How to Pack a Box - a Printing Novice Learns a Critical Lesson
Posted by Andre Palko on Thu, May 12, 2011
Is the subject of packing boxes in the bindery a topic not worth your time? If you think it’s trivial, I promise it will eventually cost you. In my early print industry years I discovered just how critical every person’s job is to a company’s relationship with its customers. The story of a botched cutting job was probably Lesson One for me. (Click Here to read the post.)
How to Pack a Box was Lesson Two, sternly but patiently imparted to me by my new employer. He was from the management-by-walking-around school long before it ever had that name. In his random wanderings he’d always greet us warmly but would never bother anyone at their jobs…unless he saw something amiss. This day I knew I was in trouble when after the usual greeting he calmly put his cigarette down and hit the stop button on my folding machine.
“That box looks like ___. The customer’s paying $100,000 for this job and I wouldn’t give you 2 cents for this box. What good is the weeks of work we put into this if it goes out the door looking like a mistake. If corporate headquarters gets this they’ll send it back and you could cost us a multi-million dollar account. Here’s how you should pack this box. Now…make this job look like a $100,000 job.”
Point well made, taken to heart and never forgotten. In that spirit, here are some basic tips and rules of thumb I learned through the years about how to pack a box...and keep your customer happy.
Use quality boxes for shipping; don’t get cheap, especially when shipping individual boxes via any popular ground or express air services.- Pick the right size box for the job. Typically you’ll want the box to be ¼” larger than the size of the contents. For instance an 8.5 x 11 sheet would go into a box 8.75 x 11 ¼” or 11 ¼ x 17 ¼” by whatever height is needed.
If you don’t have the right size box, cut it down as shown. 1) Score the box with a knife just above the edge of the packed material. 2) Cut the 4 corners of the box from the score line up as shown.- Fill any voids with packing material to avoid crushing and to keep the contents from shifting. This applies to any box you pack, whether it’s original size or cut down to size.
Tape all 3 seams when shipping individual boxes, especially if they weigh more than a few pounds.- Keep the box weight down, no matter what the shipping companies consider acceptable. What’s too heavy? For printed material you’ll probably want to limit boxes to about 50 lbs. For heavier boxes it’s wise to consider extra heavy corrugated or doubled up boxes. (I just received a print job in one box weighing about 65 lbs. The box was barely a box anymore and the several short-run jobs inside were scuffed with lots of bent corners.) Of course if you’re palletizing the boxes, weight isn’t as critical as when shipping individual boxes.
- When palletizing, stack boxes on each layer so you can alternate layers (shown below left) If you must stack without alternating, as when using square boxes, use sheets of chipboard or paper between every layer to stabilize the pallet. Stretch wrap combined with strapping is a good idea too if the pallet weighs more than a couple hundred pounds.
A little lesson in palletizing humility came my way one morning via Polaroid photos (remember them?) that had just arrived via Fed Ex. Called in to the plant manager’s office, he displayed a few photos of our recent shipment to the same customer that earned me the box packing lesson above.
I truly thought I had done a good job on that shipment, but the photos showed pallets that had spilled their boxes liberally around the tail end of the trailer. We put our heads together and agreed that a stretch wrap machine was necessary and I don’t think we ever spilled a box again.
When you consider the lifetime value of a customer, the losses from a sloppy or damaged box can be immense. If for instance, that first order of business cards from a new customer arrives on his desk broken and dinged, do you think you’ll ever get that order for 10,000 color brochures, let alone future years worth of possible orders? You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Whatever it is you’re printing and shipping, the lowly box and the care that goes into its packing can make or break your relationship with that customer.