# INDEPENDENCE OF A SYSTEM'S FUNCTION FROM A SPECIFIC PRODUCT
🔴 The independence of a system from its products gives it even greater flexibility in reacting to external fluctuations. Dependency on resources is minimized, inflexibility due to technical fixation avoided. **Products come and go, function is permanent.**
**Only function-oriented systems will survive in the long run.**
In this sense a manager of the automobile industry should not consider himself as a car manufacturer but as being in the traffic business.
Utility companies should not think of themselves as electric power generators but as energy managers which can also imply an obligation to reduce energy demand or to replace electric power consumption by alternatives or service.
# Orientation toward functions The system should be oriented towards its functions, not its products.
**Precondition:** Interdisciplinary Feedback and Communication, Diversity and small number of items.