Xinwei Liu
BA_512
02/12/2015
The Improvement of Play Pumps Program Trevor Field, the founder of Play Pumps International, wanted to help rural people acquire clean water by installing Play Pumps that could produce sufficient water for up to 200,000 people when children play carousel. However, after a few years, this program broke down and Play Pump became a failed product. But not all of the similar products have the similar trouble. The hydraulic ram pump of Green Empowerment is also a kind of pump product and it is durable and reliable. So, in order to improve the play pump, stimulating green empowerment is important. After analyzing this company and its product, the field investigation and finding appropriate cooperation companies are significantly essential to success in this business. First of all, field investigation is an important and fundamental factor in developing a product. Without this factor, the product will fail no matter how good it is. Take Play Pumps International as an example, this company had sufficient funds and a good product, but it only focused on installing them and ignored whether South Africans really needed it or not. A number of Play Pumps could not acquire enough energy to take water from an underground source because of missing field investigation, which led to a serious problem that in some places there are not sufficient kids to play merry-go-round to offer the power for driving the Play Pumps. However, Green Empowerment does the fieldwork frequently since installing its pump may be affected by the location although this product has a good design. The outstanding field investigation of Green Empowerment has increased the adaptability of their product in order to avoid some potential mistakes in the operation, as a result the reliability and durability of the product is greatly improved. Therefore, field visiting is an important part for improving the performance of play pump, which will help Play Pumps International avoid potential problems in the future operation. Furthermore, it is essential to cooperate with other companies good at dealing with some specific problems for improving a product. For instance, Green Empowerment has many types of cooperation partners, such as local government and technology companies. The field investigation could provide enough information about some hidden troubles, and then cooperation partners will deal with those problems as soon as possible since the development of the product will affect their profit. On the contrary, Play Pumps International only focused on producing Play Pumps and numerous local residents did not know what would be built in their hometown. In this time, Play Pumps has to cooperate with the local government and get the information whether or not citizens like this product or how to make citizens like their product. Also, feedbacks from the local government could help them improve their product and make them easier to use. At the same time, technology companies will design the second version to strengthen the quality of product. Based on the statement above, Trevor Fields’ objectives have failed because of missing field surveys and studies, and he is also unwilling to cooperate with other companies to boost his business. Green Empowerment, on the other hand, prefers field investigation and cooperation with others. Its partners will help them improve their product and share benefit with them. For example, the technology companies will design new type of products based on the failed prototypes. And collaboration with local government ensures product protection and local attention. If Play Pumps International uses the same strategy, he would avoid the majority of potential issues, such as maintenance and support service. The more popular the product is, the more benefit they can acquire together. the technology companies will design new type of products by the failed examples.