Client Name

Ismail Industries Limited

Faculty Advisor

Ms. Annie Ahmad

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

Entrepreneurship and Innovation, as a thought leadership area, centers on the application of creative and systematic thinking to generate new value — whether through new ventures, new processes, or new ways of solving existing problems. The Design to Distribute project aligns directly with this area because it applies process innovation to a longstanding operational challenge in the FMCG packaging industry. Rather than accepting the status quo of treating every SKU as an independent design job, the project introduced a template-based, data-driven design system that fundamentally restructures how packaging artwork is produced and managed at scale. This is not a technology investment or a capital project — it is an innovation in process and framework, which is precisely what operational entrepreneurship looks like in a corporate context.

The project also reflects the entrepreneurial mindset in the way it was approached. The team identified a problem that existed but had not been formally articulated or measured, built an analytical pipeline from scratch to quantify it, and produced a scalable solution with clear, replicable methodology. The finding that five master templates can cover 39% of the entire primary packaging portfolio is itself an entrepreneurial insight — it reframes a complex, seemingly unmanageable portfolio as a structured, governable system. The framework developed is not specific to Candyland alone; it can be adapted and applied to any large FMCG brand facing similar packaging complexity, which speaks to the broader innovation potential of the approach.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Aligned SDGs Justification

SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production — calls on businesses to adopt sustainable practices, reduce waste across production and supply chains, and improve resource efficiency in their operations. The Design to Distribute project aligns with this goal through its direct impact on reducing inefficiency and waste in the packaging design and production process. In the absence of a standardized design system, artwork production for large FMCG portfolios is inherently wasteful — designs are frequently reworked due to compliance errors, inconsistent layouts, or substrate-incompatible specifications, each correction cycle consuming additional material, print runs, and production time. By establishing clear template families, zone allocation rules, and substrate-specific print specifications upfront, the framework developed in this project eliminates a significant source of preventable waste before it reaches the production floor.

More specifically, the substrate and print specification guide produced as part of this project directly addresses the issue of resource misuse in packaging production. When designers work without substrate-specific guidance — not knowing that BOPP Matt requires a brightness adjustment, or that wax paper cannot carry photographic imagery, or that premium tier artwork requires three separate files — the result is print output that does not match the design intent, requiring reprints and material waste. The design framework encodes this knowledge as a standard operating requirement, ensuring that every artwork file is production-ready the first time. This aligns with SDG 12's Target 12.6, which encourages companies to integrate sustainable practices into their operational cycles, and Target 12.5, which focuses on substantially reducing waste generation through prevention and process efficiency.

NDA

No

Abstract

This report presents the findings and deliverables of the Design to Distribute Experiential Learning Project, conducted in collaboration with Ismail Industries Limited (IIL), one of Pakistan's leading fast-moving consumer goods companies and the manufacturer of the Candyland confectionery brand. The project addresses a critical operational challenge: the absence of a standardized, scalable packaging design system across a large and diverse portfolio of stock-keeping units, resulting in visual inconsistencies, inefficient artwork production, and regulatory compliance difficulties across different pack sizes and formats. The primary objective was to develop a unified Design to Distribute framework — a master packaging design system capable of being efficiently adapted across all Candyland SKUs while ensuring brand consistency, regulatory accuracy, and operational feasibility. The project team received two Material Specification Sheets from IIL containing physical packaging dimensions, substrate types, and print finish information. A structured analytical approach was applied involving dimension extraction, deduplication, product categorization, surface area calculation, and dimensional clustering. The methodology produced two core outputs: a Box Template Family analysis mapping 69 retail box SKUs into 29 distinct format groups, and a Wrapper Template Family analysis mapping 106 primary packaging SKUs into 37 canvas size groups. The central finding is that five master templates can cover 39% of the entire primary packaging portfolio. The project further produced a four-tier design classification system — Economy, Standard, Mid-Premium, and Premium — with layout rules, substrate-specific print constraints, and visual wireframe mockups for the eight highest-priority template families.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

Notes

This project was completed in collaboration with Ismail Industries Limited (Candyland) as part of the IBA Karachi Experiential Learning Project program, Spring 2026. Corporate supervisor: Mr. Syed Mohammad Maaz, Manager Procurement, Ismail Industries Limited. Faculty supervisor: Ms. Annie Ahmad, IBA Karachi.

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