A STARRING ROLE FOR LG INNOVATION AT BUSAN FILM FESTIVAL
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By News Reporter
Good product design is all about understanding and meeting customers’ needs. As a leader in the home appliance industry, LG integrates ‘customer-centricity’ into every stage of the design process to ensure its products deliver a more convenient and emotionally satisfying user experience. The company continues to show the way forward, making innovative appliances and smart home solutions for a better life based on its ‘3F’ design philosophy.
The Essence of 3F: Fit, Feel, Finish
“LG uses the term ‘3F’ to refer to the appearance, performance and other tangible and intangible qualities of its products experienced by the customer,” said Chung Wook-jun, vice president and head of H&A Design Lab at LG Electronics’ Life Innovation Design Center. “In essence, 3F is a set of principles that guides the company as it weaves the core values of completeness, ease of use and emotional satisfaction into each product it makes.”
3F stands for Fit, Feel and Finish. ‘Fit’ refers to seamless (zero gap) product design and overall design uniformity, while ‘Feel’ encompasses the smooth and resilient operation of moving parts as well as the satisfying feedback that interfaces, doors and other components provide when handled by users. ‘Finish’ focuses on matching the right colors with the right materials and achieving a clean, consistent aesthetic across product lines. The definition of 3F has gradually expanded over time and now extends to elements such as ergonomics, user experience (UX) optimization and user interface (UI) usability.
Officially introduced in 2001, 3F is now deeply ingrained in the way LG works. The company even formed a specialized organization to focus on 3F, which collaborates closely with several departments – including product planning, design, development, quality control and sales – to maintain a cohesive approach to customer-centric design.
Customer-Centric Design Research
The core aspect of 3F work is to guarantee the completeness of every product LG develops. Through securing a high level of completeness in the development phase, the company helps to prevent potential quality issues from arising during production.
At the concept planning stage, LG identifies and addresses any deficiencies or inconveniences associated with previously released models to prevent their recurrence in new products. Using its own internally developed ergonomic standards, the company thoroughly evaluates products for ease-of-use and to determine if further improvements are needed. Prior to finalization and mass-production, LG re-evaluates its products using up to 160 different criteria to assess whether completeness has been achieved.
When a prototype is produced at the design verification stage, it is tested under actual usage conditions. Data-driven feedback derived from these tests – such as the precise measurement of the force needed to open an appliance’s door – enables the relevant departments to make necessary adjustments.
Quality testing at LG involves extensive processes to ensure products meet usage and reliability standards. Should a product fail any test, LG carefully identifies and addresses the root cause of the issue. Subsequently, the product undergoes hundreds of additional tests until it meets the company’s exacting internal standards. Multiple methods are employed to confirm that each unit produced matches the usability and reliability standards set during the development phase. The data gathered throughout these various processes is meticulously analyzed to refine future designs.
Subtle Details that Reflect LG’s 3F Design Principles
The recently launched LG SIGNATURE washer/dryer exemplifies the company’s commitment to its 3F design principles. Manufactured using the same methods employed to produce luxury goods, the washer/dryer successfully delivers the ‘high-end’ aesthetic and feel of LG’s original design concept. The attention to subtle details that is so much a part of 3F design can be seen in the dryer’s filter grip, which has been designed in accordance with knuckle-width studies and numerous customer acceptance surveys to provide optimal usability.
To enhance the sophistication and operability of the control knobs applied to its washing machines, LG conducted a comprehensive range of 3F research initiatives and even developed its own custom measuring equipment. The company’s efforts led to the creation of a control knob reminiscent of the center-console control dials found in luxury automobiles, providing a pleasingly premium look and feel while also contributing to a better user experience in both a practical and emotional sense.
Introduced last year on select LG refrigerator models, the Auto Soft Closing System is another example of LG’s customer-centric 3F design. The system uses dampers to ensure that the refrigerator door closes softly and quietly, enhancing usability, convenience and customer satisfaction.
The 3F design principle, which reveals LG’s strong commitment to the pursuit of perfection, is intertwined with another uniquely LG concept: ‘Affection-ism.’ Affection-ism could be described as a ‘design mindset,’ centering on caring for customers via the delivery of ‘Uncompromising Customer Experiences,’ ‘Human-centered Innovation’ and the ‘Warmth to Power a Smile.’ By staying true to its core values and customer-first philosophies, LG will continue to provide products that exceed expectations and make everyday life that much better.
