We've all seen video games that simulate the real world — of combat, football or car races. Well how about a grocery store, big-box retailer or drugstore?
Your teenager may not want to play it, but Dassault Systèmes' new Perfect Shelf three-dimensional digital modeling system is exciting packaging manufacturers and consumer brand makers.
Plastic Ingenuity Inc., a custom thermoformer of packaging in Cross Plains, Wis., is using the software to create highly realistic aisle views with shelves, fixtures, products, lighting and promotional materials — supported with information on product performance and consumer trends.
Packaging plays a major role in the overall success of a product, according to Plastic Ingenuity officials. The quality of product shelving and placement effects brand awareness, sales margins and overall product revenue.
Plastic Ingenuity has an in-house team of packaging design engineers who can combine their industry experience and merchandising strategy with the Dassault Perfect Shelf software to create high-impact labeling, artwork and consumer experience, at a reduced cost — and faster turnaround times, according to the thermoformer.
“The real-world trial and error process can be more than just frustrating — it can get very expensive,” said Rob Helmke, Plastic Ingenuity's marketing director. “With a smart digital simulation, the very essential experience of a product's performance in-store can be assessed and adjusted nimbly. The result is less cost with a better product, fewer errors and ultimately a better experience for consumers everywhere.”
Perfect Shelf technology can save up to two-thirds of the cost and time typically needed in the traditional trial-and-error process. It lets you make adjustments to local retail specifications, real-time product performance display information and do forecasting.
Dassault, of France, makes 3-D design software for a wide variety of industries. Perfect Shelf is something different — it can take you inside a virtual store aisle and let you design virtual packaging concepts and test them out — well before cutting steel or forming plastic.
It may not be “Minecraft,” but Perfect Shelf can pay off — in the bottom line, not just fantasy land.
