rotating the cartons moves the support feet off the boards

Packaging drawing calls them load-bearing runners. It doesn't show a pallet arrangement

Ask packaging to approve the support arrangement. The runner label alone leaves some details unanswered.

That matters. Thank you for flagging the pallet variation before we debate the second layer.

Including the last carton in each layer, not just the easy first one.

We have two pallet board layouts in stores. I've sent both and the runner drawing to packaging. Tool supplier is checking the complete layer sequence

Can I ask what tool you are considering? Side access requirements would make the placement order particularly relevant here.

Side gripping concept at present. The runners were meant to leave space under the carton but we haven't chosen fingers

Then clarify whether the concept relies on access beneath the carton or contact at its sides; those are different constraints, even if both use fingers.

And neither concept should assume the carton tolerates the intended contact pressure without assessment.

Supplier clarified side contact, no lifting fingers underneath. My mistake there. They've asked for packed cartons for a holding and release trial

Send the real packed version, then. Empty cartons made our old trial look lovely and told us sod all about the load shifting inside.

Packaging rejected one pallet layout for this carton, approved the other for a trial with aligned layers. That changes the original alternating pattern quite a bit

Aligned layers are a candidate, not an automatic transport solution. Packaging should evaluate the complete unit load and its restraint. The robot review then needs to use that same candidate, otherwise you'll be approving two different pallets on paper.

Yes. Trial approval is narrower than approval for dispatch.

Understood. Nobody has cleared it for shipping. We now have one candidate pallet, actual packed samples and a tool trial booked, so at least we're testing the same thing

Have you removed the rejected board layout from the trial stock? Easy to mix them again.

Also identify the pallet variant in the trial record, or rather in the setup specification that will follow it; stores needs something more precise than the approved one.