Cleanup Corporation ABCC 2007

The Asian Business Case Centre, Nanyang Business School

INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

Publication No: ABCC-2007-009Print copy version: 13 Dec 2007

In the late 1990s in Japan, lingering depression was taking a toll on the housingequipment industry as new residential construction continued to decrease. CleanupCorporation (Cleanup), which ranked third in the kitchen industry at the time, was noexception. Business was stagnant and price competition was getting out of control.Cleanup decided it was time to leave the price war behind and compete with addedvalue. The company launched a project for a full model change of its flagship productCleanlady which accounted for 40 percent of its sales.

Much to everyones surprise, Toru Fujiwara, the project leader chosen by Cleanupsmanagement, was an in-house designer with no experience in kitchen design. Yet theproject became a great success and the new Cleanlady turned into a smash-hit.Fujiwaras design innovation resulted in the development of the hallmark FloorContainers with clearly visible aluminum front design. Cleanups sales showed adramatic turnaround and the company moved up to second in ranking, hitting recordhigh operating profits in 2003. The case describes the challenges faced by Fujiwaraand his team and also outlines how creativity came into full play to develop a valueadded product targeted at a new market.

CLEANUP CORPORATION LEADING DESIGN INNOVATION IN A JAPANESEFIRM

Masakazu Sugiura

This case was prepared by Professor Masakazu Sugiura, Director of NTU-Waseda Double MBAprogramme and reviewed and edited by Associate Professor Wee Beng Geok of Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity. It is an English version of a Japanese case written by Professor Sugiura. It was developedsolely as the basis for class discussion and the information presented reflects the authors interpretationof events. The case is not intended to illustrate effective of ineffective practices or policies.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. All rights reserved. Not to bereproduced, stored, transmitted or altered in any way without the written consent of Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity.

For copies, please write to The Asian Business Case Centre, Nanyang Business School, NanyangTechnological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, SingaporePhone: +65-6790-4864/5706, Fax: +65-6791-6207, E-mail: [email protected]

ABCC-2007-009

AsiaCase.comthe Asian Business Case Centre

INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

INTRODUCTION

In the late 1990s, effects of the long lasting depressionthat afflicted the entire Japanese economy weighedheavy on many firms in the Japanese housingequipment industry. For Cleanup Corporation(Cleanup), the third-ranking kitchen manufacturingcompany in Japan, slow economic growth had begunto bite. As new residential construction in Japancontinued to decline, Cleanups flagship systemkitchen product Cleanlady accounting for 40 percentof the companys overall profits, was swiftly losingout to competitors with cheaper priced versions. Thecompany was headed for losses.

However, by 2000 Cleanups new System Kitcheninnovation proved to be a smash-hit and the companysrevenue turned around dramatically. The companymoved up to be second-ranked in the industry and hita record high in operating profits.

The design innovation at the heart of the turnaroundwas the Floor Container created by Cleanups designproject team led by Toru Fujiwara (Fujiwara). It wenton to become the new industry standard and theCleanup brand was once more widely recognised.

Fujiwara was a complete newcomer to systemkitchen design, so why did Cleanups seniormanagement entrust the leadership of this criticalmission to him? How could an outsider lead thedevelopment of an entirely new flagship kitchenproduct? What was his value add? What about theother members of the design team? What was theorganisational context that allowed the teamscreativity to come into full play?

In the spring of 2000, when Fujiwara returned to hisown design group in the Sanitary Products Divisionto work on system bath designs, he wondered aboutthese questions. What insights from the Cleanladydesign project could he apply to the new challengesbefore him?

Company Background

The firm began in 1949 as a manufacturer of lowtables, zataku, used in Japanese style dining rooms.Five years later, as its business grew, a company Inoue Shokutaku Co. Ltd was registered in October1954 and within less than a decade it grew to be theleader in the manufacture of such tables. It then movedinto other furniture products and released the stainless

steel kitchen sink to the market in 1960. In the followingyear, the firm launched its new corporate brand andthe firm was renamed Cleanup, after the Cleanuptrio of sluggers the 3rd, 4th and 5th hitters of baseballteams.

