Italia Imballagio

FROM PACKAGING TO PALLET

The British company CAPE Systems, has developed a new software application for packaging design and the formation of pallet loads. By using this, it is now possible to optimise the dimensions of primary and secondary packaging and so reduce end of line costs.

Eco-compatible packaging? People have been talking about nothing else these last few years and the environment factor has so influenced the way the packaging sector has developed that even the up-line activities have become involved. Take the case of design for instance. In fact, many packs are no longer simply designed to meet criteria of practically and visual impact on the shelf but are now also being designed to reduce the amount of space occupied by the secondary packaging during storgage and pallet loading. An overall look at the problem, a winning tool that helps increase profits, by cutting packaging costs, with a positive effect on the final product price. This is where CAPE Systems comes in, with its new, fuller and more easily personalised version of an existing software application for packaging activities: CAPE PACK. This is a useful tool for anyone wanting to optimise the size of packs and pallet loads thus reducing costs right across the supply chain.

The software generates 3D images and reproduces non-standard packaging (such as elliptic shapes) showing the dividers used inside the cases where required. CAPE PACK creates a series of solutions for loading the boxes on the pallets and can even deal with the layout of different pack types, the design of primary and secondary packaging and the postioning of the products on display stands at the point of sale. The program can cope with a wide range of configurations : trays, bundles, pallet loads, open boxes or partial views of the load.

CAPE PACK has been upgraded to make it even closer to the needs of users and easier than ever to use. In view of the mounting demand for data transmission via email and the Internet, CAPE Systems has written a program that can be interfaced with all the most commonly used warehousing systems and the main applications in other types of programme. For this reason it is supplied on CD-ROM and runs under Windows 95, Windows 98 or NT opertaing systems, both on single PC's and multiple networked systems.

CAPE PACK has already been adopted by numerous customers of global standing, including Smurfit, Smithkline Beecham, Coca-Cola, SCA, Johnson and Johnson, Rexam, Unilever, Philips, Nestle, Cadbury, Novartis, The Body Shop, Gillette and many others.

Many food companies and important industrial concerns in Italy have already purchased the software. According to data supplied by CAPE Systems many companies using CAPE PACK have managed to add more products to the pallets thus saving more than 25% in warehousing and distribution costs.

Furthermore, thanks to the improved arrangement of the primary and secondary packaging on the pallets, it is now possible to add 20% more products and thus cut corrugated cardboard costs.