Designed Whirlpool’s mass market refrigerator sub-brands’ (Genius and MasterPiece) pedestals that were launched in 2013
How can Whirlpool’s mass market refrigerators match the competition’s specifications (height) on the shop floor without altering its existing design?
Problem
By year 2012, Whirpool’s entry segment Direct Cool refrigerator categories started to face a tough competition on the shop floor. Although the competition offered the same volume capacity (190L), still their products stood taller and generated more appeal to the buyer in the retail space. The competition had created products with smaller footprint (base dimensions) that allowed it to increase the product height for the same volume capacity.
Solution
Creating a new designs from scratch to match the competition’s product height was an obvious route; however, it involved heavy investment for retooling each and every component of the product and reconfiguring the factory lines. The smarter solution was to increase the product height by introducing a functional ‘pedestal’ on which the refrigerator could sit. The pedestal could function was an extra storage solution to keep dry vegetables like potatoes, onions etc. common to an Indian kitchen.
However, what made the height resolution more challenging was the fact that Whirlpool’s two different refrigerator designs (i.e. for the two sub brands - Genius and MasterPiece) had to be resolved by a single pedestal aesthetics.
CATEGORIES
Industrial Design
ROLE
Design Research, Sketching, 3D Modeling, Rendering, Mockup supervision
TIME
3 Months
Company
Whirlpool Of India Pvt. Ltd.
Concept Ideation
Pedestal form explorations could be categorised into two broad buckets. One with liner edges that matches the horizontal cross section of the refrigerator door (Concept 1&2) and other one matching the vertical cross section of the refrigerator door (Concept 3).
Part count and Utility basket detailing
Pedestal doesn't just provide a platform that helps boost the product height but also doubles as a utility storage zone. Concept 3 (with 45 degree angular handle placement) was further detailed out to fit a storage tray and also to understand the required part counts and other engineering feasibilities.
Prototypes
Concept 1 and 3 were shortlisted for prototype development. CAD engineering drawings were generated and sent to a Chinese vendor to design an aesthetic mock ups. After the model showcase, it was unanimously decided to finalise on the concept 1 for the production but with concept 2’s angular handle placement.
Product Launch
Both the DC sub brands from Whirlpool (Genius & MasterPiece) with the common (yet integrated) pedestal design were successfully introduced to the market in Q2 2013.