Packaging Engineers - Optimized Box Sizing is Now Just a Click Away Instead of a Guessing Game
- Qiaodong Cui
- Jul 30
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 31
Don’t know what box to use? Pack Studio Box Optimization will choose one for you.
As a Packaging Engineer, you understand what goes into designing a solution for a given part. Certain parts require foam padding, others can be dumped directly into the box. One solution needs boxes to be ergonomically friendly for human operators, while another can utilize forklifts to move thousand pound racks.
So you make your decisions and begin to hone in on a design – a handheld box will do just fine in this case. But what size do you choose? If you are like most, you look at your catalog of boxes and choose the one that feels right. Maybe you even try a couple out and choose the best option. You decide on one, and it works. But what you don’t realize is that you are leaving money on the table.
That’s where Pack Studio enters the equation. Based on your part and your packaging requirements – dunnage, ergonomics limits, palletization requirements, etc. – Pack Studio will find the box that fits your part optimally. No guesswork, no “good enough”. Not only a perfect physical fit in the box, but one that palletizes and loads out the best too, down to the inch. And it’s those inches that add up to real savings when applied across a packaging project.
Optimize Box changes box selection from a guessing game into a one-click search.
Point at a part, get a box back
Load a part, select at least one pallet and one shipping container, and Optimize Box lights up in the Packaging Options panel.
Click it and the modal asks for just two things:
Part orientation. Which pose to build the box around.
Box-size window. The smallest and largest dimensions worth considering. Pack Studio seeds sensible defaults from the part’s extent and your pallet footprint; tighten to a manufacturable range, or widen to explore.
Everything else it needs, it already has.
Optimize Box runs against your current packing settings; packing method, margins, dunnage allowances, ergonomic weight caps, and your full palletization policy, exactly the way a full analysis would. Set your workspace up once, then let the optimizer search inside it. The result is one cheapest-per-part box for every pallet you selected, dropped into your workspace as a normal packaging option you can analyze like any other.
Pack Studio picks selects the most cost effective board grade, too
A box that is geometrically optimal but crushes on the pallet is useless, so Optimize Box doesn’t stop at dimensions. For each candidate it selects the most cost effective corrugation grade that both survives the pallet-stack load and clears a minimum-strength floor for the box’s size. Larger boxes are automatically bumped up to double- or triple-wall. What you get back is manufacturable, not just tidy on screen.
Proof: what it saves on a real part
Here are real Pack Studio numbers. We took a single example part, dropped all 41 built-in expendable carton sizes into the workspace, and ran a full analysis to find the cheapest stock box. Then on the same part, with the same pallet, and the same freight, we let Optimize Box search and simulate.
The setup | Value |
Part footprint (inches and millimeters) | 11.6 × 4.4 × 2.1 in 293.5 × 111.1 × 53.5 mm |
Part margin | 0.1 in on every side |
Layer separator | Corrugated C-flute pad between every layer |
Pallet / truck | 48 × 40 in pallet, 53 ft dry van |
Freight | $200 per delivery + $2/mi × 100 mi |
Stock catalog | 41 built-in RSC carton sizes |
Round 1 - the real part, ~0.4 lb
Our part is molded plastic and very light, at only about 0.4 lb. Across all 41 stock cartons, the cheapest was RSC 24×20×20 at $0.122 per part. At this weight the load limit is nowhere near binding, so Optimize Box provided a best-in-slot box, tuned to the part’s footprint, which fit 72 parts to the best stock box’s 64, for $0.102 per part; 16% lower cost than the best stock size.
Best stock box | Optimize Box | |
Box (inches) | RSC 24 × 20 × 20 | 18.3 × 23.7 × 21.5 |
Board grade | Single-wall C | Single-wall C |
Parts / box | 64 | 72 |
Cost / part | $0.122 | $0.102 16% lower |
Round 2 - the same part at 2 lb
Now suppose the part is heavier with a metal material at 2 lb. The load limit starts to matter, and the cheapest stock box shifts to RSC 15×12×12 at $0.161 per part. Re-run Optimize Box and it re-tunes to a taller box holding twice as many parts — 30 to the stock box’s 15 — for $0.122 per part: 24% lower cost.
Best stock box | Optimize Box | |
Box (inches) | RSC 15 × 12 × 12 | 22.8 × 12.1 × 14.4 |
Board grade | Single-wall C | Single-wall C |
Parts / box | 15 | 30 |
Cost / part | $0.161 | $0.122 24% lower |
Two clicks, two winners.
On both runs, Optimize Box beat the best of 41 stock sizes: 16% at 0.4 lb, 24% at 2 lb, and when the part got heavier it re-tuned to a different box holding fewer parts, matched to the new weight limit.
No guessing, no spreadsheet — just change an input, re-run, and get the box that's actually cheapest.
A harder part: a funnel that nests into itself
In this section, we re-ran the whole experiment on a challenging part: a deep, open cone that fills only about 7% of its bounding cube. Parts like this only pack well when they nest, each funnel tucks into the flare of the next, so this run uses Planar Layering with Horizontal Nesting on. Same 41 stock cartons, same pallet, truck, freight, storage, and board-grade weight cap as before.
What’s different this run | Value |
Part | Thin-walled funnel, ~3.9 in cube 100 mm; fills ~7% of its bounding volume |
Part weight | 0.05 lb |
Part margin | 0.05 in on every side |
Packing | Planar Layering, Horizontal Nesting on |
Everything else | As above — 48×40 pallet, semi-truck, $200 + $2/mi × 100 mi |
The best stock carton, RSC 24×20×18, nests 768 funnels at $0.0086 per part. Optimize Box returned a long, shallow tray — 23.7×39.9×12.8 in. It packs 1,245 funnels, 62% more, for $0.0068 per part — 21% lower cost than the best stock size, at the same single-wall C board grade.
Best stock box | Optimize Box | |
Box (inches) | RSC 24 × 20 × 18 | 23.7 × 39.9 × 12.8 |
Board grade | Single-wall C | Single-wall C |
Parts / box | 768 | 1,245 62% more |
Cost / part | $0.0086 | $0.0068 21% lower |
A person sizing a box for a funnel pictures them stacked mouth-up in a roughly cubic carton; the cheapest answer is a wide tray that lets parts stack along the long axis. Optimize Box doesn’t guess the packing. It simulates the nest for every possible footprint and keeps the one that is most cost effective to ship.
