Packaging Science Protects Launch Timeline for Global Fast Food Leader

Vendor Error Threatens to Delay a National Launch

For one of the nation’s largest fast-food chains, timing was everything. The company was preparing to open a new national distribution center for its most in-demand product; this facility was custom-designed to strengthen logistics and maintain supply reliability for hundreds of restaurants across the country.

The site depended on a fully automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), a multimillion-dollar investment built for efficiency, precision and food safety.

Just weeks before launch, the customer’s team discovered a serious specification error. A packaging vendor had supplied inaccurate product dimensions, miscalculating the stacked load by more than two inches. That seemingly minor variance could have caused significant issues for an automated system designed with zero tolerance for error.

In a manual warehouse, the discrepancy might have been manageable. In this case, it could have halted operations entirely. Delays in recalibration risked pushing back the opening date, reducing throughput capacity, and jeopardizing millions in opportunity costs.

“It wasn’t our customer’s fault. They received inaccurate specs. We needed to work with their team to fix the problem — and we needed to do it fast.”

The customer needed verified, science-backed solutions quickly — and the confidence that their new design would perform flawlessly from day one.

Our Customer’s ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System) was designed with a capacity of 17,000 system pallets. Each one of these pallets carried six layers of eight boxes of French fries. When Millwood was able to alter our design to accommodate an adjusted spec from one of our customer’s vendors, the difference meant keeping an extra layer, or eight boxes of potatoes, on every pallet, amounting to 136,000 boxes of product saved per rotation. That’s a whole lot of French fries!

Packaging Science in Action with Millwood SURE

To help the customer keep its launch on track, Millwood’s Packaging Science Lab joined forces with the company’s engineering and operations teams. Together they followed Millwood’s SURE process — a four-step methodology that empowers customers to achieve verified, scalable results:

1. Study customer goals and challenges
   Working together, our teams reviewed every product and system variable — weight, stack height, temperature range, rotation frequency and automation parameters — to understand the full scope of the problem.
2. Understand and engineer proven solutions
   Using Pallet Design System (PDS) software, our engineers developed three new system pallet designs optimized for freezer conditions and automated handling. Each configuration balanced strength, material efficiency and deflection control to meet the customer’s performance needs.
3. Review and verify with rigorous testing
   The designs underwent full compression and deflection testing in Millwood’s ISTA-certified Packaging Science Lab, simulating real-world cold-chain and automation stresses. Testing data gave the customer quantifiable proof that each design met exact system requirements.
4. Expand and scale with long-term measurable value
   Once validated, the chosen design moved into production. Thousands of lab-certified system pallets were delivered on time, allowing the customer to proceed with installation and startup as planned.

“We were in the seventh inning when the specs changed. Redesigning, testing and approving a new pallet in that short window showed exactly the kind of solution our Packaging Science process is built for.”

Collaboration and Precision Under Pressure

The customer’s internal teams stayed closely connected with Millwood’s Packaging Science specialists throughout the redesign. Every variable — from load configuration to freezer cycle count — was reviewed against test results to confirm compatibility.

Millwood’s ISTA certification provided the assurance needed for the customer’s quality and operations teams to validate results internally. Once testing confirmed success, production moved forward, and the facility launched with 17,000 new system pallets that performed exactly as required.

This collaboration highlighted how Packaging Science supports customer success: by integrating design, testing and production into a single, transparent process that minimizes risk and protects project schedules.

“We weren’t just building a pallet; we were helping our customer protect a critical timeline using the scientific method.”