When I was in elementary school we took a field trip to a Coca-Cola factory in the suburbs of Paris, near where I grew up. Sadly, the only souvenir I have from the visit is one of the widgets we received during the tour—a plastic test-tube-shaped object that I later discovered is called a parison, which is the base from which a bottle is blown. I still keep the parison at my parents’ house in France (see photo). At the time, I didn’t realize how engineering plays a role in the design and manufacturing of plastic bottles.

More Engineering Than You Think

Did you know that the amount of computing time used to simulate the different virtual use cases that plastic bottles may endure in their life cycle is actually at the forefront of simulation usage? Despite the relative simplicity of the end product (a bottle, a cap, a cap ring), the need for technology that is able to simulate complex materials, manufacturing processes and usage events is increasing.

In the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, the need for simulation is spreading beyond plastic bottles and into other types of packaging, like cardboard and flexible pouches. Watch the video below to see the different kinds of simulation applications that exist today for these packaging varieties.

Discover simulation applications for rigid plastic, flexible and cardboard packaging:

Why the Perfect Package?

As in any industry, CPG companies are seeking to optimize package design to save costs and to also become more sustainable by avoiding as much material waste as possible. For example, let’s say that you are able to take off 1g of material that cost 0.10 EUR per bottle. If you multiply that by hundreds of millions of bottles each year, you could find yourself saving several million Euros a year! Similarly, packaging failures during transport or usage could mean loss of products or customers, and hence a loss of revenue.

See how virtual simulation works in bottle manufacturing. Explore our interactive infographic.

More and more, companies are seeking to integrate the virtual testing phase of the development process as part of their entire business practice. In addition to understanding how a package will behave, they want to integrate it into the rest of the production cycle.

This includes:

• Linking a package’s design to its initial requirements.
• Managing all contributing assets and understanding who the contributors are.
• Examining the entire manufacturing ecosystem, including supply chain and production lines.
• Visualizing and marketing the product—without having to build it.

The only way to achieve an integrated production cycle without losing efficiency is to have a business platform as the backbone. The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform from Dassault Systèmes integrates different software disciplines provided by brands like CATIA, SIMULIA, Quintiq, DELMIA, and 3DEXCITE. Today, this business platform is available for consumer packaged goods companies as a holistic industry solution experience we call the “Perfect Package.”

If you’d like to learn more about other CPG packaging use cases, or to see examples of how companies use advanced simulation to virtually test their packaging, please take a look at my colleague’s, Mathew Card, posts:

• The Perfect Package for Your Favorite Brew
• Don’t “Wine” about Packaging—Simulation Can Help
• The Perfect Package to Quench Your Thirst

Stay tuned for the next installment of this blog series, “Perfect Packages II: The Democratization of Simulation,” where I discuss the fundamental values a business platform enables, as well as peruse future simulation trends!