MODERN LIVING: Out of Order

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The U.S. appliance industry can also learn some other important lessons from Detroit Edison. The company's repair experience has turned up frequent evidence of poorly made, badly designed appliances. Plastic knobs, handles and moldings often break almost as soon as the appliance is unpacked. Many appliances are unnecessarily hard to service. The company found one hand iron that took 40 minutes to take apart. Some modern toasters are riveted clear around, require $2.50 worth of labor before the serviceman can even get to the works, much less repair them. Many so-called "built-in" ranges and washer-dryer combinations are nothing more than standard, movable appliances with the casters removed, made to be serviced from the rear. When built in, they cannot be serviced without tearing them out from the wall. Says Detroit Edison's Service Boss William R. Milby: More companies should "create a design with service in mind. That means a certain amount of interchangeability. We think a manufacturer should try to make his '58 models at least somewhat the same as his '57 models—that is, they should use only six kinds of bolts instead of 18."

As gadgets become increasingly complex—and the repair bills mount—every businessman is attacking the problem at all levels, from the small local repair shop up to the factory production line. Philco, Motorola and other manufacturers have found that it is often better to scrap the inevitable lemons that crop up in every model than try to repair them. Sears, Roebuck recently exchanged a Dallas customer's TV set five times before both company and customer were satisfied. To eliminate a troublesome production error, Norge spent thousands of dollars changing the transmissions in 27,000 washing machines. Major companies have training schools to help servicemen repair their products, maintain parts depots around the country so repairmen will not hold up a job for want of a special kind of a nut.

To beat the repair problem, big companies are taking on more and more of their own repairs. To make sure that its appliances are well-serviced, G.E. has set up 14 company service centers in major cities; Radio Corp. of America, one of the earliest pioneers of factory service, goes even farther, has a battalion of 2,000 servicemen in its 160 U.S. branches, estimates that they make 40,000 calls weekly and service some 10% of all RCA television sets in U.S. homes. Relieved of the expensive burden of service, the franchised dealer can use his capital to buy in bigger lots at lower prices, and win back some of the competitive edge he has long given away to discount houses.