Critical Thoughts
Strategies for Effective Part Obsolescence Management in Electronic Infrastructure Systems
June 3, 2025
As a society, we are incredibly dependent on our smartphones and devices, whether we want to admit it or not, for many crucial aspects of our daily lives. But imagine one day that your smart phone just stops working. No calls, no texts, no internet connection. You can’t access your emails, your personal and office…
Understanding and Mitigating Obsolescence Risks in Embedded Systems
January 10, 2025
Electronics obsolescence is an inevitable and fundamental problem that many manufacturers and end-users face daily with their embedded systems. But it doesn’t have to be a big challenge–proper planning and support can help you save a lot of time, money, and effort that would otherwise be wasted trying to ‘manage’ obsolescence risk when it’s such…
Maintaining Quality in Obsolete Aerospace Electronics and Embedded Systems – GDCA
November 19, 2024
Electronics obsolescence is the slow apocalypse that threatens just about every industry that uses embedded circuit boards in their equipment–but when it comes to aerospace and defense-related electronics, the impact is even greater. Ensuring Quality is Time-Consuming–and the Higher the Standards, the Longer it Takes Many of the systems used in these aircraft often have…
The Role of Legacy Equipment in Modern Industrial Applications
November 4, 2024
Industrial automation has become more and more crucial throughout the manufacturing world. Robotics have expanded from simply material handling and movement to actually performing certain tasks, like assembly and welding, and they are only growing more sophisticated with each year. In a time of diminishing resources and increasing demand, automation offers new opportunities for many…
Legacy Engineering: Balancing Innovation with Tradition
October 1, 2024
Legacy electronic systems result from technology’s swift evolution, a rapid pace of growth and innovation that, while widely celebrated, leaves many embedded systems incompatible and unable to easily and affordably upgrade in its wake. What is Legacy Engineering? The goal of engineering as a general field has always been to solve technical problems, increase efficiency…
Just because you have the TDP doesn’t mean you can build the board
February 20, 2024
Recently, one of the ways in which we’ve seen end-use customers try to combat electronics obsolescence is by getting the technical data (TDP) of the required circuit board from the OEM. For the last few years, there has been a growing conviction that having the TDP is the answer to the challenge of assuring support…
Obsolescence is a now problem–not a later one
December 15, 2023
A case study in what can go wrong Obsolescence is a critical issue in PCB manufacturers and their customers, and can be an expensive problem to deal with if not dealt with on time, or even better, ahead of time before the real issues begin. As a legacy equipment manufacturer–a manufacturer of obsolete and discontinued…
Analysis Paralysis
November 16, 2022
It is easy to understand the multiple pressures OEMs feel at the end of a product’s lifecycle when there is still customer demand. For customers who need more support for discontinued products, the best-case scenario is that the OEM will free up the engineering resources needed to satisfy the request. The worst-case scenario is that…
Last Time Buy vs. Last Time Offering
August 4, 2022
A widespread practice among original equipment manufacturers (OEM) is the last time buy (LTB) event, which is usually a warning call to customers that a product is approaching its end of life (EOL) stage. This practice varies in its execution, but it usually takes the shape of a six-month EOL notice with a six-month LTB…
5 Sustainment Questions Every Program Must Ask Itself
June 3, 2022
DoD Programs routinely face a backlog of open cases for parts that are unprocurable owing to obsolescence or DMSMS. Problematic parts range from bolts and valves to complex computer electronics. When these cases are not quickly resolved, the fallout can be significant, resulting in undermined warfighters’ missions and jeopardized lives. In this critical thought, we’ll…