If there will be one after, there is no doubt that some had already sensed the paradigm shifts in the world of industrial goods and their consumption. Technological innovation must and must create meaning for those who use it, whether they are entrepreneurs or clients of these companies. It is on this observation that Kareen and Jacques relied to imagine their company Kippit. They are the epitome of the meeting of technology at the service of collaborative product design and the taking into account of the aspirations of the target and affected audience. We had the chance to welcome them to the entrepreneur program offered by SOLIDWORKS France and the pleasure of seeing their journey take the path of tremendous success. What inspirations can we retain for all those who are trying to change the world of industrialists?
“We chose the 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS platform and its SOLIDWORKS tools because our team of designers and especially our supplier partners already knew and used it. It was for us the pledge of a fluidity in the exchanges and consequently, of a certain saving of time in the development of our projects. Kareen says straight away. “There was a consensual evidence in this choice and we are completely satisfied. “But beyond this desire to facilitate the work of the teams, it is indeed the idea that a project must be collective and that the multiple skills required by the creation of a kettle that will no longer be thrown away, can to be brought together by technology. Kippit’s initial desire is to revolutionize the household appliance market by offering products whose lifespan will be infinite. We understand that the vision of a world that no longer throws objects away expresses our desire for greater responsibility, but also a very strong demand from brands in their role of guiding our behavior.
Diversity startup business team working together by 3D printer. Looking at projects and discussing. Selective focus to Man with beard holding laptop and talking to coworkers.
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But how to create this paradigm shift for industrial production?
There is a double technical challenge here. On the one hand, it is a question of sourcing and then of motivating the manufacturers of the different parts imagined and validated by the designers via SOLIDWORKS and its simulation tools, on the other hand, it is necessary to simplify the plans so that the assembly is made easier and above all safer in terms of the quality of the finished product. “Let’s not forget that our ambition is to make the product blueprints public so that consumers can troubleshoot them (if applicable) themselves by 3D printing a defective part.”. It will also be necessary to speed up the marketing of the product, which for Kippit was the subject of a pre-order via a crowd-founding campaign initiated on Ulule for the general public. This is all the more true as the success is there for the young brand and that more than 2,500 kettles have already been adopted by their future owners. “The urgency of moving from simulation to industrial production is very real”, Jacques insists, stressing that the tool allows this precision guaranteeing the conformity of the parts produced by its suppliers.
The higher the promises, the more specific and permanent support for entrepreneurs must be. The entrepreneur program that SOLIDWORKS offers to young designers is a demonstration of this. It is not only a question of providing them with licenses with access to all the resources of the 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS platform. It is suggested that they follow a complete online training course to get started as quickly as possible, but also to benefit from technical and marketing support. Thus, for example, the highlighting of projects could materialize in partnerships at certain international events in which SOLIDWORKS and its teams participate.
As a reminder, the 3DEXPERIENCE Works for Startups program offers new businesses that meet the eligibility criteria the following benefits:
So why does this work so well for Kippit?
Like many projects or start-ups, the vision of progress combines innovation with the ideal of collaborative work. We could undoubtedly refer to the strength of collective intelligence, to this African saying which would like us to go further. Moreover, Kareen talks about his future clients from the angle of the community of “Kippers”, people who wish to keep their objects all their life. This common desire will bring them together around the brand and it is therefore natural that it is at the origin of it. Thus teams of all stakeholders work both separately and together thanks to the platform. They find there precisely this facility, this agility which increases collective performance by enhancing individual skills.
One can easily believe that this is the goal of any business. But where the industrial world of yesterday united skills around a product and its large-scale production, today it is the combined skills that define the best product. A kind of inversion of models which gives back all its place to the end customer. “When we imagined this project, we started with analyze unmet consumer expectations, and the short lifespan of the product and the impossibility of repair appeared overwhelmingly in the responses. But going further, we also found that consumers were talking to us different uses and totally ignored. This, for example, is what prompts us to create a scalable product. A product that will grow richer thanks to the community instead of wasting away in the back of a cupboard or ending up in a recycling center, ”says Kareen with passion.
And this is what emerges as a common feature when we discover all the entrepreneurs that this program brings together: there is a very strong desire to compare the ideas of a collective imagining a useful object with those of a community of users. future. It is as if nothing could be done without it being judged useful and responsible by the customers. Is this a turning point in the history of the industrial world? It is probably too early to say so, but the collaboration between different intelligences, between man and machines, opens up new perspectives. It is therefore not surprising to find that this program attracts and brings together many entrepreneurs, creating a large community linked by innovation and this collaborative vision of development.
At Kippit, confidence is total both in the tool that accelerates projects and their market launch and in the continuous sharing of intelligence between the community of customers and the community of designers or engineers asked to offer the best responnse. It is besides all the direction of the innovation which meets its public. Why not imagine that the public has a key role in a responsible vision of the industrial objects that they use in their daily life throughout their life? What if it was ultimately the public that inspired and validated innovation?
“We have already launched the next products in development and we are confident that they will be put into production soon. Some, like the washing machine, require more complex research for parts to assemble and eventually replace, but the momentum is there and we can count on strong support from our customers and partners, ”concludes Kareen. The future is collaborative innovation and this collaboration will involve both manufacturers and their customers.
SOLIDWORKS design software is as simple as it is powerful. It enables companies to realize their visions and reach markets around the world. SOLIDWORKS® solutions focus on how you work every day, with an intuitive and integrated 3D design environment that covers all aspects of product development and helps maximize your design and engineering productivity. Over 2 million designers and engineers around the world use SOLIDWORKS to bring their designs to life, from fun gadgets to innovations for a better future.
