Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation
The Company
The company originated from Toshiba Corporation in 2003 with a focus on the home appliance business. Initially established as Toshiba Consumer Marketing Corporation and Toshiba Appliance Manufacturing Corporation, it later rebranded as Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation in 2014.
What sets Toshiba Lifestyle apart in the market is their continuous commitment to innovation. They have introduced industry-firsts, such as DD (Direct Drive) inverter-motors in washing machines, revolutionizing product performance.
The company's philosophy revolves around delivering innovative products and services centered on people's needs, aiming to provide a safer and more comfortable lifestyle globally. This also resonates in their motto: "Comfortable clothing, eating & housing for everyone."
Since June 2016, Toshiba Lifestyle has been a part of the Midea Group, which operates home appliance businesses and carries forward Toshiba's legacy worldwide.
The Challenge
Before adopting ThinkDesign, Toshiba Lifestyle encountered several challenges. The company used to send 2D mold drawings to external mold makers, leading to numerous inquiries and confirmations. This resulted in significant time investments for shape verification and mold creation. Post-mold drawing issuances, extensive coordination with mold makers was necessary to ensure design compliance, consuming valuable time and inflating production costs. Also, another of the most pressing issues was the need to create physical prototypes to check for interference between various parts of the appliances. Recognizing the urgency for a more efficient and cost-effective solution, the company aimed to address these issues by adopting a 3D CAD system.
ThinkDesign as a Solution
ThinkDesign served as the perfect solution for tackling these challenges.
The decision to implement it was driven by its unique capability in having a seamless integration of solid and surface modeling and its cost-effectiveness compared to other 3D CAD systems with similar footprint.
ThinkDesign was adopted in the Washing Machine Technology Department for the design and manufacturing of various products including washing machines, front-load or top-load washer dryers and dryers.
Moving to 3D design finally gave Toshiba Lifestyle the ability to create detailed and accurate 3D models of their products, setting the stage for future implementation of digital twins.
The introduction of ThinkDesign has marked a turning point in the company's design and engineering journey, offering a wide range of features that greatly improved their efficiency and effectiveness, allowing them to streamline the timeline from development to mass production and reduce the associated costs.
FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY
One of the key aspects appreciated by Toshiba Lifestyle’s engineers is ThinkDesign's integration of solid and surface modeling, which offers several advantages.
This kind of hybrid modeling available in ThinkDesign allows the company to switch between different modeling methods and shape types, working with both closed and open solids (skins). Additionally, hybrid modeling provides maximum flexibility by enabling the use of all tool options while maintaining associativity in the model history, thus allowing for the possibility to intervene by changing or redefining the related features.
ThinkDesign has transformed our design and manufacturing processes,
streamlining our design-to-production time and costs.
FREE-FORM MODELING
Product’s design aesthetics became more and more of a great value in the consumer products industry, playing a crucial role in establishing brand identity and differentiation.
Toshiba Lifestyle has revolutionized its approach to product design thanks to ThinkDesign.
By leveraging ThinkDesign’s capabilities, the company has achieved a remarkable fusion of these design elements, enhancing both the aesthetic appeal and functional efficiency of their washing machines, thus significantly impacting consumer perception and product desirability.
According to Toshiba Lifestyle, one of ThinkDesign’s key strengths lies in its ability to address complex surface creation with Global Shape Modeling (GSM), a very powerful morphing tool that allows to make changes in a quick and accurate way in any stage of the design process, without worrying about how the model was constructed.
The company acknowledges GSM's potential and has begun efforts to amplify its application, aiming to maximize the benefits this tool can offer.
2D AND 3D INTEGRATION
Among the standout features of ThinkDesign is also the seamless integration between the 2D and 3D environments, which allows to maintain a single design process eliminating the need to switch between different software products. In the transition phase from a legacy 2D workflow to a new 3D design workflow, the ability to handle all these processes within a single tool boosts user confidence and increases organizational efficiency.
CREATING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION
ThinkDesign's 3D models and 2D drawings are also used for illustrating instruction manuals, providing exploded views in service guides, maintenance parts lists and service procedures. This plays a key role in delivering accurate, standardized, and comprehensive information, essential for end users, technicians and suppliers. These representations also facilitate a detailed breakdown of the product, guiding technicians in the disassembly and repair of the product and enabling in this way efficient diagnosis and issue resolution.
Conclusion
Toshiba Lifestyle's quest for innovation found a robust ally in ThinkDesign, which enabled the transition from a time-consuming, 2D-based design approach to a more efficient and cost-effective 3D design and manufacturing process.
The symbiotic relationship between Toshiba Lifestyle and DPT unveiled a new chapter in their pursuit of efficiency and innovation.
By harnessing ThinkDesign's capabilities, the company revolutionized its processes, embracing newfound agility and precision in their design methodologies.
The adoption of ThinkDesign stands as evidence to Toshiba Lifestyle's commitment to technological advancement and their relentless pursuit of pioneering solutions. This alliance embodies a commitment to pushing boundaries and redefining the standards of innovation within the home appliance industry.