The objective is to be able to identify the risks in order to carry out the transportation of goods without damage.
The risks related to the transportation of goods are as follows:
- Risks related to the nature of the goods, product fragility, and packaging.
- Risks related to poor packaging design.
- Risks related to transportation modes, loading, transit and destination locations.
We can conduct audits and controls of your transportation and goods to minimize the damages inherent in the constraints associated with the shipments of your products and goods.
For this purpose, we can:
- Record the constraints during transportation by using onboard recorders.
- Inspect the transport packaging in your warehouses or those of freight forwarders.
- Validate the performance of your packaging in the laboratory.
Audit of transit and storage warehouses
The objective of the audit is:
- Analyze the existing situation.
- Identify dysfunctions.
- Provide recommendations and areas for improvement.
Measuring the performance of transport packaging or that of your clients will allow:
- Ensuring that measures are taken to provide the targeted service quality to end customers.
- Reducing costs related to damages and non-quality issues.
- Building trust between the different companies involved throughout the supply chain, without seeking blame.
Transportation control
It is essential for a product to arrive in the best possible condition to end customers for reasons of brand image, safety, cost, and quality returns. But how can this be ensured beforehand? When do damages occur, before shipment or after multiple handling points? How can these damages be reduced during transportation?
Do you know what constraints your products are exposed to?
We provide tools to define your distribution environments. We can help you characterize your logistics circuits in terms of climatic conditions (temperatures, humidity, pressures), shocks, vibrations, falls, etc.
The approach consists of evaluating your distribution methods and their severity levels. We can record the constraints of logistics circuits (shocks, vibrations, temperatures, relative humidity, and pressures), recreate them in the laboratory, and formulate improvement recommendations.
Analyzing this data allows adjusting test protocols based on the constraints of your distribution circuits and quality criteria.
Shock Recorder
Direct applications include:
- Diagnostics and quality audits of carriers, mainly messenger-type transport.
- Monitoring of handling and storage.
- Understanding the constraints of logistics circuits to determine packaging characterization test protocols.
It is challenging to know the actual transport constraints of your products. We can refer to standards, but they sometimes differ from the real constraints of your distribution circuits. Shock constraints, for example, are measured using shock recorders designed for simple goods transport instrumentation. These sensors record critical accelerations, temperatures, and humidity.
Vibration Recorder
Direct applications include:
- Diagnostics and quality audits of carriers, mainly messenger-type transport.
- Monitoring of handling and storage.
- Understanding the constraints of logistics circuits to determine packaging characterization test protocols.
The interest is to adapt your test protocols to your distribution circuit environment and quality constraints without generating excessive packaging quality.
It is challenging to know the actual transport constraints of your products. We can refer to standards, but they sometimes differ from the real constraints of your distribution circuits. Shock and vibration constraints are measured using acceleration recorders designed for product transport instrumentation. The data is recorded (by threshold triggering or continuously) in a time domain and stored by the recorder during transportation.
Temperature, Humidity, Pressure Recorder
Climatic conditions vary depending on the countries traversed or storage locations.
We generally consider two main zones:
- European conditions: these are transport and storage conditions encountered in climates similar to Western climates.
- Tropical conditions: they correspond to maritime transport passing through the tropics or storage in tropical countries.
Other conditions exist, such as maritime conditions, etc.
The creation of specific test protocols requires knowledge of the climatic conditions to which your products may be subjected: the number of thermal shocks, dew points, temperature extremes, etc. For this, we propose to analyze your climatic constraints using temperature and humidity recorders. These recorders placed in your packaging during shipments allow for subsequent data extraction and treatment to propose test protocols adapted to your quality constraints. We have the ability to record environmental conditions according to 21 CFR Part 11.
Validation of the performance of your transport packaging
We advise you on choosing the most suitable procedures for your logistics circuits and can provide recommendations after testing to minimize damages.
The standard tests are:
- ASTM D4169 (FDA & ISO 11607 approved standards)
- ISTA 2A (ISO 11607 approved standards)
- ISTA 3A (FDA & ISO 11607 approved standards)
- ISTA 3E (FDA & ISO 11607 approved standards)
- ASTM D7386
- ASTM F2825 – Climatic Stressing of Packaging Systems for Single Parcel Delivery
- ISO 4180
- NF H00-060
These protocols can be adapted to the constraints of your logistics circuits.
Stability, load securing
The objective of the audit is:
- Analyze the existing situation
- Identify malfunctions
- Propose recommendations and improvement areas
The study of the stability of palletized loads helps reduce risks related to transportation with regard to people and goods' safety. It also ensures optimal storage conditions and optimizes palletization plans.
This approach helps decrease damages related to transportation, thus reducing non-quality costs by avoiding overpacking expenses.
We can assist you in finding the right balance between stretch film, palletization plan, mechanical performance of cardboard boxes, and thereby enhance load behavior during transportation.
US Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration's Cargo Securement Rules.
E-commerce
The objective of the audit is:
- Analyze the existing situation
- Identify malfunctions
- Propose recommendations and improvement areas
E-commerce packaging must build customer loyalty through convenience, withstand distribution circuits, and become increasingly sustainable.
Thus, in collaboration with Dev'Pack, we can assist you in qualifying your packaging:
- Amazon frustration-free Packaging certification programs FFP / Ships in Own Container (SIOC)
- Are the packaging and its cushioning adequately sized?
- Are they suitable for multi-product shipments?
- Will the customer experience begin upon opening?
- Is it too bulky? Is there too much void?
- Are all transport providers equally efficient?
- How to compare and test different packaging solutions?
- Is my packaging suitable for platforms like Amazon, Cdiscount, FNAC...
ISTA 6 AMAZON OB - Over Boxing
Test Project ISTA 6 OB - Amazon.com Over Boxing is a general simulation test for the validation of products sold in e-commerce. Unlike items ready to be shipped in their own packaging (Test Project ISTA 6-Amazon.com-SIOC), this type of test involves placing an individually packaged retail product into a main shipping container (Over Box) either by itself with the addition of cushioning (air cushions or Kraft paper) or multiple individual products packaged for cushioning to be shipped from Amazon.com to an end consumer via a parcel delivery system that may include air, rail, or truck transportation. This test challenges the packaging and/or products, whether it is primary packaging or transport packaging, to withstand the movements, forces, conditions, and sequences that could cause general damages in this environment.
ISTA 6 AMAZON SIOC
Test Project ISTA 6-AMAZON.COM is a general simulation test for "SIOC" (Ships In Own Container) packaged products shipped through the Amazon distribution system to customers' final destinations. This test protocol was developed by combining data from previous studies of transport environments, relevant test protocols, visual observations of Amazon Fulfillment Center environments, and customer feedback.