In 1973, Cleanup became the first company to usethe term System Kitchen and since then this termhas been widely used in the industry. System Kitchenis a Japanese-English phrase referring to thecombined kitchen components of worktop, sink andgas cooker. At that time, system kitchens were verycostly as they were made to order. However, in 1983,Cleanup released a new reasonably priced systemkitchen series called Cleanlady and this was wellreceived by the market.

The company was listed on the second section of theTokyo Stock Exchange in February 1990 and movedto the first section in September of the following year.In 1998, the companys main factory was in Iwaki,Fukushima, which was the hometown of the founder.By then it had 2,580 employees and a gross turnoverof 80,200 million; kitchen products contributed63 percent (20 percent from Cleanlady) and sanitaryproducts (baths and washstands) contributed 22 percent. Its total market capitalisation (as at30 November 1998) was 33,475 million (share price684 x 48,940,000 shares).

The dismal economic climate and market conditionsfor the industry led to Cleanup suffering a loss for thefiscal year ending in March 1999, its first loss sincelisting on the stock exchange. For that year itrecorded an operating loss of 1,100 million andordinary loss of 890 million.

The competitive environment

By the end of 1990s, three specialised kitchenmanufacturers held dominant positions in theJapanese system kitchen market. Cleanup was third,while Takara Standard Co. Ltd and Sunwave Co. Ltdranked first and second respectively. However, newand major forces were moving into this market. Theyincluded TOTO Co. Ltd, known for its experience andtechnology in the water systems, and MatsushitaDenko Co. Ltd, a comprehensive housing equipmentmanufacturer with a wide range of housing equipmentproduct lines and great flexibility in offering priceconcessions. Another newcomer, Tostem, had begunlaunching aggressive bargain offensives for systemkitchens as well.

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

The market of kitchens in Japan was divided into twosectors:

(i) The New Residential Market: This market wasessentially driven by the new housing constructionmarket and it was generally the housing developersor builders that made purchase decisions, regardingkitchen fixtures and equipment. New house buyershad very little say in deciding which housingequipment to adopt. Such fixtures were regarded asa part of the house purchase package . It was acorporate market with fixed budgets allocated forkitchen fixtures and equipment. It was also a muchlarger and more established market in comparisonwith the house reform market but kitchenmanufacturers did not have access and resources toappeal directly to their end consumer tastes andpreferences.

(ii) The House Reform Market: This retail market wasconsumer-driven where end-users made the buyingdecisions. Although this market size was smaller,buyers were more responsive to the added value ofthe product. Marketing activities such asadvertisement through mass media and showroomswere more effective.

CLEANLADY MAKEOVER

By 1998, concerned that the company could soonbe in the red, Cleanups management was forced todecide between continuing a war of attrition againstits competitors by launching cheaper kitchen modelsor to rely on new product values and create newmarkets.Cleanups strategy was to shift the targetfrom the new residential market to the house reformmarket. The objective was to gain value recognitionand support of end-users in order to sell the productsat more lucrative prices.

To have an impact in this targeted market, Cleanupsmanagement realised that Cleanlady had to berepositioned and the product concept had to becompletely reviewed and redesigned. Cleanlady wasdue for a full model change having been launchedmore than 10 years ago. After some deliberation,Cleanups management decided to stake its futureon an overhaul of its flagship product, with the view toleaving behind the price war and pioneering a newsystem kitchen product that would appeal to themarket through new added value.

Choosing the Project leader

The first step was to find the dream team to spearheadthe model change. Project leaders in Cleanup werecalled Theme Leaders. In January 1998, a newTheme Leader for the Cleanlady makeover project wasannounced and Toru Fujiwara was appointed to thiscritical position. Much to the surprise of Cleanupsemployees, the project leader selected by seniormanagement to lead this challenge was an in-housedesigner in his ninth year with the company with noexperience in kitchen design.

