Over the weekend, on October 15 a number of countries that subscribe to the Open Repair Alliance hosted the International Repair Day to focus on fixing electronic devices.
It was interesting to note that only two African countries participated.
South Africa was nowhere to be seen in the list of countries that are working toward encouraging the process of fixing electronic devices instead of throwing them away and getting a new one.
This does not mean South Africa contributes less in the process of fixing devices, it does however show that the level of interest (by industry) in repairing gadgets is less compared to other regions.
Research conducted by the Open Repair Alliance showed that there are lots of barriers to repair that make this tricky across the globe.
Some of the biggest are the lack of spare parts and repair documentation as well as designs that make opening the product difficult without causing extra damage.
What also stood out from the research conducted by the Open Repair Alliance is that manufacturers of electronics devices are increasingly making devices that are harder to repair. Part of the problem stems from even the manner in which some gadgets are designed.
Data from the Open Repair Alliance, based on the analysis of around 900 repairs of tablets at community repair events, showed that just more than 42% of tablet repairs are successful at these events.
This is one of the worst product categories in comparison to printers, TVs and other devices.
Analysis of the data shows the range of problems encountered by volunteers, as well as their level of success per type of fault. Insights gathered from the research provides a strong rationale for extending the availability of spare parts and repair information to end-users.
Repairs conducted at community repair events involve multiple fault types. While some of them are activities related to maintenance, with very high success rate (help/configuration, performance, storage problem), the majority of problems require access to spare parts (screen 17%, power/battery 16.7%, 8.3% charging port, on/off button 2.5%, charger 1.9%, internal damage 1.5%, headphone jack 0.9% are the most common). Due to the design of most tablets and to availability of spare parts and repair manuals, success rate for this type of repairs is very low at community repair events.
Overall, data from Open Repair Alliance shows that there’s a rise of a repair culture across the globe due to environmental concerns. Some countries are even developing regulations that are encouraging a right to repair approach. Some electronic gadgets’ manufacturers have responded by designing products that make it easier for consumers to repair. In this regard, however, most manufacturers are still lagging behind.
South Africa can learn a lot from countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, which are leading with the adoption of repair culture.
Manufacturers of technology devices can do more by creating products that are easier to repair and making parts easier to find together with guidelines on how to fix products. Such efforts will be good for the environment and lead to consumer happiness, which in the long run will be good for company bottom lines.
Wesley Diphoko is the Editor-In-Chief of Fast Company (SA) magazine.
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