This is the second part of the story: Today I went to the workshop to see what was happening with the vacuum cleaner – after a month of waiting for the famous «Chinese» spare part – they informed me that the spare part has arrived, offered to deliver it next week and anticipates that YES, there is a repair industry.

I wait for the repaired and functional vacuum cleaner to be delivered to me, while I think about what I will do with it once it is delivered, I reflect on the business model that tested consumer habits and trends, the modular design -you can still replace it by modules and not discard everything which is the object of spare parts!-, the positive environmental impact of repairing instead of buying something new, among others.

The same day I took to the workshop a 700 kVA backup equipment that I use in my home office and it no longer works, curiously it is of Chinese manufacture and I initially thought that it would not be repaired – how will they find a spare part for something so specific and so long from home I thought – it was a fact that I doubted if they could repair it since I just wanted to challenge the business model, and it turns out that YES, they will repair it! changing the battery and the control mother board that turned out to be a generic industrial product, they offered me to deliver it in three days, pleasant surprise! – the cost of the repair is 1/3 of the price of something similar new on the market today.

I realized that part of the issue is that our economies are so small that spare parts are hard to find because it is not profitable for entrepreneurs to keep them available in the market for the little movement they have, but now access to supply chains connected to larger economies gives us access to the stock of spare parts from those economies that do give them movement.

IF generic spare parts are made and are available for many items, then it is in some way modular or circular economy.

It brought to mind the professional experience I had during a hydroelectric power generation project while looking for options for turbines and technology in a project that was economically very tight and the necessity triggered as necessary to explore other options such as «cheaper technology». On that occasion we visited suppliers and factories in China and discovered that the industrial and consumer philosophy in China – in that particular industry of hydroelectric power is to make plants of different sizes, somewhat robust but all the same in the basics a kind of «one size fits all» staggered which means that they make plants of 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 10, etc. that way it is more accessible spare parts and model changes if something fails, they can have stock of generic spare parts for all, perhaps not take advantage of the last cent of renewable resources as other design philosophies that make facilities «made to measure» and result in plants of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and so on. They may not take advantage of the last cent of renewable resources like other design philosophies that make «tailor made» installations and result in plants with capacities like 1.23 or 4.35 for example, but the Chinese can replace more easily, a circular economy approach.

I’m in trouble, what do I do with the vacuum cleaner?

I believe I will offer it at auction price for at least $200. I am not very clear how used items are sold to the public, I will explore how.

The underlying question I asked myself at the time was: What is better, to extract the latest resources and technology, but make it difficult to replace its parts or, to make replacement easy and be able to repair and replace modularly with benefits of availability, environmental and other benefits?

After all of this, it is my motivation to advertise the circular industry more and to enter the repair value chain.

By the way, I found an article by a colleague from my alma mater that may be of interest to you about entrepreneurship and circular economy. See here: «Entrepreneurs taking advantage of the circular economy».

Want to see part one: Replacing or repairing the vacuum cleaner?