Project Lead for ‘IceMagic’ - Whirlpool’s Single Door Refrigerator launched in 2012 with innovative features that contributed in making a huge business impact for the company
Designing Innovative Direct Cool Refrigerator For The Indian Mass Market
In 2010, I got the opportunity to lead a mega project for Direct Cool (DC) refrigerator category for Whirlpool Of India Ltd. As a design manager, my job was to completely redesign the existing refrigerator - inside out. It included the external body design as well as the internal components and space management. I got the opportunity to work not just on the cash cow category (refrigerator) for Whirlpool but also the most critical sub category (DC range) within it. The intense project schedule kept me deeply involved with cross functional teams - Corporate Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Procurement, Quality and Safety. I was involved right from the sketch till the first samples sign-offs of the final product. The result was an outstanding success of the fridge in Indian subcontinent - making it one of the biggest business contributors in history of Whirlpool Of India.
Problem
Whirlpool Of India entered the Indian market in 1995 with home appliances that offered better quality and reliability than its indigenous counterparts. However, by the end of 2005 its market share in the refrigerator category began to fall as was challenged by its tough competitors like Samsung and LG. Direct Cool (DC) refrigerator category, which was the cash cow for the company, took the biggest hit and needed not just a face lift but also offer innovative solutions that really addressed the local needs.
Solution
Gen Y (project code name) was a mega project to resurrect the DC refrigerator category for Whirlpool. It offered core value propositions around ‘Water and Ice’ to address the Indian mass market. The end product IceMagic from Whirlpool offered an aspirational exterior design that stood tall against it counterparts, along with an innovative ‘Power Cut Cool’ cabinet that kept water bottle cool for 12 hours to address the power outages in India.
ROLE
Design Lead and project manager for Direct Cool range of refrigerators, Industrial Design, External Stylisation, Internal Space Management, Innovative feature, Cross functional team management
Teams
Corporate Marketing, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Craftsmanship
PRODUCT
IceMagic (Single Door Direct Cool Refrigerator)
TIME
12 months
COMPANY
Whirlpool Of India Pvt. Ltd.
External Styling
Multiple rounds of sketching and 3D modelling were conducted to arrive at the form that could represent the brand ‘IceMagic’. The vanishing crease on the refrigerator door (inspired by aspirational automotive styling) represents the ‘SPEED’ of Ice Making - supporting 40% faster ice making claim by Whirlpool.
Internal Space Management
Internal space management was integral part of the refrigerator design owning to the fact that there are a variety of utensils that are kept inside; moreover, the consumer behaviour of utensil placement is completely unpredictable. The space was designed to give flexibility to accommodate a huge variety of culture and food prepared in India. The consumer could move the shelves around to fit their large pots (South Indian cuisines), large pans (north Indian milk storage for North India) while storing left over food (pan India no wastage behaviour) under the shelves.
3D MODELING & RENDERING
3D modelled external and internal components of the single door refrigerator
Initial 3D form explorations were created in Maya and rendered using Keyshot.
CAD Modelling & Prototyping
All the internal components’ engineering drawings were detailed out and sent to prototype maker with detailed specifications
Innovative FEATURE
The USP of IceMagic single door refrigerator was its final design was it's ‘Power Cool’ design. This unique feature allows water bottles to be stored in a separate cabinet within the fridge that can keep the water cold for over 12 hours. This feature comes handy during the long power outages which are very quite frequent in rural/urban India. This feature propelled Whirlpool’s Direct Cool refrigerators category to create record sales in India.
SKUs
10 different SKUs were designed for the varying refrigerator capacities (190L, 215L and 240L).
Post Design Collaborations
ENGINEERING
After designs handover, I paid regular visits to the plant - collaborating with the Engineering teams to ensure undiluted translation of the original design intent into the end product.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Participated in the Craftsmanship exercises with the Manufacturing, Procurement and Quality departments to carefully review, reject (if required) and sign-off the first product sample of each component (total 73) before giving a go ahead for the mass production.
MANUFACTURING
IceMagic refrigerator’s mass manufacturing went in full bloom in Q2 2012 before the festive season.
PRoduct COMMERCIALISATION
Whirlpool’s IceMagic refrigerators as seen on a local appliance shop floor in India. 10 different SKUs were produced in 3 different capacities (190L, 215 and 245L)
TV Commercial
High budget TV commercial launched in 2012 featured biggest stars of Indian cinema who endorsed the IceMagic refrigerator from Whirlpool Home Appliances.
Awards And Recognitions
Received the prestigious ‘Pinnacle Award 2011’ from Mr. Arvind Uppal (President, Whirlpool Of India) for the best performing employee for the year, ‘Designomics’ award in 2013 for strategic design that contributed immensely to the company’s business growth and ‘Team Of the Year’ award in 2012 for being part of the high performance team.
Business Impact
IceMagic refrigerator added about 6% to the value share in a single quarter of sale - making it the fastest selling new refrigerator brand in India. By the end of 2018, about 0.5 Million units were sold.
Created the next generation concepts for IceMagic 2.0 proposed to the Whirlpool’s leadership after the launch