Mission accomplished!

Should we just accept that once an electrical appliance is a few years old and it breaks we should throw it in the bin? I don’t think so and wanted to share a great example I had recently with Mission (https://www.mission.co.uk/ UK based hi-fi equipment manufacturer). Around 2008 I bought a second-hand Mission Cyrus Two stereo amplifier from a colleague. It was already around 20 years old, working perfectly and sounding superb. I’ve used the amp daily since then and love the sound. These days it is connected to a Sonos system rather than a record player or cassette deck. Recently it started showing a few signs of age (that’s OK, it is >30 years old!). The sound had deteriorated and some of the buttons were no longer working. I was very reluctant to throw it away and contacted a local hi-fi retailer (https://nottinghamhifi.co.uk/). They said, ‘no problem, bring it in, we’ll send it back to the Mission factory for full refurbishment.’ I paid a fraction of the price of buying a modern equivalent amplifier, and off it went. A few weeks later it was ready for collection, all the bits that needed replacement had been done to the original spec (after all this was the same place that built this amp when new). Now it is sounding great again and ready to give another 30 years service. It got me wondering, for how many more types of product could this approach work? As engineers, we need to design products that people want to own for longer and make it easier to repair and maintain them. OEM’s need to provide ongoing support to encourage people to repair and maintain the products they sell. As consumers we need to be prepared to pay more upfront for higher quality items that will cost less over their lifetime. This experience was very different to my experience of keeping a Vauxhall Ampera on the road that I bought in 2014, but that’s another story!