Food Processing (USA)

SIZING UP PACKAGES AND PALLETS

Space Analysis Software Help's Dreyer's Target Opportunities

How you design your primary, secondary and tertiary packaging can make a difference to your bottom line. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Inc., headquartered in Oakland, California, firmly believes in that premise. As Michael Vincent, group leader for package engineering, told FOOD PROCESSING, "You've really got to mentally walk the route of your packaged products and understand where those packages are going to be every step of the way. What kinds of pallet, truck, and store display conditions are they going to encounter? Then you can maximise space utilization and minimize product damage and throwaway. But this can involve analyzing numerous different package, tray and pallet combinations and configurations."

To assist in that mental exercise, Dreyer's employs space analysis software. One program the processor uses regularly is the CAPE PACK from CAPE Systems, Plano, Texas. "After demo-ing this software," says Vincent, "we found the output to be correct, consistent and flexible enough to adapt to our particular environment. So we decided to put it in place as a design and specification tool."

The Windows based CAPE PACK offers the ability to calculate volume with established case sizes and to view how a pallet load will configure in a truck, trailer or sea container. It also offers the ability to demonstrate how a product will appear during store delivery in the case or tray. This feature can assist in marketing and in satisfying specific retailer display requirements. In addition, the system includes a primary container analysis feature that helps processors evaluate how various package shapes/sizes score in terms of durability, space efficiency, and packaging materials economy.

Ice cream needs air
One of the critical requirements in palletizing ice cream products is to ensure that the pallets are not stacked too tightly. Insufficient air flow through the pallet during on-pallet hardening (freezing) can adversely affect ice cream quality. Dreyer's uses the space utilization software to experiment with various combinations of column stack and interlock stack pallet patterns and evaluates how those patterns perform in terms of compression strength, load stability and air flow.

Product-by-product analyses
Vincent offered two specific examples of how the software has helped Dreyer's improve efficiencies in the distribution of its products. First, Dreyer's had been packaging ice cream frozen novelties 12 cartons per case in RSC (regular slotted container) corrugated shippers. One concern is to have the right varieties and flavors at the right location at the right time without ending up with surplus product.

"We have received feedback from our route truck sales force indicating a smaller case count might be better. So we examined different case designs,, did compression tests, and ultimately decided to switch these novelty items to a new shipping container design. We increased distribution efficiencies by adding 20 percent more product per pallet, significantly reduced our corrugated materials costs, and source-reduced our corrugated usage by approximately 1 million pounds annually," says Vincent.

One of Dreyer's newest product lines is sherbet in tapered convolute containers. Vincent reports, "Tapered containers pose special space-efficiency problems. But by going from square bundle packs to rectangular bundles, we accomplished a 30 percent improvement in pallet efficiency for the sherbets."