Product Life Time
Abstract
Chris and Fred discuss how long stuff lasts! … or how long something should last! … how do you ‘know’ what it should be?
Key Points
Join Chris and Fred as they respond to a question from one of our listeners about how long something should last. Specifically, our listener proposed that the lifetime of a product should be based on a product failure probability that is ‘accepted by the industry at large.’ But should it?
Topics include:
- The ‘industry’ only exists because of the ‘market.’ And the market is NOT the industry. For example, when Japanese cars entered the domestic markets across Western economies around 1980, it turned out they had around two-thirds fewer defects (when compared to carmakers like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and so on). And forty years later, those Western carmakers are still struggling to compete with the Japanese (and Korean) car makers for smaller personal motor vehicles.
- Look at mobile phones. When mobile phones first came out (think those big ‘brick-like’ things), they didn’t last very long. Then came smaller mobile phones that were very robust and would last many years (think the Nokia 3210). Then came smartphones which now … don’t last very long (at least compared to the Nokia 3210). Why? Because the market initially responded to higher reliability but then responded more strongly to more functionality. Do what everyone else does at your peril …
- And there is no ‘standard’ that tells you how long your ‘types’ of products should last. How fast can a dog run? Well … it depends on what sort of dog you are talking about (greyhounds are much faster than dachshunds). What about golden retrievers? Well let’s look at THREE golden retrievers. The first is a well-muscled, large, athletic male dog weighing around 32 kg or 74 lbs. His top speed was measured to be 56.0 km or 34.8 miles per hour. The second is a lean, well-exercised female dog weighing around 27 kg or or 59 lbs. Her top speed was measured to be 52.3 km or 32.5 miles per hour. The third is an overweight male ‘house-dog’ who weighs 41 kg or 90 lbs who isn’t exercised in a meaningful way. His top speed is 37.3 km or 23.2 miles per hour. … So how fast can ANY dog run?
- Instead, ask yourself ‘how long should OUR product last to help us generate value?’ And that could be to exceed what your competitors can do (i.e. … the ‘industry’).
Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.
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