American Standard Brands Innovates for the Greater Good
An inspiring new project from American Standard Brands demonstrates how consumer marketing expertise paired with engineering know-how can open up opportunities in emerging markets, while reinvigorating a 140-year-old iconic plumbing brand.
In February 2012, through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, American Standard engineers set their product development sights on designing a low-cost, pre-fabricated toilet system for use in developing countries. Drawing upon existing secondary research, American Standard set out to develop a means to reduce disease transmission by closing off open air, concrete-lined pit latrines commonly used throughout Southeast Asia, Africa and other developing countries.
American Standard product designers followed a Human Centered Design approach during a fact-finding trip to Bangladesh’s Rajshahi region in March 2012. Working in concert with the anti-poverty non-profit, International Development Enterprises (iDE), staffers began to research local customs and sanitation habits, while considering potential product development solutions. A team of industrial engineers then developed a dozen possible product models designed to address the unsafe practice of using open pit latrines, without changing consumer behavior or drastically raising the latrine’s cost. An important element was addressing the user experience. If American Standard could develop a product that the villagers’ desired or aspired for their families, the health benefits of improved sanitation practices would naturally follow. After months of internal testing and engineering adjustments, product designers created the SaTo (pronounced SAH-toh, derived from “Safe Toilet”), a strikingly basic, trap-door style, sanitary toilet pan that uses ingeniously simple mechanical and water seals to close off pit latrines from the open air.
By incorporating existing consumer behavior, the SaTo reduces disease transmission from flying insects that come into contact with human waste. In addition, the unpleasant sights and smells of the open pit latrine were eliminated.
In December 2012, the company’s engineers returned to Bangladesh to collect user feedback, while beginning the sourcing and manufacturing discussions for the chosen “trap-door” prototype. The final SaTo retail price point of $1.50 allows for profit-taking at every step of the supply chain, yielding not just safer sanitation, but also a sustainable business model to drive widespread adoption and help reduce poverty.
To supplement local sales of SaTo pans, American Standard launched its Flush for Good campaign in March 2013, with the aim of increasing awareness of the global sanitation crisis and showcasing how innovative plumbing solutions help save lives in developing countries. One key element of this campaign is the company’s “Buy a Champion, Be a Champion” program, whereby one SaTo is donated for every Champion toilet sold in North America. During 2013, the company donated more than 533,000 SaTo pans to NGO partners BRAC, WaterAid and Save the Children for distribution in Bangladesh over the next two years.
Based on these successes, American Standard received a second grant from the Gates Foundation to conduct a similar initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia and Kenya), but this time creating a sanitation solution for an environment where water is scarce.
“As we expand our sanitation initiative from Bangladesh to Sub-Saharan Africa, we will follow the same product development methodology and mindset: understand what people need, determine what’s possible to manufacture locally and economically, and find the match that works,” explains Jim McHale, Ph.D., vice president of research, development and engineering at American Standard Brands. “To be successful we must tie into an existing, viable supply chain, placing our sanitation solution in the same channels where similar consumer housewares products are already sold.”
American Standard will reach an estimated 5.5 million people globally by 2017 using SaTos and other customized plumbing solutions.
“Understand what people need, determine what’s possible to manufacture locally and economically, and find the match that works.”
—Jim McHale, Ph.D., Vice President of Research, Development and Engineering, American Standard Brands
In February 2012, through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, American Standard engineers set their product development sights on designing a low-cost, pre-fabricated toilet system for use in developing countries. Drawing upon existing secondary research, American Standard set out to develop a means to reduce disease transmission by closing off open air, concrete-lined pit latrines commonly used throughout Southeast Asia, Africa and other developing countries.
American Standard product designers followed a Human Centered Design approach during a fact-finding trip to Bangladesh’s Rajshahi region in March 2012. Working in concert with the anti-poverty non-profit, International Development Enterprises (iDE), staffers began to research local customs and sanitation habits, while considering potential product development solutions. A team of industrial engineers then developed a dozen possible product models designed to address the unsafe practice of using open pit latrines, without changing consumer behavior or drastically raising the latrine’s cost. An important element was addressing the user experience. If American Standard could develop a product that the villagers’ desired or aspired for their families, the health benefits of improved sanitation practices would naturally follow. After months of internal testing and engineering adjustments, product designers created the SaTo (pronounced SAH-toh, derived from “Safe Toilet”), a strikingly basic, trap-door style, sanitary toilet pan that uses ingeniously simple mechanical and water seals to close off pit latrines from the open air.
By incorporating existing consumer behavior, the SaTo reduces disease transmission from flying insects that come into contact with human waste. In addition, the unpleasant sights and smells of the open pit latrine were eliminated.
In December 2012, the company’s engineers returned to Bangladesh to collect user feedback, while beginning the sourcing and manufacturing discussions for the chosen “trap-door” prototype. The final SaTo retail price point of $1.50 allows for profit-taking at every step of the supply chain, yielding not just safer sanitation, but also a sustainable business model to drive widespread adoption and help reduce poverty.
To supplement local sales of SaTo pans, American Standard launched its Flush for Good campaign in March 2013, with the aim of increasing awareness of the global sanitation crisis and showcasing how innovative plumbing solutions help save lives in developing countries. One key element of this campaign is the company’s “Buy a Champion, Be a Champion” program, whereby one SaTo is donated for every Champion toilet sold in North America. During 2013, the company donated more than 533,000 SaTo pans to NGO partners BRAC, WaterAid and Save the Children for distribution in Bangladesh over the next two years.
Based on these successes, American Standard received a second grant from the Gates Foundation to conduct a similar initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia and Kenya), but this time creating a sanitation solution for an environment where water is scarce.
“As we expand our sanitation initiative from Bangladesh to Sub-Saharan Africa, we will follow the same product development methodology and mindset: understand what people need, determine what’s possible to manufacture locally and economically, and find the match that works,” explains Jim McHale, Ph.D., vice president of research, development and engineering at American Standard Brands. “To be successful we must tie into an existing, viable supply chain, placing our sanitation solution in the same channels where similar consumer housewares products are already sold.”
American Standard will reach an estimated 5.5 million people globally by 2017 using SaTos and other customized plumbing solutions.
“Understand what people need, determine what’s possible to manufacture locally and economically, and find the match that works.”
—Jim McHale, Ph.D., Vice President of Research, Development and Engineering, American Standard Brands