Agile by Design: From field data to scalable off-grid technology

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How The Washing Machine Project turns community insight into robust, repairable products at scale, and what manufacturers can learn from that approach.   
 
What is the Washing Machine Project? 
The Washing Machine Project exists to reduce the burden of handwashing clothes. Its solution is a manual washing machine designed for communities with limited access to electricity and water. To date, the team has distributed thousands of units that have reached about 50,000 people across 13 countries. 
Laura Tuck, R&D Lead, will explain the approach at Sustainable Industry Live in her talk, Agile by Design: From field data to scalable off-grid technology. 

The Sustainable Industry team sat down with Laura to get more insight into the project, and how they approach scaling up.... 

Start with the context, not the concept 

Ask Laura Tuck what shaped the latest Divya manual washing machine and she starts with people, places and constraints. Families hand-wash daily. Homes are small. Shipping costs matter. The machine therefore must carry a 5 kg load and “feel” compact in tight spaces. A simple tweak, such as a tubular base that frees storage space under the unit, makes a noticeable difference in a single-room home. Design choices flow from lived reality, not a wish list.   

Materials that suit the setting 

Early plastic based prototypes under performed in the field. Repairs were hard. Local skills leaned toward metalwork. The team therefore moved to metal, improving repairability and enabling in country fixes. The switch also cut weight in some components by up to 80% through intelligent thickness optimisation, which limits shipping emissions and eases handling, while extending useful life per unit of embodied carbon. Context decided the material; the life cycle justified it.  

Design for change, not for tooling 

Speed matters when feedback is rich and varied. The team designed Divya to be built with no fixed tooling, so a reliability insight from the field can land on the next production batch within weeks. In practice that means laser cut sheet parts, straightforward assemblies and fast turnarounds. The product becomes a living platform, not a frozen release.   

Build tight feedback loops 

Remote communities make feedback harder, so local partners are essential. The Project trains partners on a survey tool that works in low connectivity settings, and it accepts updates by whatever channel works on the day: survey upload, WhatsApp message, email, even LinkedIn. Photos and short videos are gold. A small R&D team of five reviews signals separates one off issues from systemic ones and then prioritises the design sprint.   

Scale has changed the mechanism. In the beginning, the team video-called individual users weekly. Today, with high hundreds to low thousands of machines in regular use, they rely on structured surveys that auto generate trend reports. Insight now arrives at programme speed, not meeting speed.   

Make repair local and normal 

Repair is designed in. Every assembly and disassembly step can be done with spanners, Allen keys and screwdrivers. Any local mechanic can strip and rebuild a machine. Confidence is the barrier, not capability, so the team runs “train the trainer” sessions, often women only, to build skills and spread know-how through each community. The effect is practical and cultural: repairs happen faster, and users gain agency.   

Use models where they help, trust field data where they do not 

When optimisation is the question, the team uses simulation to dial in sheet thickness and stiffness. For durability, they run endurance rigs through thousands of cycles and feed readings back into the models. Yet the field still decides. Real life throws up dogs chewing taps and the occasional cow testing panel rigidity with its head. You will not catch that in a mesh. The method blends lab discipline with front line humility.   

Flat pack without compromise 

Flat pack supports affordability and reach, although it tests structural integrity. The team iterated packaging through drop testing, captured 100% arrival inspections during early rollouts, and fixed what failed: some issues traced to factory processes, others to transit knocks. The architecture keeps the outer tub skin thin enough to roll by hand for assembly, which simplifies last-mile builds without locking in weight penalties.   

Standardise where it helps, localise where it matters 

The product is designed for standard sheet stock, yet the world runs on imperial in some places and metric in others. Cost targets require flexibility, so thicknesses are tuned locally while the core architecture stays consistent. That choice brings variant management overhead, although it keeps builds viable across diverse supply chains.   
 

Quality that travels 

Quality systems must work for staff and single day volunteers. The team now uses video work instructions that are cut into clear steps and auto translated for different languages. Pictographic inspections happen at each stage. Final checks remain a 100% end of line inspection, tied to each unit’s serial, so traceability is retained worldwide.   
 

Learnings from this? 

1. Fall in love with the problem. Material choices change with context. The “right” material is the one users can maintain next year, not the one that looks neat in a slide deck.   

1. Design for decision speed. Minimise tooling lock in so improvements can move from insight to line in a single planning cycle.   

1. Close the loop locally. Trusted partners compress feedback cycles and unlock training at scale. Equip them with tools that work offline.   

1. Build repair into the product, not the aftercare. Specify assemblies that use common hand tools. Write instructions for low-literacy settings. Teach and leave capability behind.   

1. Blend models with messy reality. Simulate to optimise. Validate in rigs. Decide from field data. Plan for the strange events that only happen outside the lab.   
    

The result so far 

The Washing Machine Project reports thousands of units in the field, with an estimated 50,000 people reached across 15 countries. The approach behind that reach is the story: lean teams, fast loops, local talent, and a product that invites repair rather than resists it. That is agility with substance.   

 
Hear more at Sustainable Industry Live. Laura Tuck, R&D Lead at The Washing Machine Project, speaking on the main stage “Agile by Design: From field data to scalable off-grid technology.” 

Tickets are free but limited to 200.