SCAMPER and the Washing Machine

What are your past experiences of mind mapping (if any?). 

I have never really used Mindmapping outside of a specific task that required me to use it. I feel that I have a relatively good ability to organise my thoughts, though I am certainly not as creative or innovative as I would like to be. I found the mindmapping exercise to be very interesting. I will attempt to utilise this in my work and life in the coming week. Next week I will blog about how this process has gone.

Could you pick on object from around the house and apply SCAMPER to see how you could come up with a new product?

My mind is slightly clouded by the 1st assignment in which I focused on the cooking stove. For this exercise, I will focus on the washing machine, which represents perhaps the appliance which creates perhaps the single biggest waste of water out of all household appliances.

The Washing Machine

Substitute the external water supply and drainage system with re-usable water and a filter/ treatment function. The vast majority of water is wasted when cleaning clothes. The re-use of the water could be achieved by cycling the water back into a container which filters and treats the water to ensure it is clean and can be used again for the next washing cycle.

Combine the washing machine and tumble drier. The tumble drier wastes all of the water that is contained in the clothes that are to be dried. By cycling this water back into a combined washer drier water filter/treatment device, this wastage could be eliminated.

Adapt the washer/drier to reuse water. (Alternate, additional idea could include water from the shower or the sink). 

Modify the device to incorporate a water filter/treatment function. This would require a water tank with sufficient storage capacity for a given load. In order to ensure consumer confidence, the water quality once treated would need to be almost on par with the water quality from external sources. With modern technology, this could be achieved. (Alternate idea: FLOW> Central Water Source- Washing Machine/Drier- Toilet- Central Water Source).

Put to Other Uses The alternate idea above involves using the washing machine/drier water as the water for the toilet. This would still require a home based water tank, but would remove the need for such extensive water filtration/ treatment).

Eliminate The key goal here is the elimination of waste. Water can be re-used rather than wasted.

Reverse the flow of waste water from Central - Washing Machine - Central to Central - Washing Machine/Drier - Home Tank - Washing Machine/Drier - Home Tank etc.

Rearrange Household water usage flows. Centralise water usage across Washing Machine and Drier (and possibly sink, toilet and shower).