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Ajit Chandrakant Dandekar |
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Strategic Design Management
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ajitdc@gmail.com |
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Wheel Detergent Bar Breakage Phenomenon
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A Design Study
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Guide Shashank Mehta |
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Sponsonr Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Mumbai
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I completed my project at the Global Design Centre, Laundry (GDC) of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). The project was a focused design study carried out to reduce the ‘Wheel’ detergent bar breakage problem. Sometimes entire lots were rejected due to bar breakage. This led to a wastage of key resources like raw material, human resource, time and environmental resources. The revenue and brand image were also being badly affected because of this issue.
While the team at GDC initially asked us to focus on the product and process related aspects, my classmate Ameya Nabar and I perceived it as a systems study. This system study enabled me to have a holistic view and spot different system components contributing to the breakage issue. We each concentrated on two separates aspects. I concentrated on the manufacturing part (i.e. from raw materials till dispatch from the factory). Whereas Ameya concentrated on the supply chain (i.e. journey of detergent bars from factory till it reaches a consumer’s hands.)
The design solutions I suggested pertained both to the product as well as to the manufacturing process. I suggested three new bar profiles for the Wheel bar, based on principles of balancing the loads acting on the bar and the support reaction, making the line of action of forces same.
What I value was the considerable freedom to experiment which the company provided me with despite the design process being completely new to them. Working in a multi-disciplinary team might help me to get more insightful and interesting outputs. |
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