The Experiment of Packing
＜Opening＞
Have you ever used the Internet mail order like Amazon and Rakuten? I use Amazon once or twice in a month. Every time, I think that too many Packing cardboards are uselessness.
One month ago (July 24th, 2014), the Cabinet office made the survey (the summary of the opinion poll about the formation of the circulating society) known to the public. The survey showed that 65.9% of 1,880 people who are over 19, have Japanese nationality, and answered the questionnaire correctly think the packing over double in the Internet mail order uselessness.(The Cabinet office ask 3,000 people to answered the questionnaire. )
(the summary of the opinion poll about the formation of the circulating society)
ネットショップ担当者フォーラム
I bought the goods using Amazon, the most popular Internet mail order.
And then, I calculated how many packing is useless and think about the best way to pack the goods.
＜Why Amazon uses too many cardboard though the good is small?＞
The number of goods Amazon sell is increasing every day.
They sell about 50 million kinds of goods (February, 2013), so there are many varieties of size of goods. We cannot make cardboard boxes which fit each goods, because there are too many size of goods. So, Amazon tried to cut packing costs by standardizing the size of the cardboard and decreasing kinds of the cardboard size.
There are two alphabets and two numbers on the Amazon’s cardboard. (For example, XL01, XY29) One site says that there are four standards; type XM, XL, XX, and XY (the type of envelop includes type XE.) And each has two number, and the bigger the number become, the larger the size of box also become.
The box which type is XM is about 25 cm long, about 33 cm wide and 3.0 cm~17.0 cm height. Like this, all of boxes which type is XL are the same length and width, and there are many kinds of height.
There are the opinion that the merit of the standardization of the cardboard is cutting cost and that it is easy for employees of express companies to pile boxes on the load-carrying platform.
And this is the consumer’s positive opinion; Using too much cardboard is better than breaking the goods with simple packing. If the box is small, it may be lost during carrying or at a delivery center.
Amazon takes precedence over lower cost efficiency, however, users are suffered from the big size of the cardboard which doesn’t fit the goods and suffered from disposal.
Express companies have to use one more track. You can also think that they carry “air”.
Nowadays, 95% of the cardboard delivered to homes, factories and volume sales store is collected and recycled. However, the more cardboard are recycled, the harder recycling factories have to take them apart, make them, and make the machines work. As a result,
it will connect global warming. This is why we have to reduce cardboard.
＜Survey＞
First of all, I bought these five glasses. A glass is one of the most fragile things. I bought them for knowing how Amazon packs.
Packing is like this; it is called “shrink wrap packing”.
The outer box has one piece of cardboard, and the good is on it.
The cardboard and the good are covered with vinyl.
I calculated the volume.
The outer box; 41.0cm×31.0cm×11.0cm=13,981cm3 About 14,000 cm3
The box in which has five glasses; 31.5cm×13.0cm×6.5cm=2,661.75cm3 About 2,660 cm3
(the volume of the box in which has glasses)÷(the outer box)×100
= 2661.75÷13981×100=19.038…
Only 19% of the outer box has the good. It means that 81% plays a role in protecting from the impact.
Next, I calculated the mass.
The box in which has five glasses; 140g
Five glasses; 168g×5=840g
Total; 960g
(the mass of outer box) + (the mass of adhesive); 291g
One piece of cardboard; 62g
Bubble sheet (Puchi-Puchi); 21g
Vinyl;12g
Total; 386g
(the mass of packing material)÷(total)
= 386÷(386＋960)×100＝28.677≒29%
About 30% of the total mass is used for packing.
At last, I calculated the cost of packing.
I chose the similar cardboard at the Internet mail order which sell bundle of cardboard.
The size is 39.4cm×29.4cm×8.8cm, one set has 80 pieces, and it costs ¥4,720.
It means one piece of it costs about ¥59.
ダンボールワン s-80
Bubble sheets are also sold at the mail order.
One roll is 60cm×42m. 10 rolls cost ¥11,000,so one roll costs ¥1,100
The glasses packing uses 60cm×60cm sheets, so it costs 1,100×(60/4200)= 15.714≒16
About ¥16.
http://www.in-the-box.jp/
One piece of cardboard inside the box; 42.5cm×30.2cm and 50 pieces of cardboard cost ¥1,440. So one piece costs about ¥29.
http://www.in-the-box.jp/
] And the shrink film is about two pieces of A3 paper with shrinking, so I supposed that it is 500mm×650mm. This store sell 500mm×20m and it costs ¥736.
So 736×65÷2000=23.92≒24 ¥24
I could not find any data about adhesive, so I ignore it.
Total; ¥59+¥16+¥29+¥24=¥128
Five glasses cost ¥942, so 13% of all uses for packing.
The result was summarized as follow;
Volume; 19%
Mass; 29%
Cost; 13% of all uses for packing.
＜Experiment＞
Each member of this group thought about the best way to pack according to the result of
This is the picture.
From left side, No.1, No.2, No.3, and No. 4.
No.1;The box of cardboard and the cap, and four stick made by rolled cardboard.
These pin in the space so that the glass doesn’t touch the box.
No.2
The cardboard box and the two pieces of it support the glass.They support the glass very well, and the merit of this packing is that it uses little cardboard.
No.3
The cardboard box has newspapers which are rolled and have good cushioning.
They support the glass so that it doesn’t touch the box.
No.4 This is different from others; it is made of three pieces of cardboard and the convex part is crushed, so the shock is absorbed.
＜
The box in which has glasses was dropped from 50cm high.
If the glasses isn’t broken, it will dropped from higher by 50cm.
This is the result;
| High/No. | No.1 | No.2 | No.3 | No.4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50cm | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| 100cm | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| 150cm | × | × | ◯ | × |
| 200cm | × | × | × | × |
Next, to make the stronger packing, I opened the boxes and found out how the glasses are broken.
No.1
The glasses was broken when in was dropped from 150cm high.
The bottom of the glass was completely broken. It means that it cannot bear the shock from the bottom.
No.2
This was also broken when it was dropped from 150cm high.
The bottom of the glass was completely broken. It means that it cannot bear the shock from the bottom.
No.3
Only this bore the shock dropped from 150cm. It was broken when it was dropped from 200cm.
The part of the bottom was broken, but half of it wasn’t.
The bottom of the box got squashed.
No.4
This was also broken when it dropped from 150cm high, however, the part of the bottom was broken and other was not. It is like No.3.
This is the new packing method that we make in consideration of these.
This packing mathod has two advantages.
The outside cardboard can absorb shock by broken itself.
And there are tubes which made by newspapers and more thick than that of No.4.
Like this, it beard the fall from 200cm high, and protected the glass.
＜Summary＞
In the course of the experiment, there was a long time to talking about how we decide the conditions of experiments, were many fails when we experienced first.
And we couldn't get good results, we would think that we quit this experience.
But finally I'm glad to get good results like this.
Honestly I say, our packing method is inferior to that of Amazon with considering the labor and general versatility.
But I think it is important for us and our environment that we pack with less cardboards.