Proposal to reduce environmental impact through packaging system design

Abstract

One of the necessary steps for Packaging-Oriented Systems Design deals with mapping all packaging and accessories along a given value chain. This mapping covers the main filling, storage, and distribution flow, as well as its relationship with packaging levels and parallel flows, incorporated from other stages of the life cycle. These relationships can waste resources and cause environmental impact if they are not visible during the process. The objective of this article is to propose a framework to make the flow of artifacts throughout a Packaging System visible, with a view to reducing environmental impact. The framework was tested and evaluated in a dairy industry, resulting in a possible 20% reduction in packaging used to contain the same volume of product, if the improvements proposed from the study were applied. The method used was Design Science Research. The study contributes to advancing the understanding of the operationalization of Systems Design in the context of packaging, presenting the complexity of the relationship between the packaging and the product during its life cycle and its interactions with the companies' internal and external processes.

Keywords

• Systems design
• Environmental impact
• sustainability
• packaging system