A few years ago, a seemingly insignificant fracture in a tiny plastic switch mechanism condemned one of my family’s lamps to the garbage heap. Despite the overall robustness of the product, this minor defect rendered it utterly useless. The most tragic part? That tiny piece of plastic probably cost pennies to manufacture.
Every product is a collection of links, and one of them is bound to be the weakest. If we plan the link structure thoughtfully, a great deal of waste can be eliminated.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how this might work, and I’ve landed on a three-step process for link structure design that I hope will be of use.
Step 1: Distinguish between the replaceable and irreplaceable links within a product. Eliminate the latter where possible.
Step 2: For failure-prone links that can’t be swapped out, build in redundancy when the cost of doing so is minimal and the engineering is feasible. Second kidneys evolved for a reason.
Step 3: When redundancy is impractical for irreplaceable links (due to expense, size, or function), ensure that they’re designed for durability. Links of this category are guaranteed to constrain your product’s lifespan, so build them to last.
I doubt this is a wholly original idea, but I’ve yet to see it articulated this way before. In any case, I hope more designers incorporate link structure design into their processes.
If that happens, we could substantially reduce waste, extend the lifespan of our products, and perhaps save a few more family lamps from an untimely demise.
Designable.blog 