In the context of Japanese business practice, thiswas an exceptional assignment for Fujiwara given hisage 31 years and his length of service of only eightyears with the company. In many Japaneseorganisations, it normally took more than 10 years tobecome a manager as human resource policiestended to be essentially age driven. Besides this,before his new assignment, Fujiwara had worked inthe companys Sanitary Products Division and not inKitchen Products. Also, he did not have any formaltraining in marketing and sales or in engineering. Asan art school graduate designer, he majored inindustrial design at Tokyo Zokei University and hadworked in the Modeling Group Product DesignDepartment since joining Cleanup in 1989. In largerJapanese companies, modelers focused on modelingand drafting and did not get involved in project works.At Cleanup however, there was no clear distinctionbetween modelers and project planners, and modelerscould at times be involved in project work.

It was Kiyotaka Muroi, Cleanups developmentmanager who made the bold decision to appointFujiwara for the job of Theme Leader for the Cleanupmakeover. Muroi had been Fujiwaras immediate bossin the Product Design Department since 1989. Theyhad worked together on various product developmentprojects and shared views and ideas on designs,styling and modeling. Muroi came to the conclusionthat in order to find the required breakthroughinnovation, it was critical to inject a designers, oreven an artists perspective into the productdevelopment process.

Other Team Members

Besides Fujiwara, the two other members wereMiyuki Funyu and Yuka Akagi from the PlanningGroup, Design Department of Kitchen ProductDivision.

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

Funyu had joined the company in 1984, five yearsprior to Fujiwara. She studied industrial design atChiba University and had been in the Planning Groupsince she joined Cleanup. As Cleanladys maindevelopment planner since 1992, Funyu had beenworking on minor model changes. Funyu thought thatCleanlady had become too diversified as its productrange grew complex and extensive and had suggestedto go back to the origin, proposing the idea ofCleanlady S S for simplicity to reflect thesimplicity of modern lifestyle.

Funyu and Akagi were initially surprised to hear thatFujiwara, a modeler from the Sanitary ProductsDivision without specialisation in the kitchenproducts area, was appointed their Theme Leader.However, Funyu recalled:

Everyone was aware that the companywas in crisis. We all knew that we justhad to change all together and we werewilling to challenge existing taboos. So Iwould say we were ready to acceptFujiwara-san as our leader and embracehis firm conviction to create a productthat was easily understood at a glance,a conception befitting a designer. Heinsisted that kitchen sinks from 50 yearsago and modern-day kitchens could notbe the same and we should start bylooking into this point. His idea fell inwith mine to go back to the origin ofour everyday life.

With this perspective, the two planners and Fujiwaraplunged into the makeover process, with the twofielding questions from their leader regardingCleanladys current specifications and logic.

Recreating Cleanlady

The Cleanlady product line was launched in 1983 andsince then only minor changes were made every twoyears or so. By 1998, Cleanlady made upapproximately 30 percent of Cleanups total kitchensales.

Before Cleanlady was launched, a system kitchenwas regarded as a luxury item and sold for roughly10 times the price of an ordinary kitchen sink.Cleanladys original brief was to make systemkitchens more accessible to the general public under

the concept of the affordable system kitchen. WhenCleanlady sales peaked in the mid-1990s, severalminor model changes were made to the product linebut somehow these were not enough to arrest asubsequent decline in sales.

The product was due for a major overhaul but shouldthe replacement model fail, it would be fatal to thecompany as Cleanlady was the firms major sourceof not only sales, but also profits.

Re-conceptualising Cleanlady System Kitchen

At the start of the project, for the first time in years,Fujiwara examined the photographs of kitchens ofvarious brands. He was surprised to find that he couldnot distinguish Cleanups products from those ofcompetitors. He noted:

If I couldnt tell the difference, there wasno way our customers were going toeither. It was only natural for them tofollow the builders recommendations orchoose the cheapest option. Cleanladydid not even have a brand logo on thekitchen products then. In other words,we were selling the system as an off-brand kitchen.

