Cardboard Box User Checklist

Cardboard Box User Checklist

The corrugated box contains and protects your product, but it can also serve many functions which aid in packing, storage, distribution, marketing and sales. This Cardboard Box User Checklist is a guide to the information you'll want to supply your box manufacturer with so they can offer suggestions and recommendations to utilize every value-added advantage that corrugated boxes can offer.

Your Product

1. Have you given your box manufacturer a description of your product and its use the exact dimensions, weight and physical characteristics?
2. Is the product likely to settle or shift?
3. Is it perishable, fragile. or hazardous in any way?
4. Will it need extra protection against vibration, impact, moisture, air, heat or cold?
5. Will it be shipped fully assembled?
6. Will more than one unit be packed in a box?
7. Will accessories, parts or literature be included with the product?
8. Have you provided your box maker with a complete sample of your product as it will be packed?

Your Packing Operation

1. Is your box inventory adequately geared to re-order lead time?
2. Is your box inventory arranged to efficiently feed your packing lines?
3. Is your inventory of boxes properly stored?
4. Will you be setting up the boxes on automatic equipment?
(If so, what type?
Size?
Method of closure?
5. Will your product be packed automatically?
(If so with what type of equipment?
6. If more than one unit part goes into each box, have you determined the sequence?
7. Will inner packing - shells, liners, pads, partitions - be inserted by hand?
8. Is your closure system - tape, stitches, glue - compatible with the box, packing, line speed, customer needs and recycling considerations?
9. Will the box be imprinted or labeled?
10. Will a master-pack be used for a multiple of boxes to maintain cleanliness or appearance?

Your Storage

1. Have you determined the gross weight of the filled box?
2. Does the product itself help support weight in stacking?
3. Will the bottom box have to support the full weight in warehouse stacking?
4. Will boxes be handled by lift trucks which use clamps, finger lifts or special attachments?
5. Will filled boxes be palletized?
(The size of pallet and pallet pattern may justify a change in box design or dimensions, if only to eliminate overhang.
6. Would a change in box style or size make more efficient use of warehouse space?
7. Will filled boxes be subject to unusual conditions during storage - high humidity, extreme temperatures, etc.?
8. Is the product likely to be stored outdoors at any time during its distribution?
9. Would color coding simplify identification of various packaged products?

Your Shipping

1. Have you reviewed the appropriate rules of the transportation service you intend to use (rail, truck, air, parcel post, etc.)?
2. Is your container authorized for shipment of your product?
3. If the package is not authorized, have you requested appropriate test shipment authorization from the carrier?
4. Does your product require any special caution or warning label or legend for shipment?
5. Have you determined the actual inside dimensions of the transportation vehicle so that you can establish how your filled boxes will be stacked of braced?

Your Customer

1. Does your customer have any special receiving, storage or handling requirements that will affect box design?
2. Will the box be used as part of a mass display?
3. Is the box intended as a display-shipper?
4. Will it contain a separate product display?
5. Will it be used as a carry-home package, requiring a carrying device?
6. does it need an easy-opening feature?
7. Can surface design, symbols or colors relate to promotional materials or to other products of the save corporate family?
8. Should instructions or opening precautions be printed on the box?
9. Can the box be made to better sell your product?

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