BGA85 Cordless Leaf Blower

Project description

Working with a blower can be quite disruptive in quiet areas around hospitals or schools, for instance. On an extremely tight deadline, Helbling developed a complete leaf blower for STIHL that operates on battery power, enabling it to be used anywhere, even in noise-sensitive areas. The development work for the BGA85 could only be completed on schedule thanks to a simultaneous development process employed by Helbling.

STIHL is a traditional company that for years has been successfully producing blowers to clear yards, streets and gardens of leaves and dirt. Yet because of the noise produced by petrol-powered devices, these have caused a certain amount of discontent among neighbors. Once battery technology had reached a mature stage, STIHL was eager to expand its product portfolio as swiftly as possible to offer a high-powered blower that could run on lithium-ion batteries. The problem was time: STIHL’s R&D department follows a clearly defined development process that seemed irreconcilable with the ambitious deadlines set for the product’s launch. Hence STIHL went looking for an external partner to help develop its new cordless blower. There were multiple reasons for choosing Helbling. First and foremost, the customer was convinced by the expedited development process that Helbling outlined, which was based on the principle of simultaneous rather than sequential development. Simultaneous developments such as this are made possible at Helbling by interdisciplinary teams working under the same roof and short, direct communication paths. At the same time, Helbling has a solid project management process, which ensures that processes proceed in an orderly fashion, specifications are met and all development risks are minimized, even on a tight schedule.