Oversized shipping cartons, unnecessary void fill and excessive empty space are still part of everyday practice in many shipping operations. This generates waste and CO₂ emissions, as well as avoidable material, transport and storage costs. As a result, the pressure to make packaging more efficient and reduce empty space is high. With the PPWR, this issue is now moving even more strongly into focus. From 2030, the empty space ratio in transport, grouped and e-commerce packaging must not exceed 50 percent. By February 2027, EU member states must already have enacted the corresponding national rules. In concrete terms, this means that the share of air and void fill in such packaging must be significantly reduced without compromising product protection or transport suitability.
Packsize has developed a suitable response: an automation solution with on-demand, tailor-made corrugated boxes that are produced to fit each individual product exactly. At FACHPACK 2025, the company demonstrated together with Vega Grieshaber how this principle can be implemented in practice.
Vega Grieshaber develops sensors for level and pressure measurement technology and therefore has to cover a wide range of packaging formats for shipping. Ann-Christin Dietmeier, Head of Shipping at Vega Grieshaber, explained: “We have an extremely high variety of different sensors, which is also reflected in their dimensions.” It was precisely this diversity that led the company at an early stage to question standard packaging and rethink its packaging processes. The manufacturer therefore began working with Packsize as early as 2012, initially with simple manual stand-alone solutions. Later, more highly automated processes, greater sustainability and improved ergonomics moved into focus.
With the aim of reducing empty space, Packsize and Vega jointly developed a packaging solution with three central areas: long-item packaging, pre-packaging and automated shipping packaging. The box blank is produced specifically for each product and precisely matched to the dimensions of the respective item. This reduces material usage while at the same time avoiding unnecessary empty space in the shipping carton.
As Anna Hornig, Global Marketing Automation and Web Manager at Packsize GmbH, explained, the project combined a data-driven approach with an ergonomic concept that was particularly important for the customer. This becomes especially clear in the case of long and heavy sensors. “Folding a 6.30-metre-long carton manually is laborious and usually requires two people. With the new solution, the table serves as a folding aid, and packaging time was reduced from ten to three minutes – a noticeable productivity gain,” Dietmeier described the benefit.
All sensors initially receive a product package. This product package is delivered on demand directly to the employee, eliminating additional walking distances. Once the pre-packaging step is completed, the units are transferred to the conveyor system and thus move to the next stage of the automated process. In the subsequent sequencing warehouse, the pre-packaged units wait until an order is complete.
Anna Hornig emphasized that the data-driven “cubing approach” is intended in particular to achieve volume reduction and compliance with the 50 percent empty-space limit. The cubing software is the data-based control element of Packsize’s packaging solution. It scans or processes the product data and uses it to calculate how items can be arranged in a shipping carton as space-efficiently as possible. Anna Hornig described this vividly as “like Tetris”: individual products are recorded and then arranged in a box “so that as little empty space as possible is created.”
Dietmeier added that, even today, Vega would already be able to use the new system to evaluate empty space and, if required, provide the relevant documentation to authorities — a key building block for future PPWR compliance. In this context, Anna Hornig stressed that violations of the future requirements may be subject to penalties and that companies should therefore prepare at an early stage.
In addition to the regulatory aspects, the project brings a range of further benefits. The developed solutions are designed in such a way that they can be transferred to other production sites if needed. This supports further growth and scalable site development. The packaging design was also further refined in parallel. Tear strips placed exactly where needed make the packaging easier to open, while resealable product cartons improve handling for customers.
The example of Packsize and Vega shows how PPWR regulatory requirements can be translated into concrete packaging processes. Right-sized cartons, data-based cubing software and automated workflows not only reduce empty space and material use, but also improve ergonomics, process stability and space efficiency in packaging logistics.
Author: Alexander Stark, Editor FACHPACK360°
