Manufacturers already rely on laboratory testing, warranty data, and customer feedback to improve future products. I believe field experience deserves a seat at that table as well.
Why the Best Manufacturing Innovations Don't Start in the Lab, They Start in the Field
Dominique Bastien, Founder | The Gondola Shop
Most manufacturers spend years designing, testing, and refining a product before it enters service. My perspective begins much later.
For nearly three decades, I've restored passenger gondola cabins operating at ski resorts and transportation systems across North America and Europe. By the time they arrive for restoration, they've accumulated thousands of operating hours and years of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, snow, ice, wind, vibration, heavy public use, and maintenance performed by different teams over multiple decades.
Spending that much time taking products apart changes what you notice.
You begin to recognize which materials quietly exceeded expectations, which components consistently demanded attention, and which design decisions made maintenance easier, or considerably harder, years later. Looking at products near the end of their lifecycle offers a perspective that's difficult to gain during design and manufacturing because the field reveals how engineering decisions hold up over time.
Every Restoration Tells the Story of a Product
My introduction to this field happened almost by accident. While working at Whistler Blackcomb in the late 1990s, I overheard guests complaining that they couldn't take photographs through scratched gondola windows. At the time, replacing those windows was considered the standard solution. I wondered whether restoration could accomplish the same goal while preserving the original material.
That simple observation led me into a field that barely existed at the time.
As the work evolved from restoring windows to rebuilding complete passenger cabins, I realized every project contained far more information than its visible condition suggested. A scratched window reflected years of weather exposure, cleaning practices, passenger use, and maintenance decisions. Worn hardware, deteriorated seals, faded coatings, and aging interiors documented how products had actually performed after years of service rather than how anyone expected them to perform when they were first manufactured.
I've often thought of restoration as reading an engineering history book. Every repair, every modification, and every replacement component becomes part of that history. Looking at one product tells an interesting story. Looking at thousands of products over many years reveals patterns that are much harder to recognize during development or initial production.
Mountain environments make those patterns especially visible. High-altitude ultraviolet radiation slowly degrades plastics. Freeze-thaw cycles place constant stress on materials. Wind, moisture, vibration, and heavy seasonal use all leave their mark over time. Even cabins built on the same production line can age differently depending on where they operate and how they're maintained.
Those observations don't replace laboratory testing. They complement it by showing how products respond to years of real operating conditions that no controlled environment can fully recreate.
Some of the Most Valuable Engineering Lessons Come Decades Later
Much of my career has involved restoring passenger gondola cabins that manufacturers built decades earlier. Many remain structurally sound, but the products themselves have outlived the supply chains that originally supported them. By the time restoration becomes necessary, original tooling may no longer exist, engineering drawings have sometimes disappeared, suppliers have gone out of business, and replacement parts simply aren't available.
Working with aging infrastructure under those conditions requires a different kind of engineering mindset. Recreating a component isn't simply a matter of matching its dimensions. It means understanding why the original part was designed that way, how it performed after years of service, and whether modern materials or manufacturing techniques can improve durability while preserving compatibility with the existing system.
Over time, I found myself documenting restoration methods, fabrication processes, and inspection procedures because there were no established standards to follow. Much of that knowledge developed gradually through repeated field experience rather than formal guidance. Each project built on lessons from the previous one until those methods became consistent enough to apply across different generations of equipment.
Occasionally, even manufacturers have reached out for guidance on legacy cabin models because information about older systems had been lost over time. Experiences like that reinforced something I've come to appreciate throughout my career: products continue generating engineering knowledge long after production ends. Once they're discarded without being studied, much of that knowledge disappears with them.
The broader lesson extends well beyond gondolas. Any product designed to remain in service for decades will eventually outlive some of the assumptions made during its original development. Studying how those products age provides an opportunity to strengthen future designs rather than simply replace what no longer works.
Innovation Often Starts With the People Maintaining the Product
Some of the most practical insights I've gained didn't come from technical manuals or engineering drawings. They came from mechanics, maintenance managers, inspectors, operators, and technicians responsible for keeping complex equipment running year after year.
Their perspective develops through repetition. They know which components consistently require attention, which design features simplify routine inspections, and which seemingly minor details create unnecessary work after years of operation. They also see how products respond to weather, maintenance schedules, transportation, and everyday use in ways that rarely appear in design reviews.
Those conversations have shaped how I approach problem-solving. The people responsible for maintaining equipment often notice opportunities for improvement long before they become formal engineering discussions because they're working with the product through every stage of its operational life. Their experience deserves a place alongside laboratory testing, warranty analysis, and customer feedback when manufacturers evaluate future designs.
When I entered this field, there wasn't a playbook for much of the work I hoped to accomplish. Restoration methods had to be developed through observation, testing, documentation, and refinement. Progress rarely arrived through dramatic breakthroughs. More often, it came from solving one practical problem, improving the process, and carrying that lesson into the next project.
Looking back, that's probably the most consistent pattern I've seen throughout my career. Innovation has often been driven by paying closer attention to products already in service and the people who know them best.
Looking Beyond the Factory Floor
Manufacturing conversations naturally focus on what's coming next. New materials, production technologies, and engineering tools continue pushing industries forward. Existing products, however, still have a great deal to teach us.
As infrastructure continues to age, manufacturers and asset owners are placing greater emphasis on lifecycle management, maintainability, and long-term performance. Understanding why one component remained reliable for thirty years while another required repeated intervention provides valuable context for future engineering decisions. Those lessons aren't limited to transportation infrastructure. They apply anywhere products are expected to operate safely and reliably over long service lives.
Throughout my career, I've learned that some of the most valuable engineering insights don't come from the products alone, they come from the people responsible for keeping those products in service. Mechanics, maintenance teams, inspectors, and operators develop a practical understanding that's difficult to capture in testing environments because they see equipment evolve over years of use. They understand recurring problems, maintenance challenges, and design choices that quietly shape reliability over the life of an asset.
Manufacturers already rely on laboratory testing, warranty data, and customer feedback to improve future products. I believe field experience deserves a seat at that table as well. The people maintaining equipment every day aren't simply repairing yesterday's designs, they're often identifying tomorrow's improvements long before those ideas reach an engineering review.
Looking back, that's probably the most valuable lesson my career has given me. Every product leaves the factory with a design intent, but its operational life continues to generate knowledge. When manufacturers combine engineering expertise with the experience of the people who maintain those products over decades of service, they gain a more complete understanding of how designs perform in the real world, and how the next generation of products can be even better.
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Dominique Bastien is an internationally recognized expert in gondola restoration and the founder of The Gondola Shop. For more than twenty-seven years, she has developed proprietary restoration systems, opened global markets, and led complex projects for transportation operators and tourism destinations worldwide. She oversees operations in the United States and Europe while driving product innovation, industry standards, and long-term client partnerships. She lives and works in Colorado and is bilingual in English and French.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of ManufacturingTomorrow
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