Innovation
Over the last four years Indesit Company has completely renewed its approach to the market by concentrating on strong technological innovation, product renewal, positioning its three main brands, commitment to quality and continually upgrading its management team.
Innovate, always
Thanks to its capacity to innovate and develop increasingly advanced solutions, Indesit Company has always succeeded in making products that revolutionize people’s approach to home appliances. Indesit Company’s achievements in this context include:
- the first integrated system for intelligent management of consumption levels;
- the “PayXUse” washing machine, for paying only for actual use;
- the first example of Smart Tag technology applied to home appliances, in which intelligent labels enable a washing machine to recognise garments or fridges food. Recent innovations were presented in Indesit Company’s Concept Zone at Eurocucina 2008. Under the guidance of the Innovation and Technology Committee, the Group devotes around a third of its total investments to studying new products. The Company has over 600 people working on innovation in various research and development divisions and its filing of patents grows at an annual rate of 25%.
Eco-compatibility, Ergonomics, Flexibility, Design
Since 1998, constant improvements to production processes have led to real improvements in terms of environmental impact. In the last ten years, the average consumption of water and energy of an Indesit Company appliance has halved,and the trend in improving performance continues. Simple and intuitive new interfaces and product characteristics enable appliances to become even easier to use: the new Auto Dose system, for example, means it’s no longer necessary to measure detergent, which is dispensed by the machine itself depending on the load and how dirty it is. Pre-set oven cooking programmes mean that complex cooking can be started automatically at the push of a single button. And lastly, there is growing interest in designing products with interfaces for the diversely able. Indesit Company also studies how innovation is created. The research process has two main drivers: on one hand the “technology push” research provided by the R&D departments, suppliers and collaboration with major Italian and foreign research organizations, such as the Politecnico in Milan, the Politecnico in Turin, Cefriel and the MIT in Boston; and on the other, consumers and their needs, as perceived through market research and requirements specified by the trade. This approach led to the development of Eco- Time, Class A++ and Eco-Cycle, which are just some of the performance enhancing features that the Group introduced in its products in 2008 in response to and in some cases anticipating the daily needs of users. And lastly, massive use of advanced design tools (virtual reality, 3D, CAE, haptic systems) is gradually making it more feasible to design and test appliances without having to make physical prototypes, by estimating their performance, aesthetics and functionality on a computer. The results of all these efforts are plain to see: in 2008 alone, for example, renewal of Indesit brand products involved over 75% of the range, while the ambitious programme for 2009 provides for over eight new models a month (over 100 products by the year end). In 2009, the Indesit brand intends to move closer to more discerning consumers, those who look at performance but also design, with its Prime range of built-in and free-standing products. These models have different looks from those of the past but they also have technical characteristics like Smart Technology, which reduces consumption levels whilst guaranteeing excellent performance.