Lean product development- Blender design
A product rennovation using lean product development process
Lean process, product development, turbulence Analysis, A3 report, customer value, noise testing
High-speed blenders in our benchmark ran at 80–82 dB, and noise was the customer value with the largest gap. Instead of adding dampers, we tested where the noise came from. A teardown showed the quietest competitor kept its cooling fan away from the motor shaft. Removing the fan from a standard motor cut 7.8 dB at a cost of only 2.5 °C. MINUS is built around that finding. It reached 70 dB against the competitors' 80–82 dB, but fell 5 dB short of our 65 dB target. The remaining noise comes from the motor itself, which is where the next iteration would start.
Impact
Process
Reflection
A quieter blender, built on what the teardown proved.
Industry project with EÜPA · 8 weeks
-7.8dB
Noise cut by decoupling the fan
70 dB
Prototype max noise (target ≤ 65 dB)
4
Competitor blenders tested at all 9 speeds
"AUX isn't quieter because of its drivetrain. It's quieter because its fan sits apart from the motor."
— Noise-source test, A3 report, Nov 2019
The shaft-mounted fan: the noise source we found by taking competitors apart.
MINUS: fan decoupled from the motor, angled backflow groove.