Fujiwara knew that the model change had to be aradical and fundamental one. It was evident that therewas no reason to preserve the current Cleanladymodel as it had already lost momentum:

Our competitors in the market werechanging and while the kitchenspecialists still remained at the top ofthe industry, TOTO, Matsushita Denkoand TOSTEM were closing in frombehind. They were all competitors fromdifferent industries with stamina,technology and strong design skills. Asthe company that invented the originalconcept of system kitchen, we had tocome up with something entirely new,something that would create a newmarket in itself. I was resolved.

While the situation was dire there was a bright sideas well Fujiwara did not have to drain his energytrying to convince his colleagues of the need for adrastic change. The company was already coming

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

to a consensus that it must accept a fundamentalchange of philosophy and design.

Fujiwara recalled Honda, the car manufacturersmaxim One glance and its good and wasdetermined that his team would similarly create aproduct that plainly stood out as Cleanlady at aglance even if presented alongside photos of kitchensby other manufacturers.

What is a kitchen?

Fujiwara knew that to be easily understood at a glancewas a great idea. The problem was What was it thatneeded to be understood? What is a kitchen in themodern world anyway?

The three members of the new Cleanlady project teamagreed that the role of the kitchen in Japanese homeshad changed. In the past, the kitchen was at the backof the house, facing north, wet, damp, ill-ventilatedand had a distinct odor. It was not regarded as acentral part of the house but just a place to cook andclean up.

Since then, the kitchens function had evolved andextended in two directions, namely, before cookingand after cleaning. Additional tasks ranging fromstoring shopping to throwing out the garbage werealso being performed in the kitchen.

The symbolic meaning of the kitchen had alsochanged. In the past, the kitchen was an ordinaryday-to-day space, a typical ke (pronounced as kay).However, by the late 1990s, kitchens in new Japanesehouses were located in well-lit areas and had becomeplaces of hare1 where family members gathered andenjoyed conversations. Many people now spent alarge part of their day in the kitchen. Overall, thekitchen had evolved into the focal point of interactionfor many families.

Having noted the fundamental change in the role andthe meaning of the kitchen, Fujiwara was convincedthat the Cleanlady makeover should completely doaway with the old kitchen design styles. It was anidea absolutely befitting a company that started offas a zataku (low table) manufacturer. These tableshad been placed in rooms where the families gatheredfor meals and enjoyed conversations.

Fujiwara was also convinced that for the kitchen tobe a place of hare, it had to be clean:

I wanted to find a solution to get rid ofthe jumble in the kitchen with a gooddesign.

It seemed to him that the kitchen as a place of harewas not treated with due respect. Most kitchens weremessy. His instinct told him that this might be theissue and following through on this gut feel, he arrivedat his new concept for the system kitchen design.

He realised that what needed to be understood at aglance was It was a clean and tidy kitchen.

The mess in the kitchen

Standing in the way of becoming a clean and tidykitchen was the major challenge of storage.

Fujiwara felt that there were two major contributorsto this storage issue. The first was the issue ofstocking up food. It was quite common for housewivesto buy enough food for one whole week at a time.Still others purchased beer in large cartons or madebulk purchases using home delivery services offeredby co-operatives. This he felt, was an emerging trendas stocking up as a practice was not so commonwhen system kitchens were first introduced in the1980s. As such, most Japanese kitchens were notequipped to meet this growing need.

The other contributing factor was the growing plethoraof new cooking appliances in Japanese homes, all ofwhich needed to be stored somewhere. Hot platesused for occasional weekend family gatherings andportable gas stoves that could not be placed too nearthe kitchen gas stove, all needed to be put away whennot in use. Since there was no place to put them inthe standard kitchen, these new cooking tools wereusually left on top of cupboards, gradually becomingcovered in grease from cooking oil. Such bulky itemswere turning the kitchen into a mess.

If Fujiwara could come up with a new storage spacethat could tidy up the kitchen, it might give the newCleanlady a new shape. This perspective gaveFujiwara a hypothesis:

1 In traditional Japanese culture, a special ceremonial space is called a place of hare (pronounced as her-ray) in somewhat religious and symbolic connotation and on the contrary, day-to-day ordinary space is called a place of ke.

