The man for practical trials
Application engineer Michael Bühler puts new products to the test before their market launch. He also found potential for improvement when testing out the new FlowFit piping system.
Before a product is launched, any problems that may crop up in practice have to be uncovered. With this in mind, the new FlowFit piping system also had to pass some extensive tests. This is where Michael Bühler comes in.
A direct connection to the customer
As application engineer, he checks whether the ideas and prototypes work in reality, and whether they meet the needs of the target group. To do this, Michael Bühler also has to analyse the customer requirements: “In order to find out the requirements of our customers, I travel to construction sites and other countries,” he explains. The findings from his visits are then incorporated in the work of the development teams.
FlowFit is the first new piping system to be launched at Geberit for several years. For the practical trial, Michael Bühler invited plumbers from different countries to Rapperswil-Jona (CH) to test the products extensively over a couple of days.
Valuable feedback
The testers were not only given a first, exclusive look at the new product, but were also encouraged to make suggestions for possible improvements. This approach quickly bore fruit, with some very good ideas that were then incorporated in the end product. One of these was making sure the pressing indicators had different colours for large and small fittings. During the in-house practical trial, these were the same colour. “Following feedback from the plumbers, we changed this so that the pressing indicators were divided up into two colours. This makes it virtually impossible to mix up a pressing jaw and fitting,” explains the application engineer.