i n n ovat i o n
DEVELOPING A SMARTER WINDOW
SYSTEM
DISRUPTING DORIC ’ S DESIGN APPROACH
DAVID WINSTON
Head of Research & Development , Doric
01 The award winning DN8000 High Performance Multi-Point Locking System .
02 David Winston and the Doric R & D Team .
The term ‘ disruptive ’ would typically bring to mind thoughts of technology based start-ups situated in Silicon Valley , or the likes of Airbnb and Uber who dramatically displaced the established market leaders by founding a new value network . It would be less likely to think of a traditional industry such as the door and window industry .
Founded in 1972 , Doric is the largest privately owned hardware manufacturer in Australia and has a long history of providing innovative door and window hardware for residential , commercial and architectural applications .
In order to explore new markets and move away from the traditional waterfall development approach , Doric explores new ways to create hardware . One of these ways is an approach called design thinking .
At the heart of the design thinking methodology is a human centred design approach which enables holistic product development . Design thinking provides tools that generates customer understanding but also challenges managerial mindsets and processes .
Doric ’ s DN8000 multipoint system was the first project undertaken with this new design methodology . Before bringing the Euro groove multipoint technology to Australia , Doric wanted to have a complete understanding of the Australian market in order to identify all stakeholder issues .
These systems create the next level of energy efficient homes , however , research was needed to validate and explore what features were needed to make the product a success .
Mechanical Design Engineer and project team leader , Aritesh Nand , conducted research in four countries in order to identify opportunities to improve the product at each stage of its lifecycle .
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20 Australian Window Association