Predicting Field Performance from Laboratory Testing

Laboratory testing of packages is useful to help an engineer determine if a package and its contents are likely to survive hazards encountered during shipment. The severities of physical distribution hazards, such as the heights of handling drops, are not constants but rather are understood best from a probabilistic viewpoint; package performance also may have significant variability in response to controlled laboratory dynamics. Making the connection from package testing to field performance can be accomplished by the development of quantitative models that may be simulated on a computer. These models add to the understanding of the system; they are useful to investigate the projected effects of alternate assumptions and of inherent uncertainties. The models discussed in this paper relate to a package or its product being damaged by shock resulting from a drop.