1. Kohler developed the Sok overflowing bath to provide a relaxing soaking experience by recirculating and filtering the bath water to keep it warm and clean using an overflow channel. 2. Extensive prototyping and testing was required to refine the design of the overflow channel and ensure the bath could be manufactured reliably using fiberglass-reinforced plastic. 3. The Sok bath was an immediate success upon release, selling four times the projected number of units in the first seven months.

1. U9718007 楊芝懿

2. S0k Overflowing Bath A long, hot soak in a bath as one of life's simple pleasures, or so it would seem. In practice , we all know the difficulty of keeping submerged and warm, and of keeping the bath at a constant temperature-not so simple , after all. That is, until the introduction of the Sok overflowing bath. 水平面下的

3. This reinvention of the soaking bath uses an overflow channel to recirculate water, creating a waterfall effect that soothes and engages the bather. While the water is recirculated, it is filtered and heated, so bathwater stays warm and clean; the recirculation also creates a natural effervescence that is more low-key than that created by a whirlpool. 再發明 低調的

4. "The initial idea of the bath came to us because, listening to our customers, we were hearing that people could not get a bath deep enough to keep them warm and to give them a really deep soak," says Carter Thomas of Kohler Co. Consumers also wanted a new experience-a bath that would be visually interesting, quiet, restful, and reminiscent of bathing outside. Adds Thomas, "Obviously, they didn't say, I want something that overflows into a channel and has color-we had to discern that." The bath also fit into Kohler's strategy of marketing the concept of a home spa-a dedicated area in the house similar to a home gym or home theater-to give new interest to an overlooked category and to provide interior designers with a more engaging product to offer their customers. 回憶的

5. The team came up with a number of concepts for a soaking bath; the bath that mimicked some of the qualities of an infinity pool was the one the team chose to develop. After initial brainstorming, Kohler quickly went into crude modeling of the bath in cardboard and plywood. “We‘re a very hands-on organization where we go right to the three- dimensional very quickly, and then we may follow up with the computer work," says Thomas, "because ultimately the experience is what we're after here, and you really can't get that from the computer." 品質 模仿 空間的

6. The rough prototypes were used to get an idea of what the size and shape of the bath would be, how many people it would hold comfortably, and how the depth felt. The data was adjusted and put into the computer model; then, the team built a rough model that would hold water. This model did not yet have pumps or motors; it was simply used so the team could evaluate the experience of the bath itself. 原型 調整 評估

7. In evaluating this experience, the team had help from Kohler's human factors lab, which has access to a database of information about employees throughout the company. Employees were called and asked to spend half a day in the lab evaluating the bath. "The different sizes of people and the different volumes and the way people feel in different vessels of water surrounding them can be quite interesting," says Thomas. The team put that feedback into a third set of models, which now had detailing close to what the team wanted for the final design as well as working electronics. 資料庫 船

8. From this testing, the team learned that the speed with which bathers entered the bath was a big variable in the proper functioning of the channel overflow. If bathers got in quickly, there was a good chance that the resulting water displacement wouldn't be caught by the channel and instead would end up on the floor. "We tried to go wide and shallow with the overflow channel, but that just did not work," says Thomas. "We had to go deep and narrow to make sure the water would stay in the channel, go down to the bottom of the channel, curl up on itself, and then stay in there and not ramp back out." The overflow channel also affected another of the team's primary objectives: keeping the bath quiet. The height the water fell from the interior well into the overflow channel turned out to make a big difference in the noise level of the bath, so the team had to take that factor into account when refining the overflow channel. 換置 水淺的地方 蜷縮而臥

9. Every change in a crucial element-the size of the pump, the volume of water contained in the bath, the size and shape of the overflow channel-affected all the others, and more adjustments had to be made to the rest of the design. As Thomas puts it, "These variables are all interdependent , and if you change one of them, the applecart really gets upset." At the same time, the design had to allow for a wide variation in one of the most crucial variables-the person using the bath, a factor that affects both the volume and the speed of the water displacement. 相互依賴的 決定性的

10. One of the biggest challenges facing the team was perfecting the manufacture of the product. The chosen material-fiberglass-reinforced plastic (commonly used in the manufacture of boats)-had many advantages: It allowed for high-strength, thin, cross-sectioned parts, which were necessary to allow room for the electrical components contained within the walls of the bath; it could be crafted with the precise geometrical detailing necessary to make the overflow channel work; and it allowed for a colorful and highly durable surface. There was one major drawback, however: The choice of this material meant Kohler would have to reinstitute manufacturing processes that they had not performed in years. The team was worried that it might be difficult to get right, especially on a product where precise manufacture was critical to success. 材料－強化玻璃纖維的塑膠 再學會 持久的

11. Because of Kohler unfamiliarity with the material and the intricacy of the overflow channel mechanism, the team decided to set up an independent manufacturing cell at their headquarters in Wisconsin and do a small prototype run, much as the auto industry does. They brought up personnel from their manufacturing facility in Texas to assist. In doing so, they particularly wanted to prove two parts of the process-that the water would sheet out sharply and consistently into the overflow channel, and that the manufacture cycle time would be as planned. The manufacture is a complex, multistep process-the bathing well and the overflow channel are cured, demolded, and trimmed separately, and then bonded together with high-strength methacrylate structural adhesive and reinforced by support brackets-so it was critical that the timing of each step could be predicted accurately. 紛亂 總部 整理 多步驟

12. In the test run, the team found out that all the assumptions they had made in CAD modeling were correct-the prototypes did indeed work as envisioned, and they could be manufactured within the range of time the team had predicted. "Everyone on the team and also executive management breathed a huge sigh of relief,“ says Thomas. "We were confident about it before, but I think until you actually see that part come off a prototype line, you don't really know what you have." The prototypes-fewer than a halfdozen in all-were then sent to a packaging lab so packaging and shipping specifics could be determined. 假定

13. The sok overflowing bath was an immediate hit with consumerswhile the sales team had projected a sales goal of just 100 units in the first seven months of release, at the end of that time they had sold quadruple that number, putting them close to surpassing their third-year sales projections. A year after its initial release, Kohler added chromatherapy, which allowed users to enhance their bathing experience with a variety of colored lights; this feature had been planned from the start, but the team didn't have time to incorporate it into the product's first incarnation.

14. The Sok was designed to be flexible enough to be easily incorporated in any style of room, whether traditional or contemporary . An early version of the overflow channel (left) was too wide and shallow to enable the recirculation to work as the team had envisioned ; the final version (right) was deeper and narrower. 合併的 同時代的人 想像

15. Information from~ Design Secrets ： PRODUCT