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Hama GmbH

Hama GmbH is one of the world’s leading consumer electronics accessories suppliers, with their products distributed throughout the world in every continent. Cardwave were approached with an urgent requirement to re-program 5,600 x 16GB USB flash drives.

The content on the USB was a 7GB installation file for a password-protected software application used by one of the largest energy companies in Germany. The drives had already been programmed at source in the Far East, but they had experienced a 40% failure rate with the application failing to install, prompting the decision to re-program the entire batch. Hama needed to collate the drives locally at their administration and logistics headquarters in Monheim, Germany, before shipping them to Cardwave in two separate deliveries.

On receiving the drives, we first had to remove and responsibly dispose of the existing retail packaging. On testing the first batch of drives, we found the data sizes and creation dates were not consistent, suggesting the high failure rate was most likely due to the original programming methods rather than any quality issues with the drives themselves.

We created a master drive and programmed an initial 50 drives from that master, adopting a 100% bit-by-bit replication process to ensure each drive was identical. These were then sent direct to the client for their own in-house testing which achieved a 100% pass rate. On receiving sign-off from the client, we began production of the first batch of 1,500 drives which were for a time-critical project and required urgently.

They were programmed, verified and ready to ship direct to the client within 48 hours, arriving two days earlier than the initial deadline. Over the next four days we followed the same process for the remaining 4,100 drives and these were delivered direct to the client, again two days ahead of schedule.

"Cardwave helped us with an urgent case to satisfy our customer. Thanks to the fast and professional handling, and content reloading onto our USB Sticks, we were able to deliver on time. We are very happy to have a partner in Europe to rely on when needed."

Case Studies