(Covers: Introduction, Setting default load space sizes, Setting default case styles, Case Designs, Tray and Shrink Wrap, Styles 29 and 30)

On installation PALLETMANAGER uses default values for both the loading space available (pallet, tray, tote etc) and for case  Styles. The sets of values in these databases may be suitable for initial use, but it will generally be necessary for you to modify the supplied values to meet your own situation.Users who have upgraded from earlier versions using the same installation folder will retain their pallet and style defaults. If this release has been installed in a new directory / folder then you will need to copy the appropriate files as detailed in Section 2.

4.2 Setting Default Load Space Values.

Start up PALLETMANAGER and select New Run and then Palletise. The Case Data Entry Screen (Screen 2) is displayed. Without making any entries select the Continue button to display the Pallet & Style Selection screen (Screen 3) and on this screen select the Pallet Database button. The screen below will be displayed:

PALLETMANAGER has a database holding details of 10 load space sizes (pallets, trays, totes etc). Database entry 1 is the default and should be configured to match your most common load space. Other database entries should be configures for less commonly encountered sizes. Entry 1 will be the size appearing as the default load space on Screen 3 (Pallet / Style Selection) whenever PALLETMANAGER is run. The values on Screen 3 can be changed temporarily on that screen for a particular run but changes there will not be stored in the database for subsequent use.

Any of the values on the above screen can be edited using the mouse / tab / enter keys and the Previous Entry and Next Entry buttons allow you to set up a variety of entries to meet your needs. On selecting Use this Entry the values are updated in the database.

The Information Held in the Database.

The information requested is in general self-explanatory, though the notes below may be of assistance:

The maximum stacking height and weight are those for the load and for pallet loads they exclude the height of the pallet itslef.  The values can be changed temporarily during a run on Screen 3, and may also be overridden by selecting to Add a Layer or Remove a layer in the advanced options discussed in Section 5.

Overhang / Underhang values are the maximum values which apply on the appropriate dimensions. Underhang is indicated by typing a minus before the value. The result of these calculations is the load area available. PALLETMANAGER will provide solutions which never exceed the calculated load area. If overhang has been specified then it will be utilised as and when necessary to give a better solution. If overhang / underhang is specified then you solutions both with and without the use of this amount will be claculated and displayed. Overhang Analysis is discussed in detail in Section 5 of this manual.

The Distribution cost / pallet is made up from storage, movement, transport and pallet costs for an average pallet load of your product. PALLETMANAGER will calculate the number of pallet loads per year based on the cases per pallet achieved and your estimated annual case volume. The result will be shown as the total annual distribution cost for a solution. As discussed in Section 16 a value of zero will probably used in tray packing.

The Gap between each unit value is an allowance for bulging, case dimension discrepancies and so on. It will not be shown graphically on pallet layouts.

The pallet board height and weight values you give are added to the load height and weight as presented on printed specifications. However they are not used during computation. For tray / tote loading values of zero will normally be used - see Section 16.

If you have the Collation module, PALLETMANAGER can store details of up to twenty eight different packaging styles and you must change the details that have been supplied on your system to comply with your own standards. An additional two Style entries (Styles 29 and 30) provide temporary storage (as described below) and should NOT normally be utilised.The details held by PALLETMANAGER on packaging styles are used to calculate packaging cost, case dimensions and weight.

Start up PALLETMANAGER and select New Run and then Collation. 

The Primary Data Entry Screen (Screen 2) is displayed. Without making any entries select the Continue button to display the Pallet & Style Selection screen (Screen 3) and on this screen select the Style Database button.

Having selected the Style option a screen similar to that shown below will be displayed. You will be alerted to the fact that initially the screen is set to 'Read Only' and the Allow Editing button must be pressed before editing is possible. The mouse and arrow keys etc can be used to move around the screen. 

If you wish to abandon the changes you have made then you should use the Quit button at the top left of the screen. Once the 'Use this Style' button is pressed then any database changes will be updated.

The database values for the selected style are used to:

· to size the case and determine its weight.

· to estimate the cost of material used in a pack

When Collation mode is entered Style 1 will be automatically selected as that to be used and therefore this should be set up to contain details of your most commonly used packaging style.

In TERTIARY mode Style 28 is used as the default style for the packaging used to create a primary unit. This is described in detail is Section 12. 

The Style screen contains the following details:

Description: A user description of the type of packaging.

Material Details:

Thickness: The thickness of a single layer of the packaging material used. Used to calculate the case external dimensions.

Weight: The weight of this material in Kg/Sq.M - used to calculate the weight of packaging material used.

Cost: A cost/ sq. metre figure for packaging material. Although we realise that the cost of a particular pack design is NOT based solely on material usage, this figure helps in providing an indication of comparative costs of alternative packs.

Case Sizing: Each collation of primary units forms a 'block' of given size, to which are to be added allowances for material thicknesses and spaces within the case. These allowances are added to the length, width and height so as to determine the final external case size. The largest base dimension of the basic 'block' (prior to the addition of these allowances) is the one referred to as the length dimension. When nesting cylindrical items other considerations have to be made and these are discussed in Section 10 which deals with all aspects of cylindrical packing.

