Word: maytags
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Four decades ago, one of the sounds of status in homes across the U.S. farm belt was the pop, pop, pop of a gasoline engine on Monday morning-a tip-off that the inhabitants were prosperous enough to own a Maytag washing machine. Today, a remarkable number of the same machines-converted to electricity-are still washing clothes. Even more remarkable, the Maytag Co. of little Newton, Iowa, has withstood the churnings that have long since washed out most independent laundry-machine makers, now stands a strong second in the billion-dollar industry. Outstripped in sales only by Whirlpool Corp...
...Maytag has held its own because of the stubborn individualism of its management, headed for the past 24 years by Frederick Louis Maytag II, 50, grandson of the founder. Items...
...While its competitors pursue diversification, producing an ever wider range of appliances, Maytag moves in the opposite direction. Since 1957, Maytag has dropped its moneymaking stove and freezer lines to concentrate entirely on the products it knows best: washers and dryers...
...Where some of its rivals strain to make yearly model changes, Maytag changes its models only when it has a basic improvement to offer, advertises: "You don't buy a Maytag; you adopt it." The newest Maytag improvement, to be introduced next week: an electronic drying device for its budget-priced dryer...
...probably more susceptible to service than any other appliance in the home." He speaks from rueful personal experience. For years there was no formal exchange between Norge's service department and its engineers, and chronic complaints never filtered back to the machine designers-a gap since remedied. Maytag decided to drop annual model changes, use the savings for better quality control, and sales soared To test its 1961 refrigerators, Westinghouse shipped them to nine representative dealers for home testing. The dealers found that the refrigerator doors began to bend and leak air, a design flaw that factory inspection...