Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Impact of Component Obsolescence



Contradiction always beleaguers people and each industry. With the ongoing technology innovation, material, parts and products have to increasingly shorten the lifecycle and upgrade to meet customers’ growingly demand. But at the same time, we can not deny, part obsolescencebrings large burden to OEMs and EMS, notably those in such long-lifecycle segments as medical, aerospace, military and defense devices.
                        
In recent years, component obsolescence becomes especially catchy, for the resulting costs loss, such as redesigning product and stopping production.

Although parts supplier will issues a notice telling buyers they have six months to place purchase orders and then the part will become obsolete after 12 months, the EOL or PCNs usually can not be available to many buyers, as such buyers have to seek for outdated component from open market or aftermarkets, which generate the threat of counterfeit or high fees to buyers.

Even the end-of-life (EOL) and product change notices (PCNs) access buyers, there is still challenge for them to manage the increasingly more and more EOL and PