CASE STUDY NO. 9713
KEY WORDS SMALL PARTS, REUSABLE CORRUGATED SHIPPER
3M Taiwan Ltd.
13th Floor Lotus Bldg.
Taipei 106, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Contact: Kuo-Chung Yin or Shaw-Ku Cheng, Advanced Packaging Engineers
Tel: 011-886-2-704-9011 Fax: 011-886-2-704-0551
Summary
For bulk shipment of a small electronic part, 3M replaces a system of PVC blister trays with a simple, die-cut piece of corrugated board, cutting costs 86.3%.
Action
The 3M product in question is called a PCMCIA Card--a modem part. The old package was a stack of PVC blister trays, with individual compartments molded to the shape of the card. Trays were stacked inside a corrugated shipping carton. The PVC mold was costly ($6,590). But there were two far more important problems than this initial cost:
In addition, the package consumed a lot of space for the number of cards it contained. 3M's new package for the PCMCIA card (illustrated right) costs 86.3% less than its predecessor, holds much more product, prevents cards from shaking out of their slots, and has much higher compressive strength. It is manufactured from a single piece of die-cut corrugated cardboard, which can be reused or readily recycled.
Payback
Replacement of the PVC blister tray with a simple corrugated box eliminated the difficult environmental problem of properly disposing of a special-purpose plastic container. After the one-time cost of designing the new container, conversion was relatively inexpensive; for example, the stamping die cost only $550. Besides reducing damage in transit , the new box also greatly increases cube utilization.
3M's new package for the PCMCIA card was awarded a Silver Star in the electronics
category of the 1996 Package Awards Competition, Institute of Packaging Professionals.