Packaging strategy definition for sales kits within an assembly system

Packaging is typically the last task in a production process, especially in an assembly system. If an assembled product is sold as a single unit, its packaging is normally performed by the last workstation, in order to obtain a ready-for-sale product. Moreover, assembled product often comes with its accessories, packaged all together and supplied to the customer as a single unit: a sales kit. Due to the variety of products and accessories, the variety of kits is continuously increasing, requiring a complex definition of the best packaging strategy to adopt. The present paper aims to analyse the packaging problem in a production system, identifying and comparing the packaging strategies. These strategies provide, through a comparison model of total cost functions, a decision-making procedure for operations managers. Through a simulative study, a set of convenience areas for each analysed packaging strategy is derived. The findings from an industrial case study are also reported to validate the proposed methodology.