The drum return project – Sustainability with the customer in focus

Making sustainability a part of daily work at Hexatronic is vital to reach our ambitious goals, and there are many great examples from different parts of the organization. One project at Hexatronic Germany addresses handling large wooden drums used to deliver our products.  

In our factories, cable and ducts are rolled up onto wooden drums and shipped off to the project's site. After the project, the empty drums often go to waste or get left behind at construction sites. If we could get the drums in return, we could reuse them for new customers. Again, and again.  

This sustainability project has many benefits: 

• It saves planetary resources by using less wood.  
• We can make energy and cost savings in production.  
• Customers no longer need to think about drum aftermath.  

A better user experience is key to success

A drum return project has been running in Germany for a while, but the handling was just too hard for the customer. So last year, the German team designed a better process that kicked off the drum return rates. In the new digitalized setup, the customer scans a QR code and fills out a quick form to have the drums collected at the project site and brought back to the factory to be reused.  

"Sustainability is the core of this project. During this year, we have seen the drum return rates increase, which is the ultimate proof of concept. We hope to reach our 60% drum return goal later this year. At Hexatronic, we also aim to be easy to do business with, and my team is all about improving the customer experience. We noticed early on that the customers were really satisfied with the new process", says Benjamin Übel, Director of Customer Service at Hexatronic Germany. 

Benjamin emphasizes that the project has been a successful teamwork across many company functions. And the result is clear. Check out the graph below to see how the drum returns increased during the year's first part.  

Read more about our sustainability work here.