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By News Reporter
In business, meaningful growth can’t happen without innovation. It’s essential if your organization is to evolve and thrive, and if you’re serious about adding value to people’s daily lives.
With a thirst to drive innovation, and a wealth of knowledge in the area of IoT, I set out to establish and grow my own startup. I’m happy to say I succeeded in this endeavor. However, with the business model being rather narrow – a continuous cycle of making products and then selling them – there were limitations to what I could do.
After making the decision to sell my company, I went on to serve as the Presidential Innovation Fellow for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), a program run by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It was a valuable and enlightening experience. There, I had the chance to work with leading tech companies to further develop and execute plans for industrial IoT and global smart cities. During my seven years in the U.S. federal government, I realized that there are limits to what governments can do with regard to building smart ecosystems. In the end, private companies are the ones bringing the ideas and concepts of smart solutions and businesses to fruition.
This was when I was first approached by LG Electronics. The company wanted to create a new organization dedicated to the discovery of future businesses. LG offered me this amazing opportunity to head up a team they were in the process of putting together.
I thought deeply about the prospect of joining LG. While the company is universally recognized as a strong player in the consumer electronics field, looking in from the outside, it seemed to lack what some might call, a certain ‘disruptive innovation.’ However, I was intrigued by its determination and desire to uncover future businesses and was confident that the company possessed the agility necessary to change and ‘disrupt.’
Personally, I believe that if there are ten great ideas on the table, seven or eight of them will fail to develop into successful businesses. While many people view this way of thinking about business creation as just plain crazy, LG CEO William Cho is, thankfully, not among them.
At LG NOVA, an initiative I am grateful to lead, our mission is to establish a community for nurturing, growing and creating new businesses in new market areas for LG. Early in the LG NOVA journey, we realized that entering new businesses – or new business areas – is difficult if you’re relying solely on your internal capabilities.
If LG wants to create new home appliances, it is in a good position to do this internally because it is already a global leader in consumer electronics, with all the necessary expertise and experience at its disposal. LG NOVA’s mandate is to explore entirely new and different concepts, not currently in LG’s wheelhouse. Although there are thousands of engineers and experts working in LG’s R&D centers, their expertise is in products and areas of business that LG is already in. This is why the LG executive team resolved to look outside of LG.
Our goal is to explore new business avenues that would, ultimately, help contribute to the advancement of LG Electronics. Startups, by the nature of their business model and ability to be at the ground-level of market needs, are leading the forefront of innovation. However, startups will not partner with just any firm that approaches them. This is why we needed to show that LG, as a company, has the commitment and capability to go far beyond home appliances and TVs. This is where LG NOVA comes in.
To establish ourselves in the market, we came up with the idea of hosting a grand challenge. In September 2021, we announced the launch of
link hidden, please login to view, an annual, global competition for startups where we could identify innovative technologies and business ideas for a better tomorrow. The participating startups were tasked with developing and presenting technology-based solutions for improving daily life, our communities and the planet. The tech areas we asked them to focus on included clean tech, healthcare and future tech/AI. To give you an idea of how it works, imagine there is a startup that creates sensors for use in healthcare devices. They might pitch a scenario or concept where their sensors are deployed in TVs to enable innovative new services. Our own business experts, or entrepreneurs in residence (EIRs), would then work with the startup to assess the feasibility of their idea. In many cases, EIRs would work closely with the startup to develop a relevant, but entirely different business idea that could be exciting to both parties. If the idea was deemed to be viable, and in alignment with LG NOVA’s goals and values, a partnership agreement might result and LG NOVA would launch a new business based on the collaboration. This is how a small, fledgling company can set its unique concept on the fast track to becoming a commercialized product.
Through this process, and by combining our capacity with the startup’s capacity, we can create a joint business where LG has as much ‘skin in the game’ as the startup. And at every step along the way, LG NOVA will be right there with them, from meeting with investors to introducing and marketing the ‘final product’ to customers. Through LG NOVA, we can create new products and services that can make a positive difference – and do it at a much larger scale than a startup could manage, if it were to go it alone.
I am proud to be a part of LG and to help guide LG NOVA into exciting new territories where boundless innovation awaits discovery. And I can say, without exaggeration, that I truly love this role. Ultimately, I’m striving for Innovation for Impact – which also happens to be the motto and the philosophy of LG NOVA. While there are many, many ways to make a profit, we have committed ourselves to achieving profitability in a meaningful way, and to leaving a lasting, positive impact on the world.
