Coke, cigarettes, and car parts

Coke, cigarettes, and car parts are three things you’ll find almost anywhere in the world, from the most industrially developed countries, all the way to the most rural parts of emerging economies.

Wouldn’t it be great if every device could be made from these three components? That would mean every device would be readily repairable, and could be locally manufactured.

In reality, not every product can be made from coke, cigarettes and car parts, but there’s some products which use this philosophy. One example is the incubator made out of car parts.

This approach to design could be called ‘design for availability’, where designs are distributed online, and could conceivably be made almost anywhere.