The entries for Material Thicknesses represent the number of thicknesses of packing material (whose thickness was specified above) which need to be allowed for when calculating the external case size. This should allow for flaps, overlaps etc. for cardboard cases and trays.

Gap between each item is a notional gap between each primary unit which can be used to allow for internal dividers (the area of these will not be calculated however) or more commonly can be used to ensure that your primary units have sufficient clearance inside the case to facilitate filling or removal.

Different values can be specified for the length and width of the case. This spacing is only applied in the horizontal plane and does NOT apply to cylinder packing (See Section 10).

Gap Constant is similar to the above except that it is not dependent on the number of units in a row. Once again different values can be applied to case length and width and these additions are only applied in the horizontal plane.

On some (Customised) systems the Gap Constant is configured to operate in a slightly different manner. If the Style Database the screen text says 'Gap Constant (larger collation)', then the Gap Constant you enter here will be applied to (added to) the base case dimension that is made up of the greatest number of collated units - equivalently for the 'Gap Constant (smaller collation)'. If the collation in both directions is the same then the 'larger collation' addition figure will be added to case length and the 'smaller collation' figure to case width.

Shrink Wrap End Seal is the total of both end seals if shrink-wrap is in use. Normally only one of the two values (for length or width) would be set non-zero, but if both are set non-zero then both allowances will be applied.

Tray Height is the height to which the tray side extends up the pack. This is ONLY given a non-zero value if a tray design is to be used.

Headspace and Layer Pad values are the vertical allowances which provide for any headspace which may be required within the case, and for the thickness of each layer pad which may be required. It is assumed that the number of layer pads used equals the number of layers in the case minus one.

Case Type denotes the case construction in use. This can take on values from zero to 8. Values from 0 to 4 refer to styles 0200, 0201, 0202, 0203 and 0204 as defined in British Standard 1133. Case types 5 to 8 are included to cater for specific styles in general use but these do not generally have B.S. definitions. The type chosen determines the packing material area and cost calculations which are used but does NOT affect the external case dimensions. These are determined from the material thickness values as described above.

If a tray height has been specified then one of the two tray designs will be used. The 'Simple Tray' design will be assumed if style 0 has been selected, otherwise tray style 0422 is assumed. A blank entry may also be made and this will case area calculation being made as for style 0200, but NO reference to style will appear on reports.

A variety of constraints can be set to ensure that cases which are generated by PALLETMANAGER are acceptable for your particular environment. These include:

The Maximum Number of Tiers which you are prepared to use in a collation.

The Maximum Pack Dimension which you are prepared to have for any case edge. Any collation which would cause this dimension to be exceeded after material and gap allowances have been added will be excluded from the analysis. As would be expected the same applies to the Maximum Pack Height constraint.

PALLETMANAGER will save cases that are excluded and you can override these constraints if you wish when you display the excluded case sizes.

The Height to Base Stability Ratio - the maximum ratio between height to smallest base dimension which may be used. PALLETMANAGER will exclude any case for which this value is exceeded.

Two other values may be specified. These are the working width and inner radius of any conveyor system in use. PALLETMANAGER will perform calculations to ensure any case generated will pass through such a conveyor system. If they are set equal to zero then it is assumed that no conveyor is in use. Once again, if these are given values, cases may be excluded.

To modify any values (after selecting the Allow Editing button), just use the mouse or keyboard keys to move to an entry and update as needed.

4.4 Case Styles.

PALLETMANAGER provides the facility to specify one of 9 case types (see description of parameters above). This information is used in the calculation of board area and therefore cost and weight. The case type specified is NOT used for case dimension calculations as the dimensional values specified earlier are used for this purpose.

It is important to realise that PALLETMANAGER can only provide an indication of relative costs as the economics of case design and manufacture will vary from company to company.

In order for case calculations to be correctly made it is essential that the shrink wrap and tray variables are set to zero if a cardboard case is in use. If they are non-zero then tray calculations for cardboard area are used.

It should be noted that the drawings of styles produced below are depicted as they would be loaded onto the pallet. Thus, for example, styles 1 through to 4 all have the joining flap on the case top, whilst styles 7 and 8 have flaps on side. A 'group' picture of the major supported styles can be selected from the Styles screen using the View Styles button.

Case Design 0 : Type 0200.

This design (to BS1133: Section 7) is for an open-top case. The case area is calculated according to the formula given below. 

Case Area = [ Case Length * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height + 0.5 * Case Width ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with design 0200:

This design (to BS1133: Section 7) is for a case in which the longer flaps at top and bottom just meet. The 'minor' flaps may not meet. The case area is calculated according to the formula given below.

Case Area =

[ Case Length * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height + Case Width ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with design 0201:

The formula is also appropriate for wrap-around designs in which end flaps are at top and bottom:

This design (to BS1133: Section 7) is for a case in which the longer flaps at top and bottom overlap but do not extend to the opposite face of the case. The 'minor' flaps may not meet. The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Length * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height + Case Width * 1.5 ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

This design (to BS1133: Section 7) is for a case in which the longer flaps at top and bottom overlap and extend to the opposite face of the case. The 'minor' flaps may not, but usually would, meet.