ABCC-2007-009


Overflowing things had to be neatlystored. The kitchen needed to be tidiedup to be appropriately called a space ofhare. In other word, the kitchen literallyneeded a cleanup.

Before going any further, Fujiwara wanted to confirmthat the project teams intuition was on track.

So a consumer kitchen storage survey was carriedwith a photo sampling of 150 households.

About 5,000 photographs were collected through thesurvey and an analysis of these photographsconfirmed the teams intuitive reasoning about theneed for better storage.

ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY

The kitchens in the photographs had appliances and food piled up in a mess. Consumers bought boxesof drinks on a bargain, but there was no space to keep them. They were stored in the corridor near thekitchen. Stocked up food items had nowhere to go and were piled up at the corner of the kitchen.

Photo 1: How beer and beverage cartons were stored

Similarly, there was no place for seldom used kitchen appliances. Portable gas stoves and donabe(earthen pots) were stored on top of the cupboards and refridgerators.

Photo 2: How hot plates were stored

Source: Cleanup Corporation


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

IN SEARCH OF NEW STORAGE SPACE

Now that Fujiwara and his team knew what to lookfor, they began to analyse current kitchenconventions.

Breaking Kitchen Design Conventions: Kekomi

Japanese kitchen cabinets were designed with asection called kekomi. This was the lateral sectionat the very bottom of the kitchen, indented about 10cmfrom the floor. Kekomi literally translated meant kick-in. The kekomi design rationale was similar to thatfor staircases, where the vertical part of each stepwas slightly indented. This was to avoid the climberstoes from hitting the step when ascending thestaircase. Similarly in the kitchen, the kekomi allowedspace for the toes to fit in while a person faced thesink or gas stove.

In the Japanese kitchen, the kekomi was created byplacing the kitchen on top of an architrave. This wasa 10cm high support stand that came with mostfurniture and was hollow inside.

As Fujiwara did not come from Kitchen ProductDivision and was not really familiar with the kitchendesign, he stopped to question the kekomi conventionand its origins.

On investigation he found that the kekomi might haveevolved out of the kitchens location in traditionaltimes. In old Japanese houses, kitchens always facednorth and tended to be damp. For reasons of hygienetherefore, kitchen fixtures were raised from the ground.However, by the 1990s, Japanese kitchens were nolonger located in damp areas and based on thisrationale; Fujiwara thought that there should no longerbe a need for the kekomi either.

However, there was still a practical reason for theexistence of the kekomi. The space created by thearchitrave was used by builders. Because the locationof drainage differed for each house, builders madeuse of this 10cm height allowance above the kitchenfloor to arrange and fit drainpipes during the installationof the piping system. Until then, the architrave hadbeen regarded as space reserved for the builder andnot for the kitchen manufacturer.

Fujiwara refused to accept this as common senseand decided to explore this directly with the builders.He found that the hollow space provided by thearchitrave might not be essential, as builders could

also install drainpipes behind the sink and notnecessarily under them.

Here therefore was a virtual storage dead space readilyfound in all kitchens. Fujiwara reckoned that he couldnot simply overlook this kitchen-wide 10cm highpotential storage space. If he could somehow usethis space appropriately, he could squeeze morestorage space out of the kitchen than was currentlypossible with conventional designs. Team member,Funyu noted:

After all, it was a preconception we werebound by industry commonsense.

So the challenge was how could this dead spacebe used for storage? The team began to developtheir ideas.

Matching Space and Function

Having discovered the potential of the architrave, itwas found that the approximate 10cm or 100mm itprovided was not enough. From the kitchen survey,the team knew what needed to be stored here. Hotplates and earthen pots could be stored without aproblem because they did not require that much heightclearance. But beer cartons for 500ml cans requireda storage height of at least 180mm. And gas cartridgesfor portable stoves needed an even greater space.These were 195mm high and needed to be storedupright for safety reasons. The team made up theirminds; the additional storage space had to be 215mmhigh, including clearance.

