Developing Evolving Machines for Creative Customers

Realizing good quality as a final product has been our traditional approach to machine design. Therefore, current machines are provided with a wide range of full fledged functions. But the higher the function levels become and the more complex a machine becomes, the more our customers feel uneasy. Traditional reliability deals with the issue of verification. i.e., “Are we making the product right?” But what we should ask ourselves in this age of frequent and extensive changes is “Are we making the right product?” This is the issue of validation. We have to consider how we can satisfy our customers’ expectations to really gain their trust. Machines become too much complex so our customers do not know what to expect. We have to give a clear message to our customers what to expect and how their expectation will be satisfied. If we could evolve our machines’ functions step by step just as in software, our creative customers would become happier because they would know what to expect so that they can enjoy “customizing” their products to their current needs and to their tastes. Our customers could share their experience and share their stories with their friends. Such adaptive maintenance will satisfy the human needs pointed out by Maslow and would produce a greater life time value than a one time value we produce as a final product.