How TRATON’s modular system can boost circularity

Historically, financial growth has often been linked to increased resource consumption. However, this connection can and must be broken through electrification and applying a circular mindset through the product lifecycle. To achieve this, TRATON is increasingly focused on adopting a circular approach.

Modularity supports circularity

Modularity creates great conditions for circularity. With fewer and standardized parts shared among all brands within the Group, we will work together to scale-up remanufacturing and other circular services.

Since more parts of vehicles are reused, this way of working also has the potential to decrease use of raw material.

Circular design lays the foundation for circularity

But modularity alone does not guarantee circularity.

“For modularization to truly support circularity, products must be designed with circularity in mind, enabling remanufacturing and other circular services at scale. That’s why we introduced circular targets into the product development process and foster cross-brand collaboration to accelerate these efforts,” says Karol Gobczynski, Global Head of Climate & Circular at TRATON.

Gobczynski says that in addition to circular design, it’s also necessary to have clearly defined business case for circularity for each project.

Remanufacturing is the starting point

Circularity is not merely an environmental concern but also an economic opportunity. By extending product lifespans, decreasing reliance on virgin raw materials, and improving resource efficiency, costs can be reduced. This also creates fertile ground for scaling up existing circular services like remanufacturing or refurbishing as well as new business models, such as in repurposing.

TRATON has identified remanufacturing as the optimal starting point.

“We are aiming to scale up the most successful examples we have today, which is remanufacturing. We have a cross-brand task force working with this to scale up the revenues from remanufacturing and other circular services,” says Gobczynski.

Customer benefits of circularity

In addition to the mentioned environmental benefits and increased resource efficiency for the company, Gobczynski also sees significant advantages for the customers:

“We can reduce the cost for the customer by providing refurbished and remanufactured components and parts. It is a profitable business for us, and we can put the customer first at the same time. We can lower the cost of the components when they are remanufactured and refurbished.”

Less waste in production

Besides making products and components more sustainable, adopting a circular approach will create the conditions for a reduced climate footprint from production and logistics.

“TMS will make the production more efficient, and that will lead to less waste,” says Philipp Lassernig, who leads the Group Environment team, which works with all environmental topics connected to TRATON’s own operations.

He continues:

“For our own operations, TMS has the potential to lead to a lot of sustainability improvements. The production network will be more efficient, and therefore the footprint from production will be smaller. That also leads to more efficiency in the logistics streams. If a part can be sent from different factories, you can choose the closer one.”

Looking ahead: What a circular future can look like for TRATON

An ideal future where TMS is fully rolled out looks like this if Lassernig could dream:

“In a dream scenario, we have exactly the production capacity we need and also use every machine with its full capacity. Also, we produce no waste because everything that is waste today is part of a circular system.”

If we look beyond production, the ideal future scenario according to Karol Gobczynski would look like this:

“Through TMS we are able to contribute to a more circular society where remanufacturing and other circular services drive innovation, enhance customer value and enable skills development. The TRATON brands are scaling up revenues and profitability through circular services by delivering innovative and high-quality solutions that extend lifetime and uptime, revenue and performance for all our customers, while driving a positive impact on people and planet. Seeing the potential ahead of us and how we are coming together across the brands gives me a lot of energy in everyday work.”

A significant step toward these desired future scenarios is the ongoing rollout of TMS, which is advancing daily. The transition to circular production is crucial for achieving a sustainable future, and TRATON is fully committed to its implementation.

Circularity initiatives at the TRATON brands