As the architrave of the existing Cleanup model wasonly 110mm high, another 105mm was required toreach the desired 215mm. The problem was: wherecould they find this additional space? Once again,the kitchen survey had the key to the answer.

Examining the survey photographs, the team notedthat the tops of many double-door cabinets wereunder-utilized. Goods tended to be piled up insidethe cabinet, creating a dead space above. Andsurprisingly, the cabinets themselves still had roominside that was not being used.

Fujiwara hit on a brainwave. By joining this 100mmplus with the 110 cm space from the architrave below,an entire extra space at the foot of the system kitchencould be made available. This would give Cleanlady amassive extra storage capacity of a clear 215mmacross the entire width and depth of the kitchen.

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

One Straight Line and the Floor Container wasborn

As Fujiwara grappled with how to design the additionalstorage space into the system kitchen, a thoughtcrossed his mind: Ive GOT IT a straight line!

He drew a single line approximately 10cm above thearchitrave across the whole length of the existingsystem kitchen. He could see in his mind a drawerwithin the architrave, sliding open without a sound,revealing a huge storage space with as much surfacearea as the sink itself.

In retrospect the idea seemed so obvious. All it tookwas one straight line and the concept for the FloorContainer was born.

A Drawer for the Floor Container

While the new Cleanlady was being developed,Cleanups top end model S.S. was released inSeptember 1998, after a full model change. The newdesign featured stainless steel drawers that blendedtastefully with contemporary kitchen interiors. Thesedrawers featured an all slide system which meantthat they could be pulled out fully (using top qualityrailing parts manufactured by Blum, a manufacturerbased in Austria). Drawer-type storage had just hitthe markets in Italy and Germany and Cleanupsadoption of these for its top end model S.S. was a hit(with adjustments to suit Japanese kitchenappliances), despite the high price tag.

When Fujiwara saw the new S.S. on display, hethought, for the first time since he had joined thecompany, this was a product he actually wanted forhimself. It was at this moment that Fujiwara wasconvinced that he had found a standard on which tobase his judgment. The new Cleanlady that he wasabout to create was going to be a product he wouldwant for himself and would feature similar type ofdrawers.

The Internal Response to the Floor Container

Fujiwara and the development team were all excitedabout the Floor Container that they had created forthe new Cleanlady. However, the Sales and MarketingDepartment staff was less enthusiastic.

The unspoken rule in the industry had been thatkitchen manufacturers should not touch the architrave.The architrave was regarded as outside the systemkitchen, an untouchable sanctuary of the builders.Cleanups Sales and Marketing staff thought that thebuilders the companys major customers wouldlikely view the new system kitchen design as achallenge to their prerogative and might well respondnegatively.

Would the builders be able to handle the systemkitchen installment if the design specifications werechanged? The current system kitchen products offeredby various firms were all very alike and builders wereaccustomed to proceeding with their work based onthe prevailing standards. There was a possibility that

One straight lineKekomi and architrave


ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

they would dislike any changes that involved extrawork. If the builders did not approve of Cleanlady, itwas highly unlikely that they would recommend itfrom the vast selection of kitchens available in themarket. And worse, if they felt that that Cleanup hadoverstepped its boundaries and intruded into theirterritory, it might well lead to builders completedisenchantment with all Cleanup products.

Just when Fujiwara and his team feared that thislukewarm response could stall the new concept, theyfound a keen supporter in Noburu Inoue, the founderof the company and Cleanups chairman. Inoue haddirectly headed many of the companys major productdevelopments including the first system kitchen inJapan. He was a self-made man who continued toattract awe and respect from the product developersin the company for his wealth of ideas for improvingnumerous prototypes in development. After Inoueinspected the first prototype of the new Cleanlady,he left a handwritten note for the team:

Thank you everyone. This is a goodproduct. I am pleased.

Chairman

Having waited for the chairmans evaluation withtrepidation, the team felt relief and joy when they readthe handwritten message. For Fujiwara, it was extraspecial. He was among the last generation ofdesigners in the firm who had received directeducation from the chairman. A demanding teacherduring those years that he had received the chairmanstutelage, Fujiwara never heard a single word of praisefrom him. That one handwritten note from the chairmanboosted his morale greatly, as well as that of his team.

