Tempur Sealy Reduces Returns by Over 90% With New Box Design

Executive Summary

Tempur Sealy International tasked FlexPAC with creating a new, corrugated box design for their queen size mattresses. Prior to FlexPAC’s design, Tempur Sealy used a two-piece box that fit together on the assembly line to house their mattresses. Within the shipping process, the boxes often were damaged or ripped causing the mattress to be dirty when it arrived at the customer. Returns were common, assembly time was high, and the material cost to put the box together was large. FlexPAC’s newly created, single-piece box design helped eliminate unnecessary packaging materials, protect their shipments to customers, and dropped their return rate by over 90%.

Challenges

On the assembly line, the mattress box was put together with a two-piece box, 5 straps, and staples. The assembly time was clocking in at over 3 minutes to put together one box, cutting into their labor budget. With the high material cost and labor cost, Tempur Sealy wanted to find a way to lower their price per box.

The other main challenge came during the shipping process. Often times, the corrugated box would become damaged during the shipping process, causing frequent returns due to open boxes, dirty mattresses, and damaged product.

FlexPAC’s Process

FlexPAC took the time to completely understand the boxing, shipping, and return processes. FlexPAC’s innoPAC Design Center created a one-piece box that folded together to house the queen mattress. With the newly designed box, the mattress was easily slid into the box on the assembly line, and the box could be folded to keep the ends closed.

Results and Future Plans

With the creation of the one-piece, folding box, Tempur Sealy was able to eliminate 2 straps and eliminate the entire need for staples. The folding box’s assembly time was also cut in half from over three minutes down to a minute and thirty seconds. Most importantly, the return rate is now down over 90% because the packaging was designed to eliminate damage and dirt.