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In the early 2000, Karsten Farming felt the need to increase the productivity of punnet packaging. The challenge was referred to Engineering at Stellenbosch. The lecturer in Industrial Ergonomics visited ‘Raap en Skraap’ (in the Karsten Group), and a student spent an entire packing season collecting data. The result of the study was that the packers had limited ability with numeracy. Cognitive fatigue while working with numerical display scales seriously limited packing speed. The solution was graphical display for the scale worker. The decision was to design and build a rather unique scale controller in South Africa. This led Nico Treurnicht of Industrial Engineering and Dr Mike Blackenberg, the lecturer in computer systems at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, to champion the Ergopak brand. Scales were first delivered to the Table Grape Industry from Nicheware CC and, since 2017, from Ergopak MMI (Pty) Ltd. Until 2014, the partners worked during the day as lecturers and after hours building Ergopak until it could stand on its own as a business.