Example #3 - Constant volume for milk carton

Cariaco Diary Products, Inc.* wishes to reduce the shipping costs of its long-lasting milk cartons by changing the dimensions slightly in such a way that cannot be noticed by its customers. Currently, their carton measures 9 cm x 5.8 cm x 19.3 cm (LengthxWidthxHeight). The Length can have a value from 8 to 10 cm and the other two dimensions can change proportionally. Current Primary Package volume is equal to 9x5.8x19.3 = 1007.46 cc, which corresponds to a 1 liter container + 7.5 cc of packaging material and extra space.

The following procedure describes how Quick Pallet Maker can calculate the best dimensions for Cariaco's milk carton.

Input Data

• Package Shape: Rectangular (long-lasting milk carton) - select Rectangle from the Pull-Down menu.
• Units: cm - Select cm/Kg from the Tools menu
• Carton Length: 9 cm - type "9"
• Carton Width: 5.8 cm - type "5.8"
• Carton Height: 19.3 cm - type"19.3"
• Allow only Carton Height vertical to box height.
• Carton (gross) Weight: 1 kg. - type "1"
• Case Count: 6 - type "6"
• Board Thickness: 125-250# C Flute - Select from the Pull-Down menu and the values will update automatically.
• Construction: Tray - select Tray from the pull-down menu.
• Partitions: None
• Minimum and maximum case dimensions: Use default values
• Minimum and maximum case ratios: Use default values
• Shipping Pallet Dimensions: Europallet 1200x1000x145 mm - select EuroPallet 1200x1000 from the Pull-Down menu.
• Default values for the rest of the load restrictions.
• Maximum Load Weight: 1500 kg (1.5 Metric Tons), which is approximately the maximum weight a Forklift truck can carry. - Default value

The input window should look something like this:

Once this information has been filled, the user selects the Advanced Input Options from the Tools Menu and introduces the following information:

• Dimension to vary: Primary Package Length
• Range of variation: 8 cm to 10 cm
• Achieve a value as high as possible
• for the Total Cases per Pallet
• Step = 0.1 cm (1 mm) which is the lowest precision necessary.
• Check the Constant Volume box.
• Show all results (displays the table).

The Advanced Input Window should look something like this:

The program will start increasing the Carton Length in increments of 0.1 cm while it decreases the Carton Width and the Carton Height in order to maintain the 1 liter volume constant. After this is done the application will move to the results window & display a list as in the following graphic:

Selecting the Power Sort option through the Tools menu will show the sorting window. Select Total Cases per Pallet as the Criteria #1. The Primary Package Length that delivered the highest number of cases per pallet was equal to 9.8 cm. Double-clicking on that result will display the Results Window shown below. The resulting case (with 210 cases per pallet) produced a Volume efficiency of 99%. Please note that there is no slack in the cases as there was no room for slack addition, so it is expected that this fact would not create any problem during production.

The full report will look like this:

The report is ready for exporting to a graphics file format or for printing.

* Imaginary Name