May 16, 2018 

Dear Pepperidge Farms, 

 
Our names are Ryan Schuelke, Vinhsanh Ngo, Haven Francis, and Jack Komassa. 
We are students at Austin High School, in Austin, Texas. We were tasked with a project 
to improve the efficiency of a product of our choice. We chose the Pepperidge Farms 
Milano Cookies because we saw that there seemed to be waste and extra airspace 
inside of the package. 
 
We tested the volume of the Milano Cookie package. SInce the package has a 
unique shape, we had to go through several steps to find the volume of the packaging. 
We began by finding the volume of the rectangular prism, which is the main part of the 
packaging that held the cookies. We used the formula of the area of the base multiplied 
by the height. This was a simple calculation. We then found the volume of the top part 
of the packaging, which is a triangular prism shape, and the volume of the top folding 
part of the bag (the closing technology). We found the volume of the whole triangular 
prism. However, the triangular prism at the top of the bag isn’t a full triangle; it has 
indentations on the sides, and we had to account for that. To do this, we found the 
volume of the parts that cut into the corner. Once we found the volume of the cutouts, 
we subtracted that volume from the whole volume of the top triangular prism part of the 
bag. We then added the volume of the top part of the package and the volume of the 
bottom part that holds the cookies. The volume of the entire package is 729.22cm^3. 
We then found the air space in the packaging, by finding the portion that had cookies in 
it. We found the volume of that area. We then subtracted the measurement of the 
volume that the cookies take up, from the volume of the whole package. This 
calculation gave us the airspace of 249.225cm^3 or 34% of the package. We also 
calculated the amount of material that was used to make the package, and we found 
that was 748.75cm^2. 
 
To make the package more efficient, we cut the height of the rectangular prism 
by 4.4 cm, keeping the triangular part of the package on top. With this design, the 
amount of material used to make the package became 608.75cm^2. The volume of the 
new package became 530.775cm^3. The airspace is now 58.275cm^3, about 11%. 
 
Our new design both decreased the amount of packaging needed and made the 
package smaller. We cut down the amount of packaging needed to make this product 
by 140cm^2. We also decreased the volume of the package and the airspace by almost 
200cm^3, a decrease in airspace of 23%. By decreasing the amount of space the 
product takes up, shipping becomes cheaper, and you can fit more of the product on the 
shelf. The customer is willing to buy the product more because it does not take up as 
much cabinet space, and it makes the customer more satisfied as it is full. By 
decreasing the size of the package, it appeals more to the customer, as it shows that 
the company is working to save the environment. 
 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
 
 
Ryan Schuelke Vinhsanh Ngo Haven Francis Jack Komassa 
Student Student Student Student 
Austin High School Austin High School Austin High School Austin High School