| Author | Chana Yiangkamolsing |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.ISE-12-15 |
| Subject(s) | Flexible packaging
|
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Engineering in Design and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. ISE-12-15 |
| Abstract | Flexible packaging is the fastest growing type of packaging used at the Point of Sale (POS).
Flexible packaging is designed following consideration of packaging function protection,
containment, dispense, and communication. Human interaction with packages is an important
concern. Many people are faced with difficulty when using existing flexible packaging. For
example, it is difficult to read information including instructions for using the packaging.
Recently, the concept of Universal Design (UD) was introduced as a new design paradigm.
UD dimensions for flexible packaging are an attempt to provide easiness of use to everybody.
Other research has established seven UD principles and performance measures for the design
and assessment of generic products. However, UD has not been applied to flexible packaging.
The objective of this research is to develop accessible or UD flexible packages and to develop
additional systematic design methodology for flexible packaging. For the purpose of develop
new UD dimensions for application to flexible packaging; we need to identify customer
requirements for flexible packages. The methodology used here starts by creating customer
requirements from UD performance measures and packaging functions from JIS S 0022-4. A
relationship matrix to discard uncorrelated, duplicated, and irrelevant requirements from the
list of requirements was proposed. Then experts screened, and checked obtained customer
requirements. A factor analysis was conducted on the survey data to find the important
requirements and eliminate uncorrelated requirements. The number of customer requirements
was reduced from 261 to 39 with five dimensions corresponding to UD. The priority of new 5
UD dimensions is “perceptible information”, “easy open”, “convenience, ease and simple
use”, “ergonomic, structure, and graphic design”, and “equitable use” respectively. The benefit
of the five new UD dimensions is not only the reduction from seven principles but also the
grouped customer requirements which are easy to use for packaging manufacturers and
packaging designers. New 5 UD dimensions for application to flexible packaging can be used
as performance measures to evaluate the compliance of flexible packaging. A new flexible
packaging assessment method for conformance to UD was developed. If we can assess
flexible packaging conformance to UD, we know what should be improved for flexible
packages. The new additional UD methodology process proposed in this research is based on
conventional design processes separated into film/material design, graphic design, and
structural design. Customer requirements were converted to technical requirements to improve
UD features of redesigned flexible packaging. Validations of this research were done by
experts’ appraisal, lead users, target groups, Delphi method, manufacturers, and case studies
of existing flexible packages and one case study of a complete redesign of a flexible package
for convenient store. Examples in the market were evaluated for UD by using the proposed
UD assessment. A real world case study - cereal organic food candy bars, demonstrated
flexible packaging development. The prototype in 2D/3D CAD of flexible packaging and
paper boxes were evaluated by visual impairment simulation software and mock-up tested by
in-depth interviews with the target group e.g. non-disabled users, elderly, vision impaired,
hand and arm impaired. |
| Keyword | flexible packaging; universal design; packaging assessment;
packaging development process; design methodology/process |
| Year | 2012 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. ISE-12-15 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Industrial Systems Engineering (DISE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Bohez, Erik L.J.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Pisut Koomsap ;Igel, Barbara ;Montalee Sasananan; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), Thailand ;Royal Thai Government Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph. D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012 |