The team still had to solve the problem of where thebuilders were going to install the kitchen water pipes.The teams solution was to propose that builders installpiping behind the system kitchen and not underneath.If they succeeded in convincing builders to do this, itwould be an industry first Cleanup would havecrossed the line. It would have gotten its hands onthe architrave and broken the taboo.

Solving a Technical Problem

Fujiwaras team had one last but vital obstacle toclear before releasing the product in the market. Itwas the smoothness of the drawer slides. The vaststorage space would be the unique selling point ofthe new product. To impress potential customers itwas crucial that they experienced a stress-free,

smooth sliding action a comfortable drawing feelwhen they tried opening the drawers in the showroom.

This smooth drawing feeling would not be easy toachieve. The new drawers were wider than usual andwere expected to store heavy goods such as beercartons and earthen pots. The heaviness of theseloads would cause the drawers to sink - making asmooth in-and-out slide impossible. The drawerrailings used in the existing Cleanlady models couldnot take the weight and still allow for a smooth slidingmotion of the drawers.

The position of the new drawers close to the floorcreated another problem. The drawers opened justabove floor level. This meant if a drawer were to sinkeven very slightly it would scrape the floor or get stuckagainst a kitchen mat.

Another problem was durability the drawer railingsneeded to be tough enough to withstand frequent use.And finally, the design team also had to consider thekekomi that inward dent needed for toe space underthe system. To create the kekomi, the lower railingsupporting the drawer had to be shorter than the actualdepth of the drawer.

With all these needs in mind, Fujiwara tried puttingcastors under the drawers in the first prototype. Testercustomers did not like it. Some customers hadkitchen mats or under-floor storage compartmentsthat did not do well with the castors. The rumblingsound as the castors grated along the floor was alsonot acceptable. And the drawers could not extendfully to allow complete use of their space.

All these problems were tough but it was essentialthat they be resolved in order to fulfill the concept ofthe product. The need for good quality railings wasinevitable.

Insisting on Quality Railing

Fujiwara knew that in order to utilize the limited spaceeffectively, the new floor containers needed to havefull extension capability, be able to endure lateralvibration and be durable as well. He regarded anAustrian company, Blum, as the manufacturer of thebest drawer railings in the world and knew that theirtop-of-the-line TANDEMBOX Plus would be the onlyrailing that could withstand the weight of the floorcontainers. Until then, this railing was only used inCleanups top model S.S..

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

TANDEMBOX Plus had the ability to withstand theheavy load of the drawers and yet slide open withouta sound. But it was expensive. The cost would bethree times that of the conventional railings used inthe existing Cleanlady model, but Fujiwara felt thatthere was no other option:

The smooth sliding feel and drawerstability were very important for the floorcontainer. This was no place to considersaving costs. The drawers had to makethe users feel good each time theyopened them. I was not going to give upthis railing.

Fujiwara showed the prototype to Blums presidentand explained the problems thoroughly. Heemphasised the advantages that such a deal couldbring to Blum:

Japanese consumers will love the productwithout doubt and the sliding kitchen willsurely be our next standard. This meansBlums business in Japan will grow. It willbe a win-win situation.

Blum was persuaded and he managed to negotiate aspecial price deal. With this in place, he was able touse Blums TANDEMBOX Plus for the new Cleanlady.

It was time to go public with Fujiwaras one straightline.

Marketing the new kitchen design concept: TheFloor Container

The name Floor Container was selected from a totalof 80 ideas including Storage-to-the-Floor but theword container resonated with everyone. Fujiwararecalled:

The concept was one of vast storage. Atruck container is strong, durable and hasenormous storage capacity, so I wantedto recreate the powerful impression of atruck container at the foot of the kitchen.

So what would recreate the feeling of a container?Fujiwaras answer was Aluminum.

