Daewoo Electronics wins kudos with innovative design

INCHEON ― Imagine a sleek little washing machine that hangs on your dining room wall. Mindboggling as it is, a team of designers at Daewoo Electronics turned this vision into reality.

“Our ‘Mini’ is a classic case of how important it is to think through a design and turn a concept into an actual product,” Han In-cheol, head of Daewoo’s design center, told the Korea Herald.

Mini is the fitting name given to the world’s smallest washing machine created by Daewoo. At about one-sixth the size of conventional machines, it’s essentially a perfect replica of the bigger washers consumers are used to, except for the design and noise levels ― both have been dramatically reduced. 

In terms of function, the machine can do just about anything its big brother is capable of, including boiling clothes, which is why Daewoo believes Mini will take over the market currently dominated by Samsung, the biggest manufacturer of machines built exclusively for washing baby clothes.

“Samsung’s machines are small too, but it wasn’t able to overcome the two biggest downsides, which is the noise and space constraint,” Han said.

According to Daewoo technicians, Samsung’s appliance team was blown over when the Mini arrived on the scene in May this year, and executives reportedly had the machine disassembled to see what makes it tick.

The consumers also appear to have been swept off their feet, as the machine sold 20,000 units as of October this year since it hit the shelves in May. Starting in August, the Mini has been shipped to over 30 countries across the world.

The top priority of the Daewoo design team was to create a machine that wouldn’t take up floor space: hence the idea to hang it on a wall.

And because it had to go on a wall, the designers were forced to keep the vibration to a minimum to prevent the machine shaking itself off or causing neighbors to complain about the noise.

“The motor was a big problem, because it took up more room than we expected,” said Han. This is why the design went through so many alterations ― from different variations of a circle and even in the shape of a water drop.

All this effort paid off; the Mini is putting Daewoo Electronics on the map again. It took home several prestigious design awards, such as the Pin Up Design Award, and the sales speak for the rest.

As one of the smallest appliance makers in the nation, the company has been aching for a break like this.

“It usually takes just one smash hit to boost a company’s reputation,” Han said, thanking his team for their hard work.

Besides design, the Mini is also known as an eco-friendly machine that can serve as a second washer that can handle a lighter load without having to run a jumbo-sized machine.

“Our machine, in this way, is also eco-friendly, because it saves that much energy,” said Han.

The Mini can wash up to 3kg loads, and reportedly washing costs are only half of that for the conventional machine.

Reading consumer trends was another reason explaining the popularity of Daewoo’s latest washing machine, as it is ideal for fewer person households. Due to the increasing number of small households, there has been spiraling demand for miniature appliances such as refrigerators, toasters and microwaves.

Encouraged by the success, Daewoo Electronics plans to launch an upgraded version of the Mini next year, and it warned its rivals to keep looking out for further innovations.

By Kim Ji-hyun  (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)