Sunday, May 13, 2018

Dear Welch’s,

Our names are Sophie Stokes and Emma Stromberger. We are freshmen attending Stephen F.
Austin High School in Austin, Texas. In our Geometry class, we were tasked with quantifying the
packaging efficiency of an everyday item. We constructed a new packaging for the prototype and
presented it to the company. The 10 count Welch’s Fruit Snack box offered us an opportunity to decrease
the volume of unused air space and the amount of material used in construction of the box.

To find the volume of the 10 count Welch’s Fruit Snack packaging, we used the rectangular
prism formula (lxwxh). The total volume of the current packaging is 1427.296 cm³. To find the volume
of the product, we multiplied lxwxh which yielded 928.72cm³. Therefore the amount of unused air space
is 498.576 cm³ or 34.93% of the current package volume.

We decided to decrease the height of the prism to reduce the amount of unused air space. By
subtracting the height of unused airspace (5.1 cm) from the current height (14.6 cm), we found that the
product occupies 9.5 centimeters of the current box height. We added an additional 0.8 cm to the
proposed 9.5 cm height to maintain some airspace in the new packaging. By our calculations, we
determined that reducing the height to 10.3 centimeters would benefit the company by reducing
packaging costs. By decreasing the height, the new package volume is 1006.928 cm³. To find the volume
of unused airspace in the proposed packaging, we subtracted the volume of the product (928.72cm³) from
the new package volume (1006.928cm³) yielding 78.208 cm³ or 7.77%. Decreasing the package volume
requires less material for construction of the box by reducing surface area from 1047.535 cm² to 761.235
cm².

Our proposed packaging decreases the amount of required material by 286.3 cm² or 27% and the
volume of unused airspace by 27.16%. Changing the height of the 10 count fruit snacks box would
benefit the company in multiple ways including decreased manufacturing and shipping costs. The
prototype contains enough spaces to hold 10 fruit snacks while it is still visible to consumers on the shelf.

I hope you take our new dimensions into consideration for a new 10 count Welch’s Fruit Snack
packaging. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Sophie Stokes Emma Stromberger

Student Student
Austin High School Austin High School