018

Summary

A German inventor seeks partners from the packaging industry for a new online packaging calculator that enables companies to order packaging for their products quickly and without having relevant know-how themselves. Combined with modern printing systems immediate manufacturing is possible. Industrial partners with an interest to implement this web-to-pack solution are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance.

Description

Packaging is mostly customer specific. Yet, this aspect is currently not covered by product configurators/ calculators.  Of course it is possible for companies, who send out products, to select and order neutral standard packaging online from product catalogues. This selection which is based on possibly hundreds of variants has the disadvantage that the customer’s product is rarely packed in an optimal way.  Bad space utilization, additional filling material and subsequent higher freight costs are just one aspect.  Furthermore the packaging is neither customer-specific nor individual and therefore has no reference to the product to be packed.

Generally individual packaging will be ordered directly at the manufacturer. Usually the company in need of the packaging does not have the knowledge to formulate their requirements in a first contact/conversation in such a way that a direct order can be placed. There is a need for further consultations and discussions to define the requirements, check the feasibility, propose a price and create an offer. This process involves significant effort, costs and also time resources.



A German inventor offers a solution. He developed a packaging calculator that is not based on a catalogue or comparable to a variant configurator. Rather aspects of mass customization have been taken into consideration. The idea is that the packaging meets the specific requirements of every individual customer instead of only proposing the best suited variant. In order to offer these specific products with a price comparable to a standard product, the customer needs to be included from the start in the process chain to gain time and cost advantages.



Against this background the development of the packaging calculator started. The objective of the application is it to store the knowledge of the manufacturer in such a structured way that a customer with only basic knowledge can formulate his requirements online, so that he will receive information about feasibility and that he is then put in a position to process and place an order without interaction with the packaging manufacturer.

The configuration of a product is easily done. The customer can select size, corrugated board material, amount of boxes, colours for the print as well as additional requirements.  Then a price is calculated. At the other end all costs from material/glue over machine setup/running times to logistic costs are determined. To cover specific different calculation schemes all cost types are customizable and configurable.



Partners from the packaging industry are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance. The inventor would help to adjust the solution to the partner`s requirements and optimise the user interface together with the partner.

Advantages and Innovations

The innovation lies in the fact that this calculation solution in combination with modern print-technology can enable immediate production of the packaging required. This distinguishes it from other solutions.

Advantages are that the process saves time and resources at the company that needs the packaging as well as at the site of the packaging producer.

Stage Of Development

Prototype available for demonstration

Requested partner

Industrial partners from the packaging industry are sought for commercial agreemeents with technical assistance.



Tasks to be performed: 

Implement calculator with the assistance of the German inventor regarding the individual specifications. Joint optimisation of user interface could also be included.