Obsolescence
The Risks of EOL: Lifetime Buy in “real world” terms
February 6, 2013
In the past we’ve talked about the challenges of Last-time Buy and overstock. In Dr. Sandborn’s CALCE Obsolescence Management training, this question illustrates the challenges and risks in regards to what customers can face, at the time of EOL. The answer might be easy if you were looking at a “bridge buy”, where you only…
GDCA’s Obsoletism: The EOL "Time Bomb"
January 23, 2013
How End-of-Life sometimes feels…
Cutting Electronic Waste out of the Counterfeit Supply Chain
December 3, 2012
According to the EPA, although electronic waste (or sometimes known as “e-waste”) is less than 10% of the current solid waste stream, it is growing 2-3 times faster than any other waste stream. In 2005 an estimated 26-37 million computers became obsolete and the Consumer Electronics Association reported that roughly 304 million electronics—were removed from…
DMSMS 2012 – Sustaining an Integrated Supply Chain
November 7, 2012
After our evacuation from New Orleans, we wrote about the part that collaboration played in our experiences. While we focused on how the collaboration mostly focused on safely addressing an incoming hurricane; generally when we talk about collaboration here at GDCA, we’re talking about collaboration in the sense of an integrated supply chain poised to…
DMSMS 2012 – Evacuation from Hurricane Isaac and Collaboration in Action
October 24, 2012
Proactive obsolescence management can often be an adventure. I like to think of it as a cross-industry supply chain game of chess. On one side, you have legacy experts like GDCA, with a quarter of a century of experience sustaining legacy systems. On the other side you have counterfeit risk, disruptive technology and time. This…
What do vintage cars and embedded boards have in common?
September 26, 2012
They both get harder to maintain as they get older, and if you don’t plan for obsolescence, they can both fail. It’s common sense. As things get older, they become more expensive to maintain. For example, an antique car was state-of-the art when it first came out. It performed beautifully, and the parts were easy…
Legacy and NI Week 2012
September 12, 2012
When people think of “legacy”, they often think of what is being passed along or left to the future. We believe a business’ legacy is the lasting mark they make on the industry, impacting future generations of innovators. That is why I look forward to the keynote addresses at NI Week. Each day demonstrates the…
Obsolescence and why you can’t always just make more.
August 22, 2012
When I first began my work with GDCA one of the questions I had was “Why is dealing with obsolete components not just about making more parts?” As I have come to learn, unfortunately, obsolescence management is not just as simple as “making more parts.” Imagine you manufacture various components. In the 1960s, the computers…
No one wants to be left with EOL overstock
August 8, 2012
On one of the blogs I read, someone commented: “If you’re concerned about counterfeits in obsolete components… don’t worry about to-be-discontinued components — just design them in, and buy what you need to support the product anyway. Then you won’t have to worry about counterfeits.” On the surface and if you are only worried about…
Does Innovation = Forced Obsolescence?
July 25, 2012
Is there a downside to new technology innovation? We all love and encourage innovation, but what is the hidden cost? Critical embedded applications in the Defense and Medical industry are a great example of where this question comes into play. Both these applications have people’s lives relying on them, and both require extended life cycles…