LEGO | Successful journey of the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the world

The building is part of nature. Most things around us regrow and build themselves into a new form. Such an idea might be good for enhancing the ability. So Ole Kirk Christiansen came up with LEGO, Building creativity with bricks that increase confidence. It is more than play that includes a universe of experiences contributing to more fun and play. Let’s see the journey of LEGO towards being the fourth largest toy manufacturer.

History of LEGO

It all started from the small wood workshop in Billund, which mainly worked on furniture with a small labor group. But this didn’t hold up long; unfortunately, fire catches everything and burns down to ash. Further, Ole Kirk Christiansen with motivation, he started building a miniature version of the products. In the mid-1930s, the yoyo toy fad gave him a brief period of increased activity, which also didn’t work for long. Moving forward, his son helped him build a truck made of the leftover yoyo.

In 1934, He started Making toys and called his new toy business ‘Lego’ as a contraction of two Danish words, ‘leg godt,’ meaning ‘play well.’ Later in 1947, the wooden, plastic toys with modular enhancement were taken apart and reassembled.
Plastic products initially not well received by customers, and many of Lego’s shipments stopped. But later in the year, the bricks took a new shape, with hollow tubes on the underside of the brick. As the days passed by 1960, consuming most of the company’s wooden and plastic toys line inventory became strong.

Multinational Growth

In 1961, Lego expanded its business sales to North America. It started producing and selling Lego products in the United States and Canada. Later, Lego transformed itself from a small family business into a multinational corporation. Further, in 1980, Lego expanded over the worldwide construction toy segment. Over the decades, with various technologies and catch-ups, Lego has proliferated. Hence wide opened the construction-toy market in the U.S.

LEGO Design

Lego System sets began to organize around specific themes, including trains, spaceships, and airplanes. With different themes such as Freestyle, Belville, Town, Space, Castle, Pirates, Ships, Trains, Aquazone, and Model Team.
And its product development usually happens in three stages over a year. The design part is mainly handled based on inputs from the market. With the invention of 3D, the designs were remodeled using NX CAD/CAM/CAE PLM and made by stereolithography machines. These CAD designs blueprints for the manufacturing units. It has its own Lego Digital Designer platform where customers can design and create models.

Manufacturing

The design uses strong plastic called acrylonitrile; butadiene styrene forms a dough-like consistency. And then, its bricks are completed with accurate measurements. The leftover plastic is reusable as it is processed and sold to industries that can use it.
Manufacturing of bricks occurs at several locations around the world in Billund, Denmark; Nyíregyháza, Hungary; Monterrey, Mexico and, most recently, Jiaxing, China.
And moving forward, it further announced that it would use bio-derived polyethylene to make its botanical elements. And also by the 2030 deadline to find a more eco-friendly alternative to the ABS plastic it currently operates.

Themes

As Lego purchases increased, its demand for various products in different themes increased, from Tou truck to automatic alignment. Some themes include space, robots, pirates, trains, Vikings, castles, dinosaurs, undersea exploration, and the wild west.
A prominent structure wise if we see they are Lego city, Bionicles, Lego Technic. With popularity, it gained celebrity value with numerous cartoon and film franchises and even some from video games, which include Batman, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Minecraft.
To keep the enthusiasm in the children, it launched the Team GB Minifigures series, Rio de Janeiro, and Vinicius and Tom summer Olympic sets manufactured.
Most of the famous robotic themes, Mindstorms, went through multiple iterations of increasing complexity over the succeeding years.

Impact of LEGO

LEGO employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. About 150 designers of 18 nationalities design. And sets sold in more than 130 countries. They kept children as prime models to keep them curious, creative, and imaginatively busy. Lego majorly helps in building confident, curious, and resourceful even adults. Lego shows toys aren’t just for play. They teach us more values in life.