Since June 2020, Hisense Gorenje has been establishing in Velenje, Slovenia, a global research and development (R&D) center for cooking appliances and dishwashers for the entire Hisense Group. At the end of June, the company also started the production of Hisense brand dishwashers for the American market, which is the first order for Slovenian production under this brand for the USA consumers.
“Both achievements – they say from the Group, expressing satisfaction – are the result of Gorenje’s top development competencies, which were also recognized by the global corporation Hisense.
Already at the takeover of Gorenje in 2018, one of the key motives of the new owner of Hisense was access to technology in the field of cooking and dishwashers. Proof of Hisense’s trust in the top competencies of Gorenje’s research and development team is the corporation’s recent decision for Gorenje to take over the role of the global R&D center for cooking appliances and dishwashers in June 2020. This means that the entire development of technology and appliances is entrusted to the local development team, regardless of where the production of individual cooking or dishwashers takes place and for which market. This is an important step forward, as until last year we at Gorenje only developed products that we manufacture in our factories in Europe.”
Within the Hisense Europe Group, the company has established R&D departments for the development of finished products for cooking appliances, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers. Other important development departments are: electronics development, product cost optimization department, joint development units and pre-development department. In total, Hisense Europe employs around 360 professionals in all R&D departments, of this, approximately 290 development experts are employed in Slovenia.
According to current projects and development plans of Hisense Corporation, Gorenje plans to strengthen the development team with talents and competencies in the field of electronics, Internet of Things (IoT), electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and related technical disciplines.
«At Gorenje – Boštjan Pečnik, Executive Vice President for R&D at Gorenje, d. o. o., points out – we are extremely proud of our own development team of experts and competencies, which are also respected by the owner. Supporting and connecting with other Hisense development centers on our new global mission brings many opportunities and challenges for which we will be looking for new young technical talents in the future. We believe that the achieved positioning of our development efforts within Hisense is also a recognition for our profession. We are focused on the development of new product platforms that bring many innovations, also because Gorenje gained access to advanced technology in the field of smart devices by joining the Hisense Group.»
One of Gorenje’s key R&D activities is the development of new product platforms for the US market. These are cooking appliances that will be produced in the new factory that Hisense is building in Mexico, as well as dishwashers. The entire development of appliances and production technology was entrusted to Gorenje’s development team.
