Applying DFA and goal programming to improve economic efficiency, material handling convenience, and sustainability of a product packaging system

Product packaging has a huge impact on the efficiency of supply chain activities. In this research, the concept of Design for Assembly (DFA), proved in earlier studies to be effective at improving product manufacturing operations, is applied to the packaging system. We formulate the packaging system as a mathematical model for three different objectives. With respect to the continual rise in attention paid to sustainability, this research adds sustainability as one of the primary objectives. A case study demonstrates that the proposed model can achieve desired results and reveals a level of consistency among the three objectives. In addition to the application of DFA concepts to a packaging system, the contributions of this research lie in the development of a mathematical model (using integer programming and goal programming) for calculating the cost, handling time, and sustainability of the objectives in line with the design needs of the multi-level packaging size from the perspective of a supply chain to provide a range of solutions offering increased options for firms.