The goal of every packaging professional is to design packaging that will protect the item being shipped through a variety of stresses and climes. It is also important not to over-design the packaging.

"You want 'just-right' packaging," says Ed Church, executive director of the International Safe Transit Association (www.ista.org). ISTA is an alliance of shippers, carriers, suppliers and testers of transport packaging.

"You need to find a combination of damage reduction and optimum packaging," adds Church. He made his comments along with Bill Kipp, ISTA director of education, and Steve Pierce, ISTA director of testing and certification, at a pre-conference tutorial before the Parcel and Distribution Forum at Rosemont, Ill.

The presenters stressed the importance of knowing how products are handled, sorted and transported, as well as the carrier's size and weight limitations. Ongoing communication with people in the supply chain is also needed to alert you of changes that affect packages in transit.

Certified testing then should be performed and benchmarked to optimize the carton design. Packaging gets tested one way or the other. It is better to conduct pre-shipment testing than to discover that your package did not arrive safely due to shock, vibration, compression or environmental factors.