Client: Picsa
Country: Spain
Sector: Water
Year of execution: 2006

Strategy > > > Challenge: questioning the cooler market!
Juan Ramón, commercial director of PICSA, came to the meeting with an experimental prototype of a new system to cool water inside the bottle. Looking carefully, set us the following challenge: “we have patented the system, but we need help to transform the idea into a product!”

In the past 40 years, the water cooler sector has evolved very little, never adressing the serious problem of the sanitation. Enterprises have to assume high maintenance costs to address the risk posed by poisoning the consumer. But PICSA has an alternative that solves this problem very easily: cooling water within its own packaging through a cold plate.

Conceptualization > > > Office or home?
The main requirement of the product is to make it able to integrate into both offices and kitchens, the latter being the space featuring the greater difficulty, since space is limited. Therefore, the concept was created adapting it to household sector trends. It is a compact product, dimensions surprisingly low, taking into account that it contains 10 liters of cold water. It is suitable for home environment and closely linked to products in the water sector. It uses cool colors, smooth surfaces to facilitate cleaning, and an outstanding ventilation systems to promote the image of power in the equipment.

 Design>>> Appealing and Functional
In order to become the shortest counter-top water-cooler in the market we had to make an effort to reduce the height to the minimum. The final dimensions are possible thanks to the fact that the bottle is placed horizontally, so the machine doesn’t need to be excessively tall. This is great news if you want to sell this product in the domestic market.Surfaces are continuous, resulting in a compact rounded shape, only interrupted to lay out the air vents and the dispenser cap. Colours are cold blue, clearly linking the product to the water field.When the design was ready, a User Reaction Test was conducted among clients, sales men and suppliers. PICSA was really happy to find out that most people found it extremely appealing

Development>>> The crystallization in a high performance product
Development was conducted entirely in China. Stimulo temporarily moved their Engineering Department to the factory in order to carry out the technical development of the apparatus. This substantially reduces implementation time and implicit risk telephone communications or via email. After adjustments, the design received the approval from the customer and proceeded through software 3D, the definition of the internal structure on which is mounted cold group and the contact plate. And the geometry of the parts that make up the outer shells was also defined on that basis. With the help of DfMA systems, streamlined processes, minimal handling and assembly operations were optimized to contain the cost to the minimum. Two functional prototypes were conducted to compare physical and functional aspects, and test the performance of the system cold.

Industrialisation> > > From prototype to mass production
The approval of the prototype, gives the green light to the factory to perform a pre-production, which optimizes the production line and the finishing touches to the product  to improve performance and production aspects.With the help of DfMA systems, strea-mlined processes, minimal handling and assembly operations were optimized to contain the cost to the minimum. Two functional prototypes were conducted to compare physical and functional as-pects, and test the performance of the cooling system.

Implementation > > > Introducing the new cooler to the market 
Stimulo designed the packaging, assembled the instruction manuals, and took responsability for communication tasks. Stimulo issued press releases, designed catalogues and stands for Alimentaria fair 2006 and the London AVEX 2007. Finally, the project was ready for mass production.

Results

> Excellent reception at the Alimentaria Fair 2006  and at the AVEX 2007, where the new ecobot system got the attention of the sector.
> Product Award in the “Cooler Innovation Awards 2007″ held in London (second prize).
> Ways of collaboration are established with internationally recognized company for the distribution of the product.

“The degree of commitment and the willingness shown by stimulo greatly exceeded  our expectations. More than a few suppliers, are now partners.”
Juan Ramón Déniz
Commercial Director
PICSA

Tags: engineering, industrial design, innovation, Water