Automatic Age

March, 1940
89
AUTOMATIC AGE
Today’s Products Are Obsolete!
R adically New Products Needed to Stim ulate
Production, Sales and Em ploym ent
Cleveland, Ohio— To help manufac­
turers speed recovery, absorb the un­
employed, and prepare now for the
post - war competition of foreign
manufacturers, by the introduction
of improved and radically new prod­
ucts that present advanced thought
in function, convenience and ap­
pearance, is claimed for a three-
production service termed a Master
Products Service, inaugurated by
Designers for Industry, Inc., an in ­
dustrial design and engineering or­
ganization of this city, according to
announcement by Chas. H. Oppen-
heimer, its president.
In making the announcement Mr.
Oppenheimer states that the master
Products service involves the applica­
tion of the scientific principles of
modern product research, engineer-
'Ug development and product styling
for the development of radical im ­
provements that will create a definite
obsolescence factor in existing
Products.
“As a matter of fact,” he declared,
in view of potent'alities it is obvious
that a large percentage of today’s
Products are already obsolete. There
1S little difference in the service pei'-
formance or appearance of many com­
petitive products. Buyers are not,
ln most lines, being furnished with
sufficient inducement to make new or
^placem ent sales. Unlimited oppor­
tunities await those manufacturers
wbo anticipate consumer require­
ments and furnish the radically im ­
proved products necessary to meet
them.
of their products, nor upon product
styling or industrial design as a con­
structive stimulant in marketing.
“ Manufacturers as a rule have
ignored the factor of obsolescence
as a powerful trade stim ulant and
business-builder,” he continued, “as
so forcefully demonstrated by the
new life and activity in the auto­
motive, office and store equipment,
and some divisions of the domestic
appliance fields, and especially in
the machine tool field, — in all of
which radically improved products
have increased sales and employment
to a marked degree. Immediate pub­
lic acceptance of today’s smart auto­
mobiles, flourescent lighting, pianos,
electric razors, nylon fabric hosiery,
streamlined typewriters and products
of synthetic plastics, and the adop­
tion by industry of new alloys,
finishes and processes, furnish ample
proof that radically improved or prac­
tical new products will find immediate
consumer response.
“ However,” he points out, “few
of the more than 100,000 active plants
that constitute American industry,
have the facilities, personnel or means
that have enabled the automotive,
steel, and chemical industries and a
few outstanding manufacturers to
create the radically new materials or
products that experience has shown
are assured of immediate public ac­
ceptance.
“ Furthermore, but few manufac­
turers have the facilities for keep­
ing abreast of the constant new de­
velopments in all materials, processes,
products and finishes, noteworthy ex­
amples of which are found in the
beryllium alloys, silicon bronzes, tel­
lurium-copper alloys, silver and lead
alloy steels, one-coat one-fire porce­
lain enameling, flame gouging, in fra ­
red ray drying, m a g n e s i u m alloys, im ­
proved grey iron castings, glass and
synthetic fabrics, and the scores of
other material and product develop­
ments that pave the way for the
radically new products that will sti­
mulate production and sales.
.
“ The iMaster Products Service was
created to overcome the handicaps
that confront all but the very largest
of organizations, to give them the
benefits accruing from scientific m ar­
ket research, the latest engineering
technique, and the selling force in­
herent in artistic and correct func­
tional design.
“ To these manufacturers, Ameri­
ca’s employed 35,000,000 wage earn­
ers offer a healthy, profitable m ar­
ket. And it is noteworthy that in
spite of economic conditions, the pre­
sent income earners will spend genei*-
ously for new things, provided the
new things have a distinctive new
appeal — refinement, beauty, greater
utility, convenience, simplified opera­
tion,— individually or in combination
that will automatically put the “ out
of date” stamp on existing products.
There will be no unemployment prob­
lems when industry as a whole grasps
the significance of not only keeping
its products up-to-date, but, let us
say, a little ahead of expressed de­
mands.”
M o d e rn ’s M o d e rn Offices
"^be situation is aggravated by
e fact that fully fifty per cent
° the products in use today are in-
®0rrectly designed. This is largely
Ue to the fact that many manufac-
Urers have failed to utilize impar-
product research to determine
Sei requirements, character and
° f competing products, pos-
low ^ GS
better products and
ei production costs made possible
y substitute materials, and market
ized n^ a^ t ies; ^bey have not capital-
^.e upon modern engineering tech-
thqUe and new materials to improve
e mechanical and service features
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