What if Fire Prevention Was Evaluated from a New Scale- A Very Large Scale.
Climate Change
Climate change is on the rise. What you eat, how you commute, and what products you buy are all big factors in this movement. While the East Coast has been flooding, the West Coast has seen a rise in forest fires and droughts. Yikes! But there’s hope! By making intentional proactive design decisions, the damage done can be reduced drastically and Mother Earth can keep providing a home for future generations.
Larger Scale
The end cycle of a product is important, but what if the beginning stages were reevaluated all together. Recycling plastic is a great start, don’t get me wrong! As a top paper manufacturing company, we wanted to push the limits. After all, who doesn’t get a kick out of trying new things. So we sough after the question:
“What could we bring to the table to reduce the carbon footprint for a company across their entire product line?”
The Beginning
We had a couple concepts and tested them all. We started funneling down the concepts and landed on one we all liked. The huge appeal? 72% reduction in plastic waste and 53% reduction in total packaging weight. And now the million dollar question:
Can the concept be reproduced across the board, and to what extent?
The Process
We would begin to view all of First Alert’s products. Yup, all 100+ SKUs! We wanted to make sure all products were considered from the very beginning. This way the solution offered would work streamlined across the board. We began noticing similariites in their products or what we would call groups. From the 100+ products, we landed on 15 different groups. Feel free to check out some of the groups above!
The Manufacturing- Aka Where the Magic Happens!
How much more can the designs be consolidated? For all the different products we were able to come up with …drum roll please…
3 different card designs meaning only three different seal patterns. This means a lot less tooling and more aluminum is saved!
15 different molds for all the products, with two being universal backs to work for SKUs! Score!
2 different shipping containers, with the first container being used 98% of the time. Hello effeceincy and less waste.
Overall Consensus:
A more environmental friendly product. Now when you buy First Alert products, not only are you ensuring your house is safe, you are making a conscious effort as a buyer to support less waste. Thank you and enjoy those outdoors!