Utvärderingsmodell för förpackningar och dess hantering i dagligvaruhandeln : – en jämförelse av ergonomi-, miljö- och logistikparametrar

Sammanfattning: Companies become more and more aware of the added values of the packaging. A well chosen and developed packaging can reduce the costs for the companies through reduced costs for transports, reduced quantity of waste and discards and increased goodwill for example. The companies’ costs for salaries can also be reduced due to the increased packaging handling efficiency and the reduced costs for sick leave, reduced work capacity and rehabilitation etc. that can arise when handling poorly developed products and packaging. It is also important, in the society of today where more and more brands are competing, that the design of the packaging is appealing to the customers. This can be achieved through an appealing design of the packaging, but also by making the packaging easy for the employee to handle, by making it easy to open correctly, easy to adjust in the shelves and easy to exposure etc. The participants through the product flow have many different requirements for the packaging. Many of the requirements have more or less influence on each other. Some of the requirements are in complete conflict with others, so that an improvement for one requirement could lead to deterioration for another. This gives a complex problem, where it can be hard or impossible to consider or even be aware of everything that the packaging should fulfil. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibilities of finding a simple method to use in packaging development to compare parameters in the logistics, the environmental and the ergonomic areas, that could improve packaging handling in stores. After an analysis of the results from literature studies, observation studies in three grocery stores and interviews with the employees, a model, PHEM, was developed. The model is based on well-known models used for product development and shows relations and conflicts between ten parameters from the logistics, the environmental and the ergonomic areas, important for the packaging handling in grocery stores. This model is intended to be a tool in packaging development, show the areas with the most conflicting interests and to evaluate packaging alternatives.