Contact:
For information contact Cimberly Weir, Outreach Coordinator at 517-353-6797 or cimberly@msu.edu.
Instructor: Dr. Monireh Mahmoudi, PhD
Course description: This 100% online short course focuses on fundamentals of decision making when looking to maximize company profitability through packaging of a product. Upon completion, the participant will be able to understand trade-offs of packaging decisions and the relationship of packaging to marketing and supply chains, from material extraction and conversion, to value-creation, package filling, shipping, warehousing, automatic identification, sales, use, and disposal.
More specifically, this short course introduces value, value chain, and those primary and supportive activities that are related to packaging. The course also discusses how to add value to a product by its packaging. For example, appropriate dimensional weight for shipping, material selection, choosing a proper third-party logistics for packaging process, and packaging for ecommerce and returns are some examples of the topics that are discussed in this short course.
Learning Outcomes: The participant will apply business concepts to packaging decisions, including financial analysis of the value chain. Upon completion, the participant will be able to:
- Apply business concepts to packaging decisions, including financial analysis of the value chain.
- Understand how packaging functions in national/international distribution systems from creation to end-of-life.
- Create optimized packaging for the intended distribution network.
- Evaluate quality and other tradeoffs in distribution.
Cost: $595
