Smart Wash Station - Hand Sanitising Unit Design
Client: Fuelchief Ltd
Category: Invention Design
Date: 2020
Background
During the first 2020 lockdown, Advantage Plastics engaged Motovated to assist with the product design and development of a new member of their hand wash systems family – The Smart Wash Station. A strong and robust portable hand wash and sanitisation station, self-contained and ready to deploy in places like schools and construction sites. At that time, a time-to-market was really important as this product would be one of the many tools used to stop the spread of COVID-19
The project kicked off with a discussion between the key product stakeholders to ensure alignment between Motovated’s Designers and the vision from different departments involved – Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing and Management. This first discussion was conducted over a hand sketch with basic dimensions and a list of features required, such as, hands free operation, 50L water capacity (for both fresh and grey water). This was enough to get Motovated to draw up a plan to deliver the product that the client had envisioned in a timely manner.
Solution
- Motovated handled the whole product design: including Industrial Design, Mechanical Design and Tool Design
- A client-focused, AGILE design strategy, based on open communication, which allowed to adapt the project requirements to the needs of our client at specific times
- Photorealistic renders delivered during early project stages to Marketing department so the still to be born product could develop its own market while the mechanical design was being refined
- CAD model virtual prototype including all the components to verify functionality of the product designed before committing to expensive manufacturing costs
- Mold design and full drawing package delivered to the tool-makers – We worked closely with the toolmakers to ensure our design will be matching their manufacturing techniques, avoiding loop-backs
Results
The end-result was a fully functional product exceeding our client expectations. It reached, in a timely manner, a global market that was already waiting for it. This result can be summarised as a total success. Everyone is extremely happy with the agile design process and the product design for several reasons:
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP): A by-the-book approach was taken to produce the simplest piece of design which could create design feedback.
- Concurrent design at its best: This New Product Development cycle from idea to market was done in a timely manner thanks to the engagement of all the product stakeholders and the focus on parallel progress of the development tasks
- Cost-effective design: This New Product Development was good and simple enough to guarantee an early Return on Investment (ROI) to our client.
- Agile Development: Having the product designer involved in the tool design and making avoided unnecessary change of hands, reducing the risks of having costly loop-backs
- Scalable Design: This product’s architecture empowered the New Product Development Lifecycle, allowing to create new user driven design configurations incurring minimal product modification. Few months after the first product release these already include:
- 100L Hand Sanitizer Pumping Station
- Heated Water hand washing station
- Smart Wash Station Website – www.smartwashstation.com
Figure 1: Ready to market hand wash and sanitisation station
Figure 2: Rendered image of hand wash and sanitisation station