Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Important to Industry: Servicing of Electronic Equipment kjERVICING of electronic equipment now accounts for an important percentage of total sales for the electronics industry and, by 1957, is expected to reach an annual total of $2.7 billion, Charles M. Odorizzi, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Staff, Radio Corporation of America, told a meeting of the Cleveland Society of Security Analysts in Cleveland on November 23. In his talk, Mr. Odorizzi described the "amazing growth and healthful expansion of electronics" and emphasized the importance of installation and maintenance of equipment as a major contribution to total industry sales. "In 1946," Mr. Odorizzi said, "when television emerged from behind the curtain of war to begin its phenomenal growth, the industry's return for servicing home television and radio sets was less than $145 million, not including the cost of parts. Four years later, in 1950, comparable costs had increased to $710 million. In 1953, the total was $1.4 billion, and by the end of 1957, this part of the electronics industry will contribute nearly three billion annually to the national economy for home installation and maintenance. In other words, during the next four years, from January 1, 1954, to January 1, 1958, the industry's gross income from this service will have almost doubled. "With these figures in hand, it is only natural that they should be compared with the overall volume of business produced by the electronics industry. Total annual sales of this industry grew from $1.6 billion in 1946 to $8.4 billion in 1953. Thus, in 1953, the consumer service was responsible for 16.4 per cent of electronic industry sales. This is almost as much as the total sales of all electronic products, to both consumers and the Government, in 1946. "Service, therefore, has become an important facet of the nation's business structure. The consumer knows the value and economy of keeping the products of modern science and industry at peak efficiency. When properly organized, service pays its own way. It is a good investment that returns its outlay manifold in many forms. "Some measure of the importance of service to electronics is shown by the fact that today nearly 100,000 service men are employed in the industry, most of whom are in radio and television service for the home. With the expected growth of the electronics industry, more than 125,000 technicians will be needed in 1957." Against this background, Mr. Odorizzi described the development and scope of RCA's own service opera- tions, saying: "From the moment in the mid-twenties when the first piece of apparatus bearing the name RCA came off the assembly line, the company assumed a two-fold responsibility. The first was that this apparatus should work properly upon installation; the second was that it should serve a useful life. Out of this basic responsi- bility for satisfying the customer, the RCA Service Company was born. Millions of Service Calls "The millions of service calls made each year by RCA service representatives are an invaluable asset in another way. From the reports received after visits to homes, factories and military bases, RCA executives and engineers are enabled to keep their fingers on the pulse of customer preferences and demands, and, in that way, can make more accurare plans for future design and production of electronic products." The demands for servicing government electronic installations at home and abroad to insure peak efficiency has brought about a major expansion in this branch of service activities, Mr. Odorizzi said. He continued: "The RCA Government Service Division field engi- neers are under contract with all branches of the Armed Forces and are assigned to all locations where there are Army and Air Force bases. . . . Hundreds of RCA Government Service engineers are assigned to 26 for- eign countries, including 13 which are in the Govern- ment's Mutual Defense Assistance Program. . . . Emphasizing the need for advance planning in many aspects of the service program, Mr. Odorizzi said: "Service facilities must sometimes be organized with a long-range view, administered with little chance of immediate returns. Color TV is an outstanding example of this situation. A full year before a color set reached the consumer market, RCA had trained a group of technical specialists to act as instructors to service men throughout the country. An elaborate series of lecture clinics was arranged in the principal television areas. Up to the present, 120,000 technicians, dealers and others, including the personnel of competitors, have attended these free symposia. In this way, by making available the experience and technical knowledge it has accumulated over the years, we believe that RCA has rendered an outstanding service to the television industry. RADIO AGE 15