Towards satisfying supply chain needs through packaging design and development

Abstract: Packaging as a component in the supply chain impacts efficiency and effectiveness. In the interaction between packaging systems and the supply chain, actors place various needs on packaging. These can be related to infrastructure or product characteristics, business settings or operations. They also depend on the supply chain context, the distribution conditions, the product and packaging types in use. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis is to bridge the gap between supply chain needs placed on packaging and their satisfaction in the context of developing countries. Three qualitative investigations were conducted. The first was a case study exploring the interactions between the packaging system and the supply chain in developing countries. The second was also a case study about the packaging design and development methods used for fulfilling supply chain needs. The third investigation was a combination of a literature study and interviews to identify various available models and software for corrugated board and box design and to explore their use for different actors in the corrugated board packaging supply chain. Supply chain needs placed on secondary packaging in developing countries are identified, described and categorized. This provides new insights for supply chain managers, logisticians and packaging engineers about the interaction between the supply chain and the packaging system in developing countries. For supply chain managers and logisticians, the information and knowledge about supply chains in developing countries can help them to attain and maintain effectiveness and efficiency in such contexts. For packaging engineers, a generic list of needs can serve as input to packaging design and development methods, processes and analysis tools. The thesis also provides a structured design and development method and an analysis tool that can be used to satisfy the needs placed on packaging in supply chains in developing countries. It offers packaging engineers further insights into how product design and development methods and tools can be adapted for packaging systems to satisfy these needs. The thesis contributes to improving the use and development of prediction models and software for corrugated board and box properties in corrugated board supply chains. Eighteen models and four software programs were investigated and analyzed to provide a basis for choosing the most beneficial ones for different actors in corrugated board supply chains. Eight propositions are provided to improve the use and development of models and software for corrugated board and box in such supply chains. A new holistic perspective is suggested based on a P-diagram that can be used as a theoretical basis for the development and use of prediction models and software for corrugated board packaging. The thesis is multidisciplinary, including supply chain management, packaging design and development, and models and software for predicting properties of corrugated board and boxes. This research mainly contributes to supply chain management, packaging logistics and packaging design and development for the supply chain in the context of developing countries.