Integrating product and packaging design for manufacturing and distribution: A survey and cases

Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacturability (DFM), also referred to collectively as Simultaneous Engineering, are well known concepts that advocate the consideration of manufacturing and assembly limitations in the product design process. Although these concepts would include consideration of packaging requirements when they are interpreted in their most comprehensive meanings, this is seldom the case in reality.;True "Simultaneous Engineering" should include evaluation of a product's functional requirements, constraints or trade-offs created by the companies' production system, restrictions imposed by packaging and distribution systems, as well as marketing and customer relations issues.;A survey of Taiwanese industry is described, which indicates a need for a comprehensive design methodology which incorporates packaging as well as production issues. An integrated design methodology is presented along with a possible integrated package design tool. Finally four case studies are presented which illustrate the possible advantages of incorporating package design considerations into the product design stage.