Track: Graduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

There are various challenges that manufacturers of corrugated packaging boxes encounter in dealing with waste and customer complaints, and one of them which has been on the increase at XYZ Boxing is the collapsing of boxes in the market. Such complaints result in customer dissatisfaction, and they tend to seek products from other suppliers/competition. The purpose of this study is to find root causes of the recent increase collapsing issues as raised by the customers by evaluating raw materials mechanical performance over the past few years, verify if folding settings affect the box compression strength and compare how design choice (straight crease vs off-set crease) affect box compression strength. Supplier 1 for mechanical components was found to be generally performing better as compared to Supplier 2, but both suppliers were found to be poor. Changing folding settings does not bring about significance change in box compression strength and McKee formular underestimate box compression strength when using Edge Crush Test results to predict the strength of certain box; and that straight crease design delivers better box compression strength results than offset crease design. The proposals from the finding include evaluating all board grades mechanical performance and source the materials as per better performing supplier, including working with the suppliers to find the root cause of raw materials mechanical properties decline.