The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Length * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height + Case Width * 2.0 ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

This design (to BS1133: Section 7) is for a case in which both the longer and shorter flaps at top and bottom meet. The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Length * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height + Case Length ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

This design is NOT to British Standards and is included to cater for a particular style of wrap pack (International Fibreboard case code 0410), such as that illustrated.

The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Height * 3.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Height * 2.0 + Case Length ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

This design of case, increasingly used for drinks packaging. The top flaps both extend across the full width of the case, and end flaps just meet.

The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Height * 2.0 + Case Width * 3.0 ]

* [ Case Width + Case Length ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

This is a simple wrap-around design. As illustrated the end flaps are such that the product is visible at each end.

The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Height * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Width * 0.5 + Case Length ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

Case Design 8.

This design is similar to Style 7, except that the side flaps are designed to just meet.

The case area is calculated according to the following formula:

Case Area =

[ Case Height * 2.0 + Case Width * 2.0 ]

* [ Case Width + Case Length ]

The following values for Packaging Details might typically be used with this design:

The designs presented above may also be viewed on screen during input / modification of the style details. Pressing View Styles will display a full screen of designs.

4.5 Tray Designs and shrink wrap solutions.

PALLETMANAGER caters for two cardboard tray designs, a 'simple' tray construction, and a type 0422 design.

Whenever a NON-ZERO value is given for tray height (on the packaging style screen), tray area calculations will be carried out.

If Case Type 0 (zero) has been selected (which would be otherwise used for an open-top case) then a SIMPLE TRAY will be assumed.

If ANY OTHER Case Type (1 through to 8) is selected, then the type 0422 tray calculations will be used. This tray type utilises rather more card in its construction than the 'simple' tray design.

In this design a simple rectangular card blank is folded to create a tray.This design has the following area calculations applied:

'Case' (i.e. Tray) Area =

[case length + (2.0 * tray height)] *

[case width + (2.0 * tray height)]

This formula is applied whenever tray height is set to be greater than zero and case style is set = 0.

Tray Design - Style 0422.

This tray design follows the BS standard and in addition to the basic design includes an additional flap at each end which is folded into the base so as to secure the tray construction.

This design has the following area calculations applied:

'Case' (i.e. Tray) Area =

[case length + (4.0 * tray height)] * [case width + (2.0 * tray height)]

This formula is applied whenever tray height is set greater than zero and case style has any value other than zero.

In practice, in addition to the above tray designs, a variety of display trays are sometimes utilised. These designs may have a tray height which varies according to the tray face. In such instances the specification within the PALLETMANAGER Case Style screen of a tray height which is the average of the maximum and minimum heights utilised will usually yield a realistic area (and thus cost) calculation.

The above case / tray designs, although representing probably the majority of packing situations, are just a few of more than 100 that could be included. The method used in PALLETMANAGER to calculate the external dimensions of a case, based upon added material thicknesses etc., can correctly size the majority of designs, though the packing material area usage will need to be approximated using one of the included designs. We would welcome user feedback on case designs for future releases.

As described earlier, the calculation of packing material area / cost is based upon the 'Type of Case', but the calculation of external dimensions is based upon material thickness variables alone.

If a collation of primary (or sub-primary) units is to be packed using shrink wrap alone then the material thickness and end seal variables can be used to size the case, whilst the area of shrink wrap and its cost (based upon the cost/ Sq M. figure you give on the Case Style screen) can be approximated using, for example, the 'case area' calculations applicable for case style 0201.

4.6 Styles 29 and 30.

As stated earlier there are 28 style database entries which may be used by users to permanently store style information. In addition two further styles (29 and 30) are used for temporary storage of style information during running.

Thus, when setting up Style data users will find that up to 28 different descriptions may be defined and permanently retained in a database. Styles 29 and 30 should NOT normally be utilised as they provide only TEMPORARY storage as described below.

During a PALLETMANAGER run there will occasionally be instances when a user may wish to modify a particular style on a temporary basis (e.g. for a single run), so as to identify the effect of a minor dimensional change.

Users of PALLETMANAGER have commented that they sometimes forget to return the changed entry to its original value after the exercise. To avoid this problem, whenever a change is made to any of the Style entries (e.g. Style 5), the user is asked whether the change is to be permanent. If the response is in the affirmative then the Style is 'permanently' changed. If however the change is to be temporary the values held in the Style information (e.g. Style 5) will remain UNCHANGED and the set of temporary values will be copied into Style 29 (in Collation Mode), or Style 30 (Tertiary level) and the appropriate Style (29 or 30) set as the selected style.

The characteristics of the temporary Styles (29 and 30) will remain in force until a new style selection is made, or you return to the main PALLETMANAGER Access Menu.

In re-run mode details of a previously tackled problem are retrieved from the STORE database and dimensional, pallet and style information are automatically entered into the appropriate data entry screens. Style records 29 and 30 are used to hold retrieved style information and these details may additionally be viewed and edited as part of the re-run process.