Planned Obsolescence

What is Planned Obsolescence? We tend to view it as something businesses do to make us buy more of their product. It is worth looking at formal definition: A manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period. The main goal of this type of production is to ensure that consumers will have to buy the product multiple times, rather than only once. This naturally stimulates demand for an industry's products because consumers have to keep coming back again and again.

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The Boeing 787 Dreamliner

There is an article in the February 4, 2013 issue of The New Yorker, “Financial Page: Requiem for a Dreamliner” by James Surowieki. The article is about the problems that have grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The plane is relatively new. There are only fifty of these technological marvels currently in service. Regulators in the US, Japan, and elsewhere have grounded the planes due to two incidents of fires in the lithium-ion batteries that power the braking, air conditioning, and pressurization systems of the aircraft. The plane is bigger, lighter, and made of carbon fiber. It operates on 20% less fuel than its competitors. It is the most exciting and promising new aircraft in history.

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