Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail.
That's not how anything is judged -- they are judged by expected TCO. And that TCO includes initial cost, minus expected performance but plus the expected value of failures multiplied by the cost of each failure. All of these vary by the job that the tool is being asked to do.
To give an example, if the wrench is going onto a deep-sea oil platform where replacement will be very costly and will cause very expensive delays, the last factor is very high and so reliability will be at a premium.
I suppose if I were running a business that used certain tools I would think about TCO.
But I think what a lot of us are feeling is that simple tools like chisels, hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, etc.. should last generations. Because they used to. My Grandpa gave my Dad his tool chest. My Dad eventually gave it to me. It is likely approaching 100 years old now, and all the tools still work fine.
Tools are judged ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Tools are judged by their ability to do the job repeatedly and without fail.
That's not how anything is judged -- they are judged by expected TCO. And that TCO includes initial cost, minus expected performance but plus the expected value of failures multiplied by the cost of each failure. All of these vary by the job that the tool is being asked to do.
To give an example, if the wrench is going onto a deep-sea oil platform where replacement will be very costly and will cause very expensive delays, the last factor is very high and so reliability will be at a premium.
On the other hand,
Re:Tools are judged ... (Score:2)
I suppose if I were running a business that used certain tools I would think about TCO.
But I think what a lot of us are feeling is that simple tools like chisels, hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, etc.. should last generations. Because they used to. My Grandpa gave my Dad his tool chest. My Dad eventually gave it to me. It is likely approaching 100 years old now, and all the tools still work fine.