High-tech for bathrooms – How does showering involve digitalization?

Digitalization is ever-present in our daily lives – even in the shower. In the shower? ZEISS uses digital technology to enable the company Hansgrohe to meet strict product quality requirements, including those that apply to shower heads. As a result, customers get a better shower experience and help the environment by wasting less water.

Many people have thoughts running through their mind during their morning shower such as last night’s dream, preparing for the upcoming weekend, the day’s to-do list. Some even come up with dazzling ideas as the water cascades down. Cognitive Scientist Scott Barry Kaufman, for example, claims to have discovered that 72 percent of people formulate their most creative plans in the shower (Kaufman “Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind,” 2016).

For most people, showering is commonplace. They do it two or three times a week, and it takes them six to ten minutes – mostly in the evening. They usually use a riser rail shower and turn off the water while lathering up. The leading manufacturer of bathroom accessories Hansgrohe discovered all this through its Shower Atlas. However, showering is more than just about hygiene, it’s about balance: Shower and clear your mind. We would go so far as to say very few people are actively thinking about digitalization while in the shower.

Accurate quality assurance is however not just a matter of reputation for Hansgrohe. “We prefer optical metrology for measurements taken during production because it’s simply so much faster and we can respond to changes in the component there and then,” says Philipp Alender. Conversely, this also means faulty components can be immediately repaired or not even installed in the first place. This also leads to fewer rejects and cuts down on costs. “CT metrology also allows us to comprehensively test built-in components that we would otherwise need to destroy in order to assess them,” Belezni adds.

And, at the end of the day, the customer also benefits from the high quality of the products, such as from a pleasant shower experience. Ultimately, it is the metrology within quality control that ensures that the water only escapes from the designated openings in the shower head, because this is the only way to ensure the spray pattern ends up as it should. Moreover, water is not wasted unnecessarily, which has a positive impact on the environment.

“We are only satisfied with our work once a component has been measured, fitted, and is doing its job of ensuring the shower works properly,” says Alender. Digitalization is an important aid for him here: “It is very difficult to predict all the things it will be able to facilitate – both in daily life and in metrology,” he says. He is convinced no one would ever have guessed that we would one day be able to make cashless payments or control a shower system via an app. “This is what continues to drive development forward, both in metrology and in everyday life. This will, in turn, create new technologies and usher more and more digitalization into our professional and daily lives,” says Alender.

The Head of Metrology nevertheless believes the most important thing will always be “customers’ satisfaction with the product.” Even if they will probably never think about the digitalization behind their showering when they are in the shower.