SmartPac –
Sustainable Profile Packaging
The innovative solution for efficient transport and storage of profiles. With SmartPac, you not only optimize your processes, but also make a contribution to reducing waste and CO2 emissions.
Resource efficiency with profile
Production is just one stage in the product life cycle. Sustainable and holistic improvements require consideration of the entire value chain. We have taken responsibility and developed “SmartPac”. A simple but ingenious industry solution for avoiding waste. Delve deeper into the fascinating “SmartPac” project!
Initial situation – actual situation – non-closed process chain
- Profiles are produced in the production facilities, packaged and transported to the building materials dealer.
- Even if the goods are only packed in light cardboard or not packed at all, some of the profiles are damaged during transportation to the retailer.
- When the profiles are stored at the retailer, the next profiles are damaged because the producer’s bulk packaging is not suitable for the construction site and therefore has to be torn open.
- Profiles are again damaged during the purchase and further transportation of the individual unpacked profiles by the specialist contractor.
- The conditions on the construction site result in further damage.
The following pictures of the individual process steps show the careless handling of the little-noticed and comparatively inexpensive drywall profiles. The damage shown leads to a material waste of approx. 20%.
The following pictures of the individual process steps show the careless handling of the little-noticed and comparatively inexpensive drywall profiles. The damage shown leads to a material waste of approx. 20%.
Avoiding construction waste – reduced CO2 emissions
As construction activity continues, transport, storage and unloading damage to profiles is also increasing. This is often caused by inadequate load securing or storage at the building materials trade or on the construction site. New concepts are required here!
For plaster and filler profiles, “SmartPac” can avoid around twenty percent additional waste and thus save a considerable amount of primary aluminium and CO2.
Until now, the circular economy has relied on recycling processes for waste, sometimes with high additional energy and logistical costs. The amended Commercial Waste Ordinance also requires a rethink in terms of waste avoidance, as it is not only in the case of plaster and filler profiles that the proportion of waste and transport costs can be significantly reduced.
Closing the process chain
We recognized early on that a significant proportion of the profiles produced do not even reach the construction site. As a producer of profiles, Baukom has trimmed the process chain from production to installation on a sustainability path. “We make resource efficiency with profiles”. Due to bent edges and corners, torn fabric from fabric corner brackets or torn PVC tabs, almost twenty percent of the profiles produced ended up in the reject box before reaching the construction site. Architects and construction companies had previously taken this loss into account when ordering.
In the profile industry, the non-closed process chain “from production to installation” was standard and millions of tons of aluminum had to be disposed of before installation for decades.
Value stream design: standard instead of lighthouse
One method that can also be combined with the continuous improvement process (CIP) is value stream design. It includes all material, information and process flows – from the raw material to the customer.
A material damage rate of twenty percent is unacceptable for us.
This prompted the Baukom team to rethink the non-closed process chain “from production to installation”. Our approach is supported by the amended Commercial Waste Ordinance (GewAbfV), which came into force on August 1, 2017. The BDE guideline “On the Commercial Waste Ordinance 2017”, published by the Federal Association of the German Waste, Water and Raw Materials Management Industry, describes in Chapter 7 “CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE” that construction and demolition waste is also subject to the rules of the GewAbfV 2017. In terms of the Commercial Waste Ordinance, Baukom’s innovative “SmartPac” packaging concept has resulted in less construction waste in the construction industry since 2017.
„SmartPac“ – the solution
“SmartPac” is a demand-driven packaging that protects the profiles from production to the construction site and beyond. The required profiles are only removed from the cardboard tube packaging shortly before installation and installed immediately. The remaining profiles are pushed back into the tube and transported safely onwards.
Process-optimised: Clean storage and transport
Resource efficiency with profile
Today, even market competitors rely on our “SmartPac” tube packaging. Customised with a company imprint, the reusable packaging is often used as a carrier element for a brand or advertising message.
Simple solution – big impact! Facts and figures
We act responsibly as a company and significantly reduce CO2 emissions and tonnes of construction waste with our special “SmartPac” packaging concept: