Design, manufacture, installation, service.

They are all built into the product. People are always telling us about price, quality, reliability, brand values, usability. Every day, every one, every where; people love a bargain, a discount, money off, best price, money back, something extra, buy one get ten free. Price.

Who cares about serviceability and reliability? The warranty period gets us through the little niggles that crop up in many products. Engineers know that servicing the machinery is vital to its performance, its reliability and its long life. Good design and manufacture include ease of installation and service and if all those are done well the result is great pay back, long life, less stress, no heart ache, less panics and hassle, all because someone thought of everything. Easy to service products and that’s what matters, isn’t it? Yes and No. Good stuff lasts if it’s looked after. That pair of jeans you bought that you didn’t know had to be dry cleaned. Dry cleaned, jeans. That’s a joke. Most often an expensive one when you don’t read the care instructions and wash the jeans as you would most other jeans.

Some things have to be done by specialists who have the equipment and know how, because that’s their business.

A certified, qualified gas engineer has to install and sign off your gas appliances and service them and certify their own work. Why when you could do it yourself. You could couldn’t you – it’s just pipe fitting. Hold up though because if you do it yourself there could be unintended consequences. If your own service leads to a leak – boom, an explosion, people may die. Same with appliances containing air conditioning refrigerant, not good to get a refrigerant leak. Compressors, pressure vessels and fans can become dangerous if they are installed badly and not serviced.

Air movement equipment won’t explode (compressors can explode) but the air they shift around a building needs to be clean or it could become contaminated with noxious fumes – smoke – or with viruses and bacteria. The whole world knows that those little suckers, viruses, are airborne and the viruses have their very own air force working its evil. If the air movement equipment is dirty, is sucking instead of blowing or is installed upside down it won’t be doing its job and could be a hazard. If it’s not maintained who knows what crappy air is being delivered along with the good stuff.

Explosion equals instant drama. Viruses and bacteria equal long-lasting drama beyond imagination. Economic pain, disruption, job losses. Poisoning your customers and staff or subjecting them to bad air could lead to all kinds of pain – reputational damage, prosecution and litigation and you would carry that on your back for the rest of your life.

How about product reliability. Does the product keep working, how long for, will it last, if it breaks can it be fixed?

We’re talking about industrial goods where brands have an identity that shouts about company culture and its ethics and values. It trains that stuff into its staff and it designs all that into its products and then it builds every bit of its culture and identity into its products and its service back up. It’s the company’s DNA. From the beginning to the end of every product.

It’s entire life cycle.

Then you take the product and sometimes ignore the recommendations to make it do the job the way you want or the way the maker intended it to be done. Who knows best? More often than not the maker will have done field tests, had customer feedback and made changes to their designs and their user instructions.

Installation, service and maintenance instructions. Pay attention to those instructions and you’ll get what you’ve paid for or the manufacturer will rectify issues. Throw away the instructions. Get a cheap installation price. Don’t change filters. Don’t service and maintain. Some guy’s love doing that cos it makes them and the immediate P & L look good. And they don’t give a toss about the consumers. The next guy in gets hit with the extra costs of fixing things that shouldn’t have gone wrong. So, throw away those instructions at your peril. Think asbestos.

Instructions – an everyday lesson. A friend took his young son to a golf driving range. Father had a few swings then asked his son if he would like to try. Son took a suitable club, dad put the ball on a tee and told his son to hit the ball. Son did that pretty well. He took the club and clubbed the ball. Literally, he struck it like he was hitting a nail with a hammer – hilarious. Why, because the instructions weren’t clear and Dad, bless him, didn’t check that his son understood.

There odd one out is hiding, it’s MONEY.   Reducing costs in the design, manufacture, installation, service and maintenance is what manufacturers do constantly – it’s how they improve and simplify their products and services. But when a customer decides to cut costs of installation, service and maintenance, that is a false and dangerous economy when you’re dealing with products that could do harm if not treated properly.