Automotive industrial groups consider the impacts of packaging very important, mainly focusing on the cost effectiveness and environmentally conscious nature thereof. In the literature, the packaging supply chain is not a significantly researched area as regards the supply of the complete automotive engines. But the selection of packaging and the relevant development process in engine production are among the main elements of the extensive automotive industry, because participants sometimes have the same interests and considerations. This way, decision-making and strategies on using different packaging solutions and systems can be very varied. The reason is that each automotive group practically produces its own engines and transports them to their assembling subsidiaries all over the world. These groups often apply similar logistics policies and supply systems to use, take-back and recover their packaging. This is being driven as much by group strategies as it is by the need to reduce costs and increase efficiency in supply chains. The focus of this paper will be on the components and elements of packaging supply chain management in the field of engine supply for automotive industry groups, and on how the decision-making framework is determined. This paper shows models defining the network process for decision-making within the automotive groups as regards the packaging supply chain.
In modern logistics, companies and packaging engineers have to make decisions to find the optimal sustainable product-packaging system with adequate protection. The decision most often involves a decision option between disposable (single-trip) and reusable (returnable) packaging solutions. In practice, in most cases, this decision is based on historical data and traditions and only considers the packaging material and investment expenses. Although cost is an important factor, it is not the only one needed to find the optimal solution. Several other alternative factors further complicate the situation. Traditional (two-valued) logic is not able to model this problem. This study presents a novel technique to help the decision-making process using the application of fuzzy approach. The authors used three different fuzzy signatures connected by fuzzy rules to model the packaging decisions, which were based on logistics expert opinions. Practical examples are presented concerning both customer packaging (primary packaging) and industrial transport packaging (secondary packaging) as well.
Requirements for dangerous goods packaging are well known, whatever version are used. The testing circumstances are strictly defined for each transportation method (road, rail, air, sea). But nowadays it is becoming a practice that courier express operators transport dangerous goods as single package. This parcel delivery method means a higher risk for all kind of logistics participants. By this service the packages are delivered fast, but handled more roughly than in comparison to LTL (less than truckload) or FTL (full truck load). Naturally, the parcel delivery sector uses its own suitability testing methods, which are also well defined. These procedures are coming from various standards such as ASTM, ISTA or corporate (FedEx) standards. This paper compares the most common parcel delivery testing conditions concerning the drop test requirements of DGR (Dangerous Goods Regulation) using packaging such as paper bag, corrugated fibreboard box, steel drum and plastic jerrycan, respectively. Then the test results were analyzed to present the differences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.