By Dr. Sokwoo Rhee, executive vice president of Innovation for LG Electronics, head of LG NOVA
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By News Reporter
LG remains steadfast in its commitment to actively nurture ideas with the potential to fuel the company’s future growth. By fostering a corporate culture that not only encourages challenges but also embraces failures as stepping stones to success, LG aims to embody the principles that have been at the heart of CEO William Cho’s leadership philosophy since his tenure began. CEO Cho consistently champions the ‘Brave Optimist’ mindset, inspiring everyone to boldly undertake challenges and relentlessly innovate, anchored in the belief that the customer is always the key to unlocking solutions.
A prime embodiment of this ethos is ‘STUDIO341,’ an initiative launched by LG last year. This program is designed to identify and cultivate in-house ventures that encapsulate the spirit of challenge and innovation, a mindset that has been instrumental in propelling LG from its humble beginnings as Goldstar in 1958 to its current status as a global leader in home appliances. The ‘341’ in ‘STUDIO341’ serves as a poignant reminder for LG’s ‘Brave Optimists’ to stay true to the company’s roots, symbolizing the original street address of Goldstar in Busan, Korea’s second-largest city.
The initiative welcomed anyone with a creative idea that can solve a problem worth solving and provide a new experience to customers. The response was impressive, with over 100 internal submissions received.
In the previous year, LG shortlisted the top thirteen ideas – one more than the originally intended twelve – which were further narrowed down to six during an internal IR event. This process involved evaluating the ideas based on their potential to provide unique customer experiences. The selection criteria encompassed business value, feasibility, potential impact and team capabilities.
The chosen teams were relocated to an external office to be able to fully immerse themselves in developing their in-house venture ideas. By March 2024, the top six teams had the opportunity to present their business proposals at the ‘STUDIO341 Demo Day’ in Seoul, in front of LG executives and potential investors.
After thorough deliberation, the top five teams selected for spinoff were unveiled: ‘MASKIT,’ a mobile ticketing and admission service for performing arts that removes the necessity for queuing; ‘FreshGo,’ an original cold chain transportation solution that leverages individual refrigeration technology; ‘Cucumber,’ a platform focused on local food pickup services; ‘Found Objet,’ a digital transaction platform for recycled plastic materials; and ‘X-UP,’ a solution for diagnosing and maintaining golf courses using robots and heat mapping technology.
Meanwhile, LG partnered with Bluepoint, a partnership-driven Korean startup accelerator, to leverage their ability to objectively assess the teams’ capabilities and provide more effective support. This approach has helped streamline the whole process to a year, with six months for selection and six months for development. During the process, each team will receive a joint investment from LG and Bluepoint up to a maximum of KRW 400 million.
In parallel, LG is intensifying its collaboration with global startups, as exemplified by its partnership with Amwell, a U.S. telemedicine company, to provide remote medical treatment solutions across North America. The company also aims to evaluate the viability of services in prevention, diagnosis, post-management and recovery, among others.
LG NOVA, LG’s North America Center for Innovation, launched its “Mission For the Future” by presenting the Eureka Park showcase at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. It also leveraged its influence to introduce startups operating in the digital healthcare field, such as XR Health, Mindset Medical and C.Light Technologies.
Stay tuned to
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By News Reporter
In this installment of On the Job, we go inside LG Labs, LG’s marketing platform established to deliver experimental and innovative product and service experiences to its customers. We’re here to learn more about how it brings one-of-a-kind products and service experiences to customers.
As it transforms into a younger and innovative company, LG is fully committed to delivering a consistent supply of groundbreaking products and technologies that appeal to the younger generation. Playing a key role in this shift is LG Labs, a platform established to push the limits of innovation and turn imagination into reality by doing something that doesn’t come natural to most – thinking outside the box.
Since making its world debut at CES 2023, LG Labs has been presenting some of the most experimental and innovative products and services to global customers. Set up to bring a younger and more innovative feel to the LG brand, LG Labs’ purpose is to develop products that resonate with the younger generation, helping it build strong and lasting brand values that will be crucial to sustaining its leadership status into the future.
“If we discover an innovative idea that can provide new, unique experiences to customers, it doesn’t matter if it is low in business priority or small in market size,” explained Kong Dae-won, leader of LG Labs. “Even before launch, LG Labs actively engages with real customers through various channels and considers their honest feedback, providing us more opportunities to bring our potentially game-changing ideas to life.”
