>but it doesn't solve the problem that things are manufactured to break.
No. That isn't the problem. You do want to have things which are engineered for a specific life time. The alternative is things which aren't engineered for a specific life time and might break any time, even extremely early. You either define how long your product should last or you don't, the former is vastly preferable.
Repairability solves the problem of the minimum life time of a product being determined by a single component.
>"Sure your $2000 refrigerator died after a year, but now you can pay to make it work again" is a garbage bargain.
It depends. If the cost of replacing parts is cheaper than a product which by itself would last the same time it is a good bargain.
In almost any product you have components which are hard to make in such a way that the product lasts over a long time. Some things will naturally wear out and, if no replacement parts are available, make the whole product obsolete.
Unfortunately repairability doesn't solve it. Even when it can be repaired, the repair can easily cost more than the product is worth. If anything I expect them to cheap out on parts, because they can now bring it as an "affordable" replacement for a "wear part" rather than just putting in the right part at manufacturing.
We're already seeing this with "repair kits": to replace that $0.50 thing that broke, you have to put in a new $100 sub-assembly. USB connector broken? Guess you're getting a new logic board! Battery worn? Sorry, gotta buy a new screen too.
The entire product should be engineered to last roughly the same amount of time, with no artificial wear items. But that's simply not what we're seeing these days.
No. That isn't the problem. You do want to have things which are engineered for a specific life time. The alternative is things which aren't engineered for a specific life time and might break any time, even extremely early. You either define how long your product should last or you don't, the former is vastly preferable.
Repairability solves the problem of the minimum life time of a product being determined by a single component.
>"Sure your $2000 refrigerator died after a year, but now you can pay to make it work again" is a garbage bargain.
It depends. If the cost of replacing parts is cheaper than a product which by itself would last the same time it is a good bargain.
In almost any product you have components which are hard to make in such a way that the product lasts over a long time. Some things will naturally wear out and, if no replacement parts are available, make the whole product obsolete.