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products that last – 31

The comparison with less self-evident examples such as coffeemakers, furniture, digital information devices, pianos, ladders, microwaves, skateboards and even knickknacks – to name but a few, is likely to provide ideas for existing after-sales business, but could be ‘internalised’ into systematic design and responsible entrepreneurship. Consequently, these products could be improved on to extend the lifespan of a product. In other words, observing examples might, with a little imagination, produce arguments for lifespan extension in the guise of interesting questions. Making products last is a challenge.

The third domain is the best known. Mankind produces and consumes too much ‘stuff’. It has become an addiction, which is a conse-quence of being trapped in the vicious circle of cheap production to satisfy mass markets and being forced to sell vast numbers to be able to produce cheaply. Because of this, the number of products sold needs to grow continuously.

Part of this can be considered as compensation for population growth (which also has its limits) and emerging trade, but sooner or later successful markets will become saturated. When that happens, a limited lifespan becomes an economic necessity, because replacement purchases are all that remain. From then on, new and cheap will reign.

There are three ways in which this economic pressure has its effect. The first, obviously, is that what little attention there was for product lifespan will be reversed. This is the direct result of the guiding principles of reducing and externalising costs in traditional linear business and product development: design something, manufacture it at the lowest possible cost, sell it at the highest possible margin and forget it as soon as feasibly possible. Secondly, products age in relation to the context. If they happen to contain elements that improve very fast as a result of clearly aimed technological development, their overall ageing speed will increase ‘against the will’ of some of the more steadfast components. It is no revelation to state that the development speed of electronics is so high that it is virtually impossible to purchase anything really new in that field. ‘New and improved’ is already looking over your shoulder when you are in the middle of a purchasing decision. Finally, in the third place, there is deliberate product ageing, in style or in functionality: planned obsolescence, as mentioned in the previous chapter.

Although it is not usually subject to scrutiny, there are indications that a product’s lifespan is shorter than before. A survey of a range of standard electrical household products in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2005 showed a lifespan decrease in all but one, which happened to be the compact fluorescent lamp - a relatively new item which has a reputation for longevity to live up to. The lifespan of small consumer electronics decreased by 20 per cent, which can partly be explained by the abovementioned high-speed development of digital technology.

The observed lifespan decrease also coincided with considerable economic growth seen at that specific period. It is not improbable that since the credit crunch in 2008, acquisition of replacements has become less affordable to most people in the West. It is quite likely that product lifespan correlates to economy, but this subject has not been explicitly explored.

Continuously increasing production, particularly combined with the growing demand for commodities in emerging large economies and their ability to produce quite cheaply for the rest of the world, inevitably affects the economic availability of material resources. Prices, on average, have gone up and - even more detrimental - have become more volatile. Therefore, retaining value throughout a product’s life through careful management is the sensible thing to do.