The development of a strategic information system applied to packaging design

This study aims to develop a strategic information system applied to packaging design. Previously, we could not computerize the whole packaging design process because: (i) The safety factors with respect to the various environmental conditions of distribution had not been determined accurately (ii) The pallet loading pattern could not be found by means of computational algorithms approximating the judgment of expert operators (iii) There were no methods for inputting data except through the keyboard As described in this report, we derived the degradation factor concerning the actual compressive strength through various experiments and structured a rulebase using specialized deductions based on the intuition and long years of experience of our engineers. The results of this study show that it is now possible to develop a strategic information system applied to packaging design, combining the database, production-rule-based systems for pallet loading pattern, compressive strength analysis and barcode system.