9 min listen
Billy Bookcase
ratings:
Length:
9 minutes
Released:
Jan 14, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Low cost, functional and brilliantly efficient, an Ikea Billy bookcase rolls off the production line every three seconds. There are thought to be over 60 million of them already in service. Few could find the Billy bookcase beautiful. They are successful because they work and they are cheap. And – as Tim Harford explains in this fascinating story – brilliantly boring efficiency is essential to the modern economy. The humble Billy bookcase epitomises the relentless pursuit of lower costs and acceptable functionality.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
Released:
Jan 14, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Barcode: How vast mega-stores emerged with the help of a design originally drawn in the sand by 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy