feature: service and repair
Repair, recycle or reincarnate? The product lifecycle and the circular economy
In these days of shrinking margins and online marketplaces, making sure the consumer gets the best value for money has never been more important for the independent electrical retailer. Here, Martyn Allen, of leading UK charity Electrical Safety First, discusses the work the charity has been undertaking with manufacturers to address the issues of servicing and repair.
T
he need for independent electrical retailers to adapt to a rapidly changing environment involving
multi- retail channels and changes in consumer taste, is self-evident. But successful businesses also need to negotiate the impact of product innovation and legislative change. Today, the speed of innovation seems to occur at an exponential rate. But it is the breadth and depth of the accompanying changes that herald the transformation of entire systems of design, production, management and governance. And retailers are among the first to feel the impact of these changes, given their front-line service to consumers. One area which is garnering increasing consumer (and government) attention relates to what has been called ‘the circular economy’. This increasingly popular model offers an alternative approach to the traditional linear economy, where the process is ‘make, use, dispose’. In a circular economy, the aim is to keep resources in use for as
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long as possible, obtain the maximum value from them while in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. This model places a spotlight on sustainability
and safety in the product lifecycle - particularly product end-of-life and the growing issue of obsolescence, recycling and re-manufacturing. Inevitably, this includes the issue of the availability of unauthorised components and (often unauthorised) repairers - and how that impacts on brand value. In America, California has become the 18th
state to propose what has become known as the “right to repair” law, which would require electronics companies (such as Apple) to make devices easier for users to repair some parts when they fail. In the European Union, ‘right to repair’ legislation – which the UK will ‘mirror’, regardless of Brexit, for some time to come – is currently being developed. It aims to address environmental concerns around electronic or ‘e-waste’ and make products easier to fix – including encouraging manufacturers to
offer replacement parts and, in some cases, to repair certain products when required.
Sub-standard
replacement components may lie at the root of a number of product failures, but consumers may well blame the brand or shop where the item was originally bought
Although many items are not designed to
be user-serviced, some manufacturers produce or license after-market parts for the consumer market. But many others are made by a third party, with no connection to the original manufacturer. It’s particularly problematic
May / June 2019
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