Have you recently visited a local automobile workshop to service your car?

Chances are that you may have recently discovered that your friendly local technician now proposes to repair a faulty component, instead of just replacing it with a brand-new OEM part.

Fixing as the only option

In the past decade before the emergence of China as the world’s factory, fixing was the only option available for budget-conscious consumers. Fixing itself is a time-consuming process that requires specific skill sets not available to the less-experienced labour.

These specialists in repair work tend to take the form of senior technicians who have dedicated their whole life to particular machinery and have well adapted to its demanding and uncompromising nature.

The years spent tinkering and troubleshooting with the same type of machinery are just part of the pure devotion given towards a fix. In short, it takes a whole lot of patience to achieve such mastery.

Besides that, machinery used in the past was most likely imported from the UK or US and was long-lasting, durable and obviously more reliable. One could imagine the cost of importing a new part from the UK or US back then, along with the host of communication challenges and extensive non-digital paperwork needed to clear the customs.

Hence, the pricing was kept high as the quality of parts was of a higher grade. Just imagine if a product part manufacturer based in the UK had to factor in returns for faulty goods back in the 80s to Singapore? It surely would take a long time and a whole lot of money just to get these parts replaced under warranty.

Many senior citizens in the present age may well understand the cost implications in the past and perhaps this is why they may tend to always consider repairing something when it breaks down rather than replacing it.

However, the younger generation may assume that such emotions are all pure sentimental or to a certain extent suggest that they are having a borderline hoarder mentality especially when the older generation clings on to broken down machines despite having a new replacement unit at home.

The assumptions based on my research point to their past experiences in purchasing behaviour and after-sales challenges which tend to give them this different approach towards fixes if compared to the current generation.

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Even my own parents had just in the past week requested to repair our 10-year-old branded washing machine at home without even knowing that the cost to replace it with a new lesser-known brand was just about the same.

The rise of the world’s factory

Since the dawn of the new millennium, a cheap brand-new OEM part from China has become the best plug-and-play solution that supposedly “fixes” the issue at hand at a relatively affordable pricing point.

Even technicians during the peak of the just-replace-it era when consulted would rather nod their heads in agreement to convince you that you would be better off by just replacing a broken part rather than fixing it.

The winning argument, such parts do come with their own limited warranty which extends your peace of mind, and labour costs for installation would be lesser. Furthermore, such parts were relatively cheap, reliable for a minimum of one to two years and were available instantly due to the proximity of China.

So yes, when your local automobile technician suddenly proposes a fix rather than a replacement, this is a sign of changing times. The reality we are facing as we enter a new norm is that global procurement and also shipping lines are greatly affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such extreme lockdown measures are taken by the world’s factory severely impacts supply chains, causing long delays in the sourcing of new parts and shipping them to your local automobile workshop.

Furthermore, the rise of labour costs in China has also impacted the prices of goods sold which no longer provides the benefit of being cheaper. With such a dilemma in hand, the new breed of technicians is now forced to learn again how to fix things and undertake repair work, thus ditching their just-replace-it mindset, perhaps temporarily until the situation improves.

Embracing the circular economy

The silver lining in the cloud, actual repair work and the awareness of preventive maintenance are on the rise again. The significance of this is that eventually, it will reduce consumption and unnecessary wastage of resources.

The world would see a huge drop in waste production and unnecessary industrial pollution with the reduction in the manufacturing of these cheap OEM goods. The recycling industry would also potentially see lesser volume over time.

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In line with the adoption of a new circular economy model being embraced by our current generation, perhaps this shift could mark a new era with the reopening of workshops dedicated to repairing work including consumer electronics, automobiles, fashion ware and even furniture repairs (IKEA 2.0).

No more cheap consumer goods with inferior parts, perhaps signalling the end of fast fashion. Cars that were once meant to last a decade (or a lifetime) would possibly also return back to showrooms. You can read more about the TESLA million-mile battery here.

Increase in higher quality products

By moving away from this just-replace-it mentality, I believe that consumers would demand better quality products in future while corporations are also forced to reduce their huge margins by providing more value in the products sold, but at the same price.

Ideally, businesses that once thrived with brand loyalty by selling overpriced but subpar goods should certainly take the cue in increasing their quality of goods. This includes the replacements for single-use plastics.

As an advocate of fixing and tinkering with machinery since my early childhood and my devotion towards engineering maintenance over the past decade, I gathered some preliminary research on the industry before embarking on launching Rezpon.com as a tool that promotes faster response to maintenance issues.

My endeavours partly stemmed out of curiosity to understand more about cost-cutting measures taken by industries and facility managers in adopting a new preventive maintenance strategy.

This change in approach to prioritise preventive maintenance will ultimately reduce unscheduled breakdowns, predict system malfunction and prevent system outages beforehand to ensure zero downtime in operations.

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