@combo52
You made a question and answered it.
"why did FD abandon it so fast ?"
"When the soiled towels emerged from the washer they were only cleaned in ares, only about 1/2 the towel got effectively washed which showed the very poor turnover and cleaning of this washer."
The cleaning was mediocre and tons of people started to complain.
Well, complaints can be overseen. The problem was people returning their washers, profit was affected, executive heads rolling, engineers saying "well, we tried to warn you but you insisted to make it that way because of costs".
One thing people need to learn: Don't blame the designers and engineers. Years ago everything was determined by us. Nowadays everything, I mean ABSOLUTELY everything is about cost and profits. Satisfy the investors, AKA people that NEVER used a washing machine because they always had maids even to wipe their butts.
Electrolux has a super know how, the company probably had the very best engineers and designers in the World (I don't consider myself the best, but it was great to work with them) But..... THOUSANDS of designs were made, from small appliances to professional equipment and then the drawings were thrown in the fridge to be forgotten forever. Most people may think the engineering team work in one of those fancy offices that look like Google's offices (yes, part of the work is really like that) and we NEVER have our hands dirty. In reality, we use that cute office with beanbags and free snacks less than 1 hour per day and the rest of the time we're confined in that cold lab working hard.
My arms years ago looked like a construction worker or a bodybuilder because of dozens of times per day lifting drums and tubs and concrete counterweights. At Electrolux we had state-of-the-art technology, including a 3D projection room, but even with all the modern digital technology, nothing can 100% replace real-life prototyping... and after lots of work, a spoiled bastard wearing a tie that NEVER studied engineering, that doesn't even know how to replace a lightbulb simply say "nope, let's make it cheaper. eliminate this, eliminate that, instead of using this material let's use that other one and we can save 4 cents per unit in this part, 2 cents in the other part, etc.
Then we start to complain and warn them about the obvious "we specified this for a reason, we studied all the possibilities before we came up with a solution, that's what we're paid to do" Then we end up having our asses kicked out of the company and being replaced by trainees that will do what the executives want without complaining, without warning them, and they don't give a s**t about their reputation.
Working in a huge company again? NEVER! That's why I love my job at The Laundry Alternative.
The CEO knows nothing about design or engineering (he doesn't even know how to use vise-grips), but he's fantastic on business. Sometimes I ask him opinions about design and his answer, as the company CEO, the big boss is always "Thomas, that's not my area, if I touch it, I'll make s**t. I trust and respect your knowledge. If you say this part needs to me like this, it will be exactly like this."
It's great when a company is organized and people have autonomy to be "the boss" only in their areas. People will never see me making decisions regarding business or marketing at TLA. That's not my area, I know nothing about business, I'm a disaster selling things. If I start a lemonade stand right in front of my house I'd go bankrupt in hours. That's simply not my world and my team has somebody that does business much better than I can dare to imagine. It's also great to see the "old school" engineering and design being respected nowadays.
The problem for all the big corporations started when Business, Marketing and Financial departments started to have more decision autonomy on the projects than the engineers and designers so satisfy investors.
I can visualize in my mind the Speed Queen engineers and designers DESPERATE, knowing they we're putting their names in a horrible product because "the boss" told them to do it.
I'm from a time when the CEO would make a meeting to pull on our ears because customers complained about poor quality and demand we work harder to make it better.
I was in a meeting room with the new Electrolux CEO completely out of control screaming and yelling at us because of a pile of emails from customers happy because their appliances lasted almost 15 years and the marketing department had determined they should last 10 years at the most. Think of somebody so angry he was even spitting, almost like a dobermann literally saying Do you want to destroy our company? What the F-word you idiots are you trying to do? If the products don't break we won't sell more, it's suicide!"
That phrase made me think loud "What the F-word I'm doing here? I didn't dedicate my whole life to be called an idiot and intentionally make poor designs knowing they will fail. I refuse to put MY name and MY reputation at risk. It was good working with you, excuse me, I'm leaving this room right now and going straight to human resources to return my badge".
