Do you know when the first dishwasher was sold in Japan? It was in 1960 when an electric company called Matsushita Denki started to sell the machines.
By the way, the company is now called Panasonic.
Since then, it has sold 10,000,000 machines. I hear that its saturation level is about 30% in Japanese homes.
Do you know when the first dishwasher was sold in Japan? It was in 1960 when an electric company called Matsushita Denki started to sell the machines.
By the way, the company is now called Panasonic.
Since then, it has sold 10,000,000 machines. I hear that its saturation level is about 30% in Japanese homes.
However, the first product sold very poorly. The company made it copying an American one. It was very big for 12 people and was not able to make dishes clean.
Because the Japanese eat rice, it was very difficult for the machine to wash them up. In addition, the machine used a lot of water to wash dishes. As a result, the first product was criticized badly by a lot of people.
Mr. Taniguchi Yutaka, the product designer of the company began to improve the machine. It should be small for a Japanese kitchen and be able to wash up dishes covered with rice starch.
He thought that dishes should be washed by shooting hot water from turning two propellers at the bottom. The water should be 60 degrees Celsius.
The machine is for a family composed of four members, so 24 dishes and glasses should be washed at a time.
There were three difficulties to make a good washing machine.
First, when the first product was sold in Japan, it sold very poorly. One of the reasons was that it needed a part to connect to a tap in the kitchen. In those days, there were about 5,000 kinds of taps, so he asked a factory to make a special part to connect to various shaped ones.
Second, there should be a shelf for glasses inside the machine, but shooting hot water can’t make them clean. Yutaka made many trial products, but they didn’t work out. He worked day and night and came to be almost burned out.
One day, his wife, Chiemi advised him to go playing tennis with her for a change. He refreshed himself with the sport and came to an idea for the new machine.
The shooting hot water should be hit dishes at the bottom and later hit the glasses on the shelf like a ball bounding from one place to another.
Third, to make the product small, he had to develop a special door for it. Yutaka asked one of his subordinates, Mr. Kajiwara Hiroshi, to do so.
It was very hard for him to come up with a new idea, but he was able to develop a special door which can be folded in haves copying the front door of a bus.
Mr. Taniguchi thought that the new machine had to have an additional advantage to sell well. It saves a lot of water. Actually, it uses only one-seventh of water to wash dishes, compared with washing dishes with hands.
One day when the new products started to be sold, Mr. and Mrs. Taniguchi went to a nearby electric appliance shop. They were delighted to see a crowd in front of the machine.
As of 2008, one million machines sold in a year. The total sales of the product have been 10,000,000 machines so far.
My family has one of them. It works for my family every day. I am very grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Taniguchi and their company after knowing how hard they worked and they spent as many as 40 years to develop it.
However, the first product sold very poorly. The company made it copying an American one. It was very big for 12 people and was not able to make dishes clean.
Because the Japanese eat rice, it was very difficult for the machine to wash them up. In addition, the machine used a lot of water to wash dishes. As a result, the first product was criticized badly by a lot of people.
Mr. Taniguchi Yutaka, the product designer of the company began to improve the machine. It should be small for a Japanese kitchen and be able to wash up dishes covered with rice starch.
He thought that dishes should be washed by shooting hot water from turning two propellers at the bottom. The water should be 60 degrees Celsius.
The machine is for a family composed of four members, so 24 dishes and glasses should be washed at a time.
There were three difficulties to make a good washing machine.
First, when the first product was sold in Japan, it sold very poorly. One of the reasons was that it needed a part to connect to a tap in the kitchen. In those days, there were about 5,000 kinds of taps, so he asked a factory to make a special part to connect to various shaped ones.
Second, there should be a shelf for glasses inside the machine, but shooting hot water can’t make them clean. Yutaka made many trial products, but they didn’t work out. He worked day and night and came to be almost burned out.
One day, his wife, Chiemi advised him to go playing tennis with her for a change. He refreshed himself with the sport and came to an idea for the new machine.
The shooting hot water should be hit dishes at the bottom and later hit the glasses on the shelf like a ball bounding from one place to another.
Third, to make the product small, he had to develop a special door for it. Yutaka asked one of his subordinates, Mr. Kajiwara Hiroshi, to do so.
It was very hard for him to come up with a new idea, but he was able to develop a special door which can be folded in haves copying the front door of a bus.
Mr. Taniguchi thought that the new machine had to have an additional advantage to sell well. It saves a lot of water. Actually, it uses only one-seventh of water to wash dishes, compared with washing dishes with hands.
One day when the new products started to be sold, Mr. and Mrs. Taniguchi went to a nearby electric appliance shop. They were delighted to see a crowd in front of the machine.
As of 2008, one million machines sold in a year. The total sales of the product have been 10,000,000 machines so far.
My family has one of them. It works for my family every day. I am very grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Taniguchi and their company after knowing how hard they worked and they spent as many as 40 years to develop it.