INDUSTRY UPS engineers drop and shake packages to improve shipping

The lab testing has saved businesses money by decreasing damages.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Nestled in a nondescript industrial office park building in suburban Chicago is a team of engineers putting packages through their paces.
It's a place where boxes and bags come to be dropped, shaken and squeezed, all in the name of science. While the workers at the UPS Package Lab in Addison, Ill., are supposed to be a little rough with the subjects, the facility is not reminiscent of the famed American Tourister commercials of the 1970s and '80s starring a suitcase-smashing primate.
"We don't have a bunch of gorillas or apes in the lab," said Chad Thompson, UPS package engineering manager.
Since 1968 the United Parcel Service Inc. has given companies a place to turn when they want to ensure the live bait being sent will not expire before arrival, that cookies won't crumble and framed art won't fracture.
The company once operated eight testing facilities, but during the last decade they have been consolidated into one center in Addison.
Testing process
The UPS package lab is ringed with calibrated machinery that simulates the bumps and knocks of the shipping process. There are compression stations that measure how much weight a package can withstand, drop centers that replicate the distance a box may fall as it moves from one conveyor belt to another and a platform that simulates vibrations from traveling inside a truck.
There are machines that stretch packaging materials for durability and vacuum chambers to replicate conditions at changing altitudes.
Buzzing around the testing stations are UPS engineers who run each test, unpack the boxes and take note of any damage to either the contents or the package.
These days, the eight engineers at the lab have their hands full as e-commerce growth bumps up the amount of merchandise getting shipped via UPS. They batter roughly 60 packages a week and try to conduct a full analysis within seven business days.
"A lot of companies, usually small- to medium-sized, don't have package engineers, and they don't know how to protect their products or what they need," said Amiee O'Neil, a solutions developer for package engineering. And with more companies lacking a physical presence, it is important that impressions are not made with damaged merchandise.
Shipment analysis
The UPS Package Lab helped save Broadview, Ill.-based Replogle Globes Inc.'s world.
The company, which manufactures roughly 1 million globes a year, was getting flattened by damages and returns. Perry Engstrom, Replogle's director of engineering, said that in the first quarter of 2002, one in 277 shipments sustained damage ranging from broken pieces to crunched globes to scratched paint.
His company enrolled in UPS' product damage program in April 2002.
Engstrom shuttled roughly 35 models to the testing lab during the course of a year and made recommended package modifications. A year later, the return rate from damage was down to one in 932 shipments.
"In the end, we saved $25,000 worth of testing fees," Engstrom said.
UPS representatives will not disclose how much the company charges for the testing program; however, some clients work out an agreement under which fees are waived if they make the lab-suggested changes.
Seeking a solution
Tyler Williams, president of Cherry Tree Design in Bozeman, Mont., had a similar agreement. He turned to the UPS Package Lab last year when his company's handmade cherrywood lamps and mirrors were not surviving the shipping process.
"The more volume we did, the more evident the problem was," said Williams. "We tried to redesign the packaging and worked with our corrugated supplier and made some packaging changes."
But it wasn't enough. So he shipped a range of products to the UPS Package Lab last year. The engineers told him to reinforce his boxes, add more padding and use more tape to keep box flaps from getting caught in sorting machines.
All sorts of products need some kind of special packaging attention.
Acrylic basketball hoop backboards are problematic because of their size, while fluorescent light tubes have length and fragility risks.
Fishing poles and golf clubs tend to bend in the middle if packages are not properly reinforced. Bags of snack chips can burst when cargo planes hit high altitudes.
These days the UPS Package Lab engineers are stumped by acoustic guitars and a large stained-glass, billiard hall-style lamp.