Strategic Planning in Appliance Repair - Essay Example

Specialists who deal with the repair of appliances, regardless of whether they specialize in small electrical appliances or household appliances, experience the dilemma of whether to remain in business notwithstanding the declining rates of repair in the industry. The decline in rates of repair can be demonstrated in the numbers and the industry is growing smaller and smaller rather than growing globally (Street, 2012). In the past decade, more than four thousand businesses that dealt specifically with repair have had to close their businesses in the US alone with the decline largely affecting service centers that dealt with consumer electronics as more than ten thousand shops have closed or have sought other businesses that are more profitable.

The service technicians with an ability to deal with consumer electronics, small appliances, and household electronics are becoming more difficult to find and this somewhat restricts the rate at which shops are able to service high-end appliances. If technicians with appropriate training are not available, then the owners of the service shops are not able to remain ahead of their competition or expand their operations globally through attracting the appropriate forms of repair jobs. Without a sufficient number of repair jobs on high-end appliances, the owners of shops cannot be able to afford to employ the best and most skilled technicians.

In the recent past, most consumers are keen on having their products, which are covered by warranties, repaired at authorized service shops (Bostick & Freese, 2012). Usually, there are businesses that are run privately while having contracts with the manufacturers of specific products, with the service technicians being trained by the manufacturers themselves. Every so often, industry associations provide sponsorships for trade shows that provide opportunities for manufacturers to offer seminars so that owners of repair shops and their technicians can be certified and re-certified.*..

Analyze the impact of national context as it pertains to the appliance repair industry. Does national context help or hinder these companies in achieving a competitive advantage in the global marketplace?The American market for the home appliances has gone through dramatic changes that are not as easy to comprehend as growth or mere decline. Even though the home appliances industry continues to expand, technological and economic aspects have shaped the consumers as well as appliances to give them a different nature than what was previously known.

This has equally affected the appliance repair industry since appliances are now different and the consumers have experienced shifts in preferences. Increased connectivity as well as enhanced and adapted economies have created challenges for manufacturers and created a state of confusion for irregular characteristics of US consumers. The shifts in customer preferences and technology used in the manufacture of appliances have resulted in manufacturers operating their own factory service centers that usually bear the names of the manufacturers and operate at their standards (Michman & Mazze, 2001).

Manufacturers have been forced to close their nationwide service centers and instead pass their businesses to independent shops that are certified. However, this has both advantages and disadvantages depending on the service center and the nature of the business that it conducts.From one perspective, warranty jobs bring in more business, but when considered from a different point of view, they do not bring in profits that can be compared to other jobs. This has forced some of the service centers to branch out into other lines of work as a means of assisting to offset declines in revenues from repairing major appliances.

Some of the diversified service offerings by the service centers include the sale of vacuum cleaners, sewing machines as well as sewing supplies, and carpet cleaner rentals. Others chose to provide repair services for products that are not part of the appliance industry like repairing construction equipment, sharpening tools as well as hotel contracts so that they can remain in business.