Organization of packaging resources at a product‐developing company

Purpose – The outcome of product development, i.e. the product design, together with the packaging solution, has a great impact on the logistics performance of supply chains. Despite this, packaging has traditionally been given a very modest role in the product development literature as well as in the logistics literature. The aim of this paper is to show how logistics performance and product design can be affected, and improved, by the packaging organization within a company.Design/methodology/approach – A single case study has been conducted at IKEA, including on‐site interviews and review of internal documents. Along with the case study, a literature study has been conducted within the areas of product development, packaging and logistics.Findings – The IKEA case suggests that the packaging function should have a strong link to both the logistics function and the product development function within a product‐developing company to be able to improve the logistics performance.Research limitations/implica...

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