Packaging Week

DESIGNS ON TRANSIT

CAPE PACK packaging design & pallet loading software offers endless possibilities.

A new Windows-based packaging design and pallet loading software could offer packaging companies significant saving on storage and distribution costs. And, although it is early days yet, the software is coming up trumps for Tim Whiteley, technical director of the cosmetics, toiletries and fragrances company Yardley, who looked at six software systems and trialled two before he chose CAPE PACK.

Although Yardley has had the system for only a couple of months, he is already using the pallet loading system.

"Historically Yardley has laid out its pallets by hand," Mr. Whiteley acknowledges, which means it has tended to "err on the side of what has been done before."

But with the new software system he has been able to take a standard sales pack and work out how many trays should fit onto a pallet.

Already it seems that by using CAPE PACK Yardley is able to fit between 20 and 30 per cent more product than previously on the same pallet. Obviously such a saving will have a big impact on warehouse storage space and cost of distribution.

Mr Whiteley admits that not all lines will save this much as customers, such as Boots, have very specific requirements for pallet layout and with 2,5000 skus (stock keeping units) there is enough to be going on with.

Although Mr. Whiteley agrees he has been using only one part of CAPE PACK software so far, he is now trialling the design part of the package of Yardley's fragrance business.

"In future we will use the design part of the system in conjunction with fragrance development to try and ensure optimum pallet layout efficiency," he says.

Steve Dodd, packaging development technologist at CPC UK which manufactures branded food lines such as Knorr, Ambrosia and Bovril, is also pleased with CAPE PACK and expects substantial savings.

Mr Dodd used a previous version of CAPE software when he worked for Pira International and after evaluating several other systems for CPC he chose CAPE PACK for its ease of use and the added benefits of being able to import graphics for both primary and secondary packaging.

Like Mr. Whiteley he is currently using it for optimum pallet layout and benefits are expected to flow into the system soon.

Mr Dodd sees scope for new product development but only if the packaging development but only if the packaging department is called in early enough.

This is not happening in all cases yet, he says, but it is getting better. "It is too late to change very much when the production line is set up."

However, Mr. Dodd admits that until recently he was on his own in the department and he could not be involved in all projects all the time. Now CPC has recruitment another two people and this should mean they can become involved earlier in the development.

The new software has helped him by giving him a tool to entice the marketeers. Previously it was hard to capture interest with just square or round shapes but now that better graphics can be used the marketeers are beginning to pay attention.