Dr. Laszlo Horvath was a guest speaker for the Tech on Tap lecture series and spoke about packaging during the age of COVID
Image 1. Tech on Tap series advertisement about Dr. Horvath's lecture.
CPULD Director Laszlo Horvath was the featured speaker for the November 18 Tech on Tap virtual event. Based on the principle that learning can happen anywhere, Tech on Tap is a lecture series that informs, educates, and raises questions about the impact of new technologies on society, equity, and policy. Topics include the types of issues and problems that Virginia Tech and its new innovation campus in Potomac Yard look into and research. Past events addressed topics such as self-driving cars, the science behind beer, urban gardening, drones, and more.
Dr. Horvath’s presentation about the future of the packaging industry was entitled, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Package Delivery During the Age of COVID.” Package delivery is playing an important role in our lives now more than ever. From Amazon packaging rules to the growth of e-commerce, Virginia Tech is working with industry partners to optimize the future of package distribution.
During his lecture, Dr. Horvath covered the basics of packaging and its role in society. The global packaging industry is expected to exceed $1.3 trillion within three years, and 96% of Americans with internet access make purchases online. CPULD’s vision is the be the hub of packaging innovation, where researchers, students, and industry professionals work together to improve the efficiency of the supply chain. He spoke about the package design process: first you must understand the distribution hazards a package will experience, then you design a package that should protect against those hazards, and finally your new package design must be tested in the laboratory to ensure that it does, in fact, protect your product from distribution hazards.
Image 2. The package design process.
In these days of COVID-19, with e-commerce soaring, the supply chain that packages travel on has changed dramatically. This new “omni channel” supply chain creates almost double the touch points for packages. In a traditional supply chain, a package is handled approximately 16 times, while the omni channel supply chain causes a package to be handled up to 30 times before it reaches the customer. The increase in handling means there are potentially more hazards for packages. That is in addition to needing more over-boxing, increased skus, and the need for packages to be designed to handle clamping, multiple orientations, and gaylord boxes (a large, pallet-sized box used for containment of smaller boxes or used in place of other containment methods such as shrink-wrap).
Image 3. Distribution routing in Omni Channel supply chains.
Finally, Dr. Horvath talked about some of the recent IoT (Internet of Things) research being done in the CPULD labs that will help with these new package design issues. In particular, he explained about a recent project in which numerous packages were equipped with sensors to measure every vibration and shock the package experienced. The packages were shipped to Toronto, Canada, and Costa Mesa, California, and then returned to the lab, where the data from the sensors were downloaded and analyzed.
CPULD researchers found that the packages experienced more edge and corner drops than expected, with some drops from as high as 50 inches. However, current testing methods focus more on protecting packages against side impacts and only tests them with 18-inch drops. More research is needed, but it appears that the durability testing conducted on packages needs to be updated to match the realities of the modern distribution supply chain.
However, IoT research can also be helpful for more than just damage monitoring. It is becoming more popular in the distribution industry, as equipping pallets and unit loads with sensors can offer increased supply chain visibility and monitoring, help regulate temperature and humidity for fragile or sensitive products, reduce theft and loss numbers, and provide live feedback on road conditions. Dr. Horvath finished out his lecture by talking about the current framework for and challenges of integrating an IoT system into the palletized supply chain.
Learn more about the Tech on Tap series and watch recordings of many of the webinars here: https://vt.edu/innovationcampus/events.html
Image 4. IoT framework for a palletized supply chain.