(From left to right) Kong Dae-won, leader of LG labs, and Woo Hyung-bihn, specialist at LG Labs
To decide which product to develop, LG Labs brings together experts from LG Global Marketing Group, Design Management Center, CX Center, Quality Management Center and other related departments. The questions every LG Labs expert must ask themself are: Is this something we’ve never tried before? Is it a new concept for the industry? And does it have business potential?
For example, DukeBox, which was unveiled at
link hidden, please login to view, creates an entirely new product category and unique music experience by combining a vacuum tube motif with Transparent OLED tech. In fact, despite launching only a year ago, LG Labs has already invented several never-before-seen products including , Bon Voyage and brid.zzz. Bon Voyage featured at Wanderlust Korea
“We felt it was important to bring our innovations to customers directly and provide the opportunity to experience our innovative ideas in person,” said Kong Dae-won. “Over the past year, brid.zzz, Bon Voyage and DUOBO were featured in the LG Labs experience zone at offline events in South Korea, including Wanderlust Korea, Isegye Festival and Go Out Camp Festival. As a result, we were able to reach more than 40,000 customers and received invaluable feedback from more than 2,000 visitors.”
This year’s CES LG Labs booth was twice the size of last year’s booth, and the response from visitors was twice the scale as well. DukeBox was a big hit, especially with the big music labels in attendance as it fit seamlessly with their content and music. As a result, LG is currently in talks with a famous label on a potential collaboration that would undoubtedly strike a chord with young music fans.
LG Labs offline experience zone at Isegye Festival in Korea
Beginning last year, LG started focusing on targeting younger customers. This year, it’s taking things a step further by entering their social and online channels to generate more engagement. By leveraging the influence of creators who resonate with the younger demographic, LG plans to adopt an online and offline hybrid marketing strategy to communicate the new and exciting experiences of LG Labs’ products. This includes expanding its experience events overseas.
LG Labs aims to expand the company’s future business portfolio while encouraging both executives and employees to challenge convention by fostering an organizational culture that welcomes and rewards it. There’s much more to come from LG Labs over the coming years, so watch this space for more inventions designed to make life good!
Stay tuned to the to find out what other LG teams and employees are getting up to.
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By News Reporter
Company Has Established a Comprehensive, Ethically-Responsible
Management System for Its AI-Enabled Home Appliances
SEOUL, Feb. 15, 2024 — LG Electronics (LG) has recently achieved a significant milestone by obtaining the AI Management System (AIMS) certification (ISO/IEC 42001) from the Korean Standards Association (KSA).1 This certification demonstrates LG’s commitment to prioritizing data security and embracing responsible AI management practices throughout the entire lifecycle of its AI-powered home appliances.
ISO/IEC 42001, a globally recognized standard established jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), sets out the essential requirements for governing and managing AI technologies.2 AIMS certification validates that a company has not only implemented but also maintains and continuously improves an AI Management System, demonstrating a responsible and ethical approach to developing and utilizing AI-based solutions.
The stringent assessment criteria of ISO/IEC 42001 cover various aspects, including AI policy formulation, risk assessment, risk management, ethical compliance, regulatory responsiveness and transparency in AI management processes.
The acquisition of AIMS certification acknowledges LG’s ongoing and systematic efforts to ensure rigorous control over potential issues related to its AI products and services, including security, fairness, transparency and accountability. Through this certification, LG aims to enhance customer trust and strengthen its competitiveness.
Last year, LG distinguished itself as the first home appliance manufacturer to receive Deep Learning AI Verification, awarded by the independent safety science company UL for its washing machine and dryer. Additionally, LG obtained AI Safety Certification from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) for the AI functionalities integrated into the LG WashTower.3
LG actively leverages data- and AI-based research and development initiatives to realize the vision of the ‘Zero Labor Home,’ offering users a refreshingly convenient and relaxing smart home experience facilitated by LG’s advanced, AI-driven home appliances and services.
“This certification shows that we have established a comprehensive AI management system and are committed to providing our customers with safe, responsible AI-based solutions for a better life,” said Lyu Jae-chul, president of LG Electronics Home Appliance & Air Solution Company.
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1 The AI Management System certification (ISO/IEC 42001) from the Korean Standards Association is confined to the products produced in LG Smart Park 1, 2 in Changwon, South Korea.
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3 The AI Safety Certification from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology is applied to WashTower model W17NT.
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