What Does Packaging Design Software Do?
Right now, a powerful change is happening in the way orders are packaged and shipped. New technology known as on-demand packaging is doing away with the need for warehouses full of standard-size boxes. Instead, a handful of on-demand packaging machines can draw on rolls of corrugated cardboard and create the perfectly sized box for every order, every time. This is saving businesses money on box costs, storage space, fulfillment time, and shipping spaces—plus helping the environment by reducing waste. But on-demand packaging cannot be used to its full potential without packaging design software.
At its most basic, packaging design software is just that: the software that allows a machine to evaluate the order before it and create the right-sized box for that order. As such, the software has to be able to plot a relationship between the size and shape of the order with the machine's three-dimensional box-making abilities. But packaging design software should do much more than that. A true packaging design system offers a number of benefits:
1 Prioritizes box production – Your on-demand packaging machines may have hundreds of orders queued up and ready to go. If they're all produced in order, one box may not "fit" well with the one before or after it and cardboard stock is wasted. Your packaging design software should anticipate box shapes and prioritize orders so that virtually every inch of stock is put to good use.
2. Manages workflow – Your fulfillment department will experience ebbs and flows in orders based on holidays, new product releases and special promotions. Your packaging machines need to keep up. Good packaging design software will produce boxes for orders in the most efficient possible way and keep workflow strong.
3. Manages multiple machines – One system should be able to manage multiple machines on the floor, prioritizing orders between them in the most efficient manner possible. Or, if a single machine is used as multiple "virtual" machines for alternate purposes, the software will optimize how the multi-machine setup operates.
4. "Talks" to existing workflow management systems – You likely already have workflow management software or enterprise resource planning programs in place. Your packaging design software should interface with these smoothly.
5. Creates reports that mean something – At the end of the day, you need to know how much money you've saved, how much you've spent, whether orders are on schedule, and how much cardboard stock you need to order. Good packaging design software delivers all of this and more in easy, insightful reports—plus big picture learnings that would be hard for floor staff to spot on their own.
What do you want most out of your packaging design software?
