Connected home appliances make up a growing percentage of the Internet of Things (IoT). Home appliance products are becoming smarter by the day as they evolve to meet the needs of consumers. Through voice recognition, your refrigerator can play music, check on the weather, give you recipe ideas and even order groceries. Equipped with cameras, fridges allow you to peek inside to see what you need from the grocery store. Your washing machine can suggest the best cycle, wash clothes at the time that’s most convenient and alert you if there are issues. These connected appliances will continue to bring convenience and comfort to our everyday life, and further propel a smart appliance market predicted to be $37.2 billion by 2020.
Yet to profit from this evolution, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) must confront new and difficult technology, manufacturing and supply chain challenges.
Today’s connected appliance innovators must consider:
Connectivity — WiFi, Bluetooth, powerline, Ethernet and near field communication
Sensor capabilities — humidity, light, proximity, temperature, and pressure
Sustainability — recyclability, manufacturing close to market and waste control
Ease-of-use — immediate usability, accessibility and error tolerance
Appliances typically use electronic elements mounted in a wide variety of materials such as metals, glass, plastics, and ceramics. Besides materials expertise, integrating these components requires custom, innovative design and precision manufacturing using advanced automation techniques. With any consumer product, the pressure to quickly get to market is enormous. The supply chain, from material management through shipping, must perform flawlessly to return profits from high-volume items selling at ever-falling prices.
A Proactive Solutions Partner
Eurotech’s Appliances sector engineers, builds, and ramps some of the most innovative connected home appliance products in the world. Eurotech’s components are part of over 40% of today’s appliances, with more than 100 million assemblies shipped since 2005. As a proactive solutions partner with extensive experience producing machine/motor controls, power supplies, lighting and user interfaces, Eurotech provides key services that include:
Product strategy and conceptualization – human factors, research, branding and industrial design
Design engineering and rapid prototyping – fast optimization before mass production
Materials technology – molding and tooling, visual and complex mechanics
Process innovation – advanced manufacturing, assembly and test processes
Automation – high-efficiency, complex and high-tolerance process robotics
Design verification and test development – production test development, failure analysis and reliability testing
Supply chain – proprietary InControl™ platform that de-risks the supply chain and pinpoints opportunities for profit with advanced data analytics
With more than 20 years of experience, Eurotech is uniquely positioned to help our customers succeed to create purposeful technology and products in the demanding connected home appliance market.
Our capabilities and expertise include:
Human-machine interface (HMI)
LED lighting
Connectivity
Optics
Robotics
Miniaturization
Printed OLED
Fluidics
Sensors
Displays
Reference software
We recognize the unrelenting acceleration in the pace of change, and that uncertainty and risk abound in both mature and emerging markets. To ensure customers’ sustained growth, Eurotech simplifies these complexities by providing end-to-end product development and manufacturing with comprehensive value-added engineering and supply chain services.