Best Fit Product - Emotional Engineering - page 29

Why did software developers adopt such a development system? It is because
they have to cope with the diversifying requirements from their users. As diver-
si ! cation and personalization are progressing so rapidly, we can learn a lesson from
software development. And indeed such moves are found in hardware ! fields, too.
5 Increasing Importance of MRO (Maintenance, Repair,
and Operations)
Rolls-Royce introduced the idea of “Power by the Hour” [ 2 ]. Until this idea was
introduced, they sold their engines based on their functions. This was a common
practice for every hardware product sale.
Aircraft engines are used for 10,000 - 30,000 h. But they are not running all the
time. And what is important is that when airlines have to inspect, they have to
prepare another engine at the airport not to interrupt their regular operational
schedule. Thus, for airlines, it is more important that they can fl fly their planes on
schedule without a hitch than to discuss how a particular individual engine's
functions are good.
Therefore, Rolls-Royce introduced the idea to guarantee airlines' regular oper-
ations. Such a way of contracting is called performance based contracting [ 3 ] . But
we have to note that this performance is truly performance for the user or opera-
tional performance. Until now, we have been discussing performance for the
producer or performance of a product.
This idea of “Power by the Hour” was initially developed by Bristol Siddeley in
the early 1960s to cope with the diverse requirements for business jet engines. As
operating conditions of business jets vary extensively from plane to plane, they
have to develop such operation primed approach. Rolls-Royce introduced the idea
and expanded it to airline engines in the 1980s.
Thus, we should note that this is an idea how we can cope with diversi ! cation
and personalization and still keep on producing in mass. This is one of the solutions
to mass customization and personalization. Performance-based contracting is
spreading very quickly and it is being adopted in many ! fields today.
But we have to note that this is the issue of maintenance and reliability.
Maintenance is to restore the degrading function back to its original design spec-
i ! cations. So this is another issue of products in mass.
6 Building up Trust
The above example shows how producers can best respond to the needs of their
customers. The basic idea of production system remains the same as it was yes-
terday. Products are produced in mass. As operational conditions vary extensively