This industry is characterised by high production volumes and continuous optimisation. Networked development offers the potential to overcome the challenges resulting from the rapid innovation cycles.
Domestic appliances are developed and manufactured in very high volumes for the global market. The competitive pressure in the sector manifests itself in the form of increasing functional density, price, and also warranty terms. At the same time, legislative requirements regarding energy efficiency and repairability are being continuously tightened.
The development of product families takes place at globally distributed locations. This requires a shared platform of methods in order to ensure the comparability of results. New functions and the fulfilment of energy efficiency requirements mean the increasing use of controlled systems. The increasing functional scope of the devices calls for a modular approach to development and validation because only the final product generation is available for system endurance tests within the development timeframe.
There is a lot of potential in a development network for the reliability of domestic appliances. However, their results are only then useful as product development contributions if they are gained using aligned methods. The corresponding communication process is organised within the scope of the risk evaluation, thus including and evaluating the results. This relieves the burden on system testing and provides a solid basis for the extension of the quality system towards reliability.
