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Products Delivering Performance and Dependability

Our product portfolio is at the center of all that we do, and we are passionate about the quality of our products. We strive for excellence in craftsmanship, durability, core performance, reliability, delivery, installation and service.

Designing Quality Products

In 2023, we introduced a new approach to our Product Leadership Scorecard that better reflects consumer sentiment. Our new Product Leadership Scorecard prioritizes three important elements of consumer feedback — Quality, User Satisfaction and Value (a metric that weighs the cost of a product alongside its features, aesthetics and craftsmanship). This new scorecard redefines our Product Leadership metrics and ultimately raises the bar for the level of quality we expect to deliver to our consumers. We are continually refining the ways in which we measure ourselves against our competitors and collecting feedback from consumers on ways in which we can improve.

In 2021, we established our Premium Quality Multi-Year Journey — an internal transformation that places the consumer experience with our appliances at the heart of our work. As of 2023, Premium Quality has expanded to all product platforms and 13 plants around the globe to proactively incorporate significant quality improvements in our products, processes and quality culture. The Premium Quality statement is to “proudly deliver the best consumer experience in every appliance, every time and everywhere.”

Many of our global manufacturing facilities are International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001-2015 compliant, including most manufacturing facilities in Latin America (LAR), EMEA and Asia. In Mexico, all plants are ISO 9001:2015 Certified. For most U.S. plants, we have a standardized tool as part of the Quality Management System called the Layered Process Audit. These audits are conducted using the process approach and applying requirements of ISO 9001:2015. Nine of our U.S. plants are internally certified under this process as of 2023.

Aligned to Standards of Practice

  • Quality Management System
  • Whirlpool Product Development Process
  • World Class Manufacturing
  • Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP/AIAG Standards)
  • ISO 9001: 2015

Our Product Awards and Recognition

iF Design Award
Whirlpool, Hotpoint and KitchenAid Brands

MOST INNOVATIVE IN THE CATEGORY
Pro Tool Innovation Award (PTIA)
InSinkErator Brand

The Best Luxury Kitchen Appliances and Brands, According to Testing
Good Housekeeping
JennAir Brand

Cleaning & Organizing Awards — Good Housekeeping 2023 — PURR-FECT Washer
Good Housekeeping
Maytag Brand

Best Washer-and-Dryer Sets of 2023 — Best for Pets
Popular Science
Maytag Brand

Best Dishwashers
Wirecutter
Maytag Brand

Contributing to a Circular Economy

As a leader and innovator in the sustainable design space, we leverage our own expertise as well as that of suppliers throughout the supply chain to interrupt linear systems of management in favor of circular models. A circular economy represents a pathway to decouple the increasing demand of goods and services from its resource consumption by reducing and reusing resources and by extending the lifetime of products to reduce environmental impacts.

Throughout the product portfolio planning cycle, we work to embed reliability, repairability and durability into product development and engineer them to increase their sustainability performance. Our goal is to reduce the use of resources such as materials and energy and encourage a longer usable lifespan, thereby easing resource scarcity, pollution and waste, while increasing consumer satisfaction. The sustainability team works in close partnership with regional brand teams and platforms at each phase to align with priorities and strategies at the regional and global level. Our approach to the circular economy is embedded within our DfS principles, executed across the organization and aligned with standards such as ISO 14009 that help show movement toward more circularity across the life cycle of our products, including:

  • Circular design to minimize the use of virgin and/or fossil-based materials
  • Circular use to extend and optimize the useful lifetime of products
  • End-of-life product recovery to minimize e-waste pollution and allow material recycling

The Circular Economy Framework

Analyzing the Lifecycle of our Products

DfS standards consider the full life cycle, including use and end-of-life, improving the environmental performance of our products by focusing on the management of energy, water and materials.

We analyze the environmental impacts of our products using life cycle assessments. Because products within the same category have similar impacts throughout their life cycle, we analyze key products that provide a comprehensive view of impacts and inform improvements in their respective category. Based on our assessments, the largest areas of impact are in the product use phase due to energy consumption.

Scope 3 GHG Emissions

In 2023, we saw a reduction in GHG emissions from the use of our products. Reductions are driven by product efficiency improvements, grid improvements in most sales regions and sales volumes.

To achieve scope 3 emissions reduction, we continue to invest in innovation to launch products that improve performance while lowering their overall carbon footprint. We are continuously working to improve our emissions modeling capabilities so we can track our progress toward emissions targets, make projections against business scenarios and rank contributing factors. This year, we engaged regularly with platform stakeholders to find opportunities to meet or exceed our scope 3 category 11 emissions target, developed a cross-category energy-efficiency roadmap and invested in improvements to our emissions reporting process.

Achieved ~7% reduction in scope 3, category 11 emissions from products in use in 2023

Scope 3 Category 11
Emissions1 Reducing emissions from our products in use
(MT Co2eq in millions)

Product Reliability

We intentionally design products with reliability — and therefore safety and sustainability — in mind. To make our products more reliable and protect our consumers, we have developed accelerated lifespan and forced failure testing (see sidebar) which allow us to anticipate issues and design the appropriate solutions. For example, our KitchenAid stand mixers are meticulously crafted for enduring quality. In Europe, a 15-year repairability program for select KitchenAid stand mixers is offered beyond the manufacturing warranty and supports repair options. This program allows consumers to schedule a comprehensive checkup for their appliances, during which any worn-out components are expertly replaced. Notably, this program extends the guarantee by an additional one or two years, underscoring our dedication to delivering sustained value and peace of mind to our consumers and further emphasizing our commitment to delivering lasting value to our customers.

