Towards Integration of Product and Packaging Development

Increased efficiency and effectiveness in the product development process can be expected to result from extending the product development process to inciude the concurrent development of product and packaging.
In this paper, the findings from three surveys performed in the Swedish mechanical, pharmaceutical and food industries by Bramklev, Bjärnemo and Jönson (2001 and 2003) are complemented with new material collected in those surveys. The surveys were carried out in 60 Swedish companies, 1/3 in the mechanical industry, 1/3 in the food industry and 1/3 in the pharmaceutical industry.
The paper concludes that both in theory and according to survey results, a dependency between product and packaging development exists across product areas. This dependency has both technical and organizational implications for the development process. The paper also concludes that an integrated product and packaging development procedure model is heavily dependent upon product area. An example of mechanical product development illustrates how product planning, concept development, system-level design, detail design, testing and refinement, as well as production ramp-up, are phases of the product development procedure model influenced by integration of product and packaging development.
Similarly, true integration occurs at the operational working level. Therefore, apart from providing an integrated procedure model, it is also important to provide techniques and methods that really integrate development work and provide integrated designs, tools and marketing plans.