Aluminium was perfect because Fujiwara wanted toexpress his Floor Container concept using a material

and color that could be differentiated from the othercabinet doors; also he did not want the FloorContainers to disappear into the rest of the kitchen:

While it was more cost effective to usethe same material as the front boards ofthe drawers and all other doors in thekitchen this would mean that the floorcontainer would not be clearly visible.

As a designer, he did not like the fact that in theformer system kitchen designs, the architrave wasuniformly black while the storage doors above wereof varying colours, leaving a straight black line acrossthe system kitchen. This he realised was the reasonwhy the designs from different companies all lookedalike.

Aluminium was also a good choice because such adrawer front would be able to stand the shock of beingkicked or being hit by a vacuum cleaner. It wouldalso reduce the possibility of discolouration acommon occurrence in kitchen cabinetry followingthe use of insecticides.

But for Fujiwara, the most important of all was thatthe design and appearance of the new model wouldbe completely different from the previous ones. Itwould trigger customers to test draw, and from thatdiscover the vast storage space available and thesmoothness of the drawer slide. There would also bea marked visual difference between the new modeland all current brands.

In addition, the texture of the aluminum front board offloor container was made more appealing. This wasdone by applying the Laurette process whichresulted in a texture similar to that of high qualityaluminum briefcases or trolleys. Customers who sawthe Floor Containers with this finish in the showroomswould not be able to resist opening it, wondering whatit was.

Fujiwaras one straight line was clearly andsymbolically realised in the product that had adistinctive design and the feel of a container. Thenew model embodied the innovative characteristicsand originality of the product in a way that was clearlyvisible.

As a final touch, Fujiwara also insisted on contrastingthe femininity of the model name Cleanlady withthe masculine image of the container.

ABCC-2007-009


INSPE

CTION

COPY

Not fo

r Repr

oductio

n

Producing Floor Containers with top-of-the-line railingsand entirely different specifications meant thatproduction costs were going to be inevitably higherthan those of conventional models. However, Cleanupmanagement was determined to put the pricecompetition behind and was ready to share Fujiwarasvision of appealing to value and not price, targetingend-users and not builders. If the end-users said theywanted the product, the builders were going to listen,even if they had to do some extra work.

The new Cleanlady was to be at the core of thisconcept and in September 1999, it was launched withthe tagline:

Floor Container System KitchenCleanlady the innovative systemkitchen with plenty of storage. You cantell the difference by looking at andfeeling the smoothness of the drawers.Finally a solution to tidying up.

To convey the design concept directly to endconsumers, Cleanup began an intensive campaigntargeted towards the end-users with front pagenewspaper advertisements and TV commercialsfeaturing Yuri Nakae, a young popular actress. Theresponse turned out to be very positive.

In 2000, Cleanup registered the design copyright forthe Floor Container.

A Successful Innovation

The New Cleanlady released in September 1999became a greater-than-expected hit. The wholecompany came to life with its release, buoyed by thesuccess of the new model. All departments began toturn vigorously in the same direction. The SalesDepartment complemented the end-user strategy bystrengthening the relationship with the buildersthrough training programs.

Until the release of Floor Container System KitchenCleanlady, Cleanups sales ratio for the newresidential market and the house reform market was6:4. After the launch, the ratio reversed completelyto 4:6 (based on turnover). The number of units ofCleanlady sold grew rapidly to become a top brand inthe system kitchen segment of the Japanese kitchenmarket at that time.

Sales of the new Cleanlady hit a new high of 60,000units per year, compared to just 25,000 units prior tothe launch of the new model. The average unit pricealso rose and the companys profit showed aV-shaped recovery.

Fujiwaras strong insistence on his design had beentested and welcomed by the market. His insistencewas in harmony with the companys basic principle:Never forget to see from the ordinary customersperspective.

The new Cleanlady became a benchmark for theindustry which was easily understood at a glanceand Cleanup was now able to compete with value,not price. Inspired by Cleanups success, almost allthe competitors have released products equipped withtheir own versions of Floor Containers.

Cleanup Corporation ABCC 2007

Documents

Transcript of Cleanup Corporation ABCC 2007