Repairing the Appliances Our Consumers Love

To make our products more repairable, we make components accessible and easy to disassemble and offer spare parts for at least seven years in NAR and 10 years in Europe and LAR.

Whirlpool has established a cross-functional team that is working to make access to documentation, tools, diagnostics, service parts and firmware available to anyone who wants to repair and lengthen the lifespan of our products. The team is aligning on the best path to adding to our already robust library of repair manuals.

Prioritizing Product Safety

Whirlpool has the privilege of placing products in homes all around the world to improve lives and understands this comes with great responsibility. Our highest priority is to keep consumers safe. For over 110 years, Whirlpool employees — from our merchants to our engineers to our dedicated team of safety professionals — have been focused on giving consumers peace of mind for the products they have in their homes.

Our safety system is designed to avoid issues in the first place, identify any potential issues as quickly as possible and achieve closure of all potential issues with urgency. We take a proactive approach to product safety, focusing on the design of our products and setting policies that promote proper oversight and governance of product safety throughout the product lifespan, from the design of the product all the way to end of life of the product. These practices and procedures help us quickly identify root causes for incidents, give us the information we need to pursue corrective and preventive actions to help eliminate the possibility of recurrence and inform our decisions to pursue a recall where necessary to help consumers. Our product safety system and other processes are continually reviewed to ensure we are doing everything possible, and in the best way, to protect consumers.

Our Safety Leadership

36 industry technical committees led to strengthen marketplace product safety standards, and
150 employees participated on these committees
7 product safety training sessions held for over 150 employees
500+ employees improved competence in DfS by one level or more
All voluntary or involuntary product safety recalls disclosed

Raising the Bar for Industry Safety

The standards we hold ourselves to are often above and beyond marketplace safety standards and applicable regulatory requirements. But we don’t stop there. We’re also helping to raise the bar on safety for the rest of the appliance manufacturing industry.

We’re also proud to be recognized as having an industry-leading safety system and to know that parts of our system are being used by other companies to improve their own product safety practices.

Our Product Safety Goals

  • Proactively identify and design out or safeguard potential product safety hazards prior to market launch.
  • Build the safety capability of Whirlpool Corp. employees around the world through Product Safety Training sessions and certification programs.
  • Drive key advocacy strategies to strengthen marketplace safety standards globally.
  • Implement continued process improvements across safety workstreams to meet our mission statement.

Giving Products New Life Through Refurbishment

When products are damaged or discarded early, they might be sent to one of our many refurbishment centers, like our Katoen Natie facility in Antwerp, Belgium, where our KitchenAid small appliances are being refurbished. There, they undergo a comprehensive inspection, are repaired if needed, tested and redeployed, thus advancing our goal to extend the useful life of our products and avoid unnecessarily adding to waste streams.

Refurbishment Centers Help Avoid Waste

410,803 total returned products in 2023
251,931 total refurbished products in 2023

Whirlpool operates several refurbishment centers globally — in Belgium, Brazil, Italy, U.K. and the U.S. We operate these facilities independently or in collaboration with logistics centers, where we repair and refurbish products. In Italy, we’ve created two different brands to return reconditioned products back into the marketplace — NewLife offers products that have never been used by the consumer but have slight aesthetic imperfections, and SecondLife offers products that have had a first life in a consumer’s home. These brands offer a more sustainable, cost-effective alternative to purchasing new products and contribute to our goal of supporting the circular economy.

End-of-Life Management

To address global waste resulting from a linear product life cycle, Whirlpool Corp. utilizes an approach in which products remain in circulation by being reused, repaired, remanufactured or recycled. Products that cannot be refurbished are disposed of in full compliance with Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations. For countries with an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy in place, we work through Producer Responsibility Organizations to comply with regional targets. For countries without an EPR policy, we aim to ensure responsible collection and treatment of disposed appliances either directly or indirectly.

In the U.S., in the absence of EPR and other legislation covering the management of end-of-life appliances, we offer a free take-back service for any appliance brand when delivering directly to consumers. Returned products can then be refurbished in a Whirlpool specialized refurbishment center or disposed of using contracted recycling vendors. To manage compliance and improve oversight, we developed and implemented a Recycling Service Agreement with our vendors. This agreement requires our partners to comply with local laws and regulations for proper waste management and provides procedural guidelines to help ensure that any hazardous components (as defined by laws and regulations) are properly identified and processed in the end-of-life phase. We also require suppliers and subcontractors to follow the Basel Convention regarding the ban or exportation of e-waste from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to non-OECD countries.

In Brazil, Whirlpool launched an individual system that collects and treats waste of electrical and electronic equipment in an environmentally conscious way and following all the requirements of local regulation.2 The program is free for consumers and helps to manage the over 2 million tons of electronics waste that Brazilians generate annually, of which less than 3% is recycled.3 Consumers can schedule the free collection of equipment that would otherwise be difficult to remove or recycle, including refrigerators, washing machines, dryers and ranges. They can also discard small appliances through thousands of collection points of the system all over the country.

90% recycled or recovered in the European Union
  1. Total Emissions From Use of Sold Products (metric tons of CO2eq in millions)
  2. umsoplaneta.globo.com/financas/negocios
  3. Global e-Waste Monitor 2020

Our Circular Economy Framework

Resource Scarcity
Climate Change (Scope 3 Categories 1, 11, and 12)

Use Better

Use Longer

Use Again

Scope 3 Category 11 Emissions1 Reducing emissions from our products in use
(MT Co2eq in millions)

1 Total Emissions From Use of Sold Products (metric tons of CO2e in millions)