Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Designed to break?

Just curious about this kind of thing:http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/04/are_consumer_pr.html

Have any of you designed things to break?

I know about MTBF, by the way and do understand basic economics. This is
different.

No. Never. I notionally design my stuff as if it might about in 1000
years time and I'm sure all other industrial designers do the same.
I also know from personal experience that reliability of modern
machinery is vastly better than it was 25 years ago and I've only to
look at my motor cars, power tools, TV sets, Hi Fi, Computers etc to
know this to be true. Some things such as lightbulbs intrinsically
have a defined design life but this is irrelevant.
Slade comes across as a typical muddled thinking academic with no
knowledge of industry or the real world but he's got a book to push so
who cares?.
The problem quite simply that we have a (growing) cadre of incompetant
designers and incompetant management. Best known example is Microsoft
and Vista.
Good particular case in point is that Apple ipod mention. The battery
and screen problems were not intentional as Slade intimates. These
were big bollocks dropped by useless mechanical and electronics
people, reporting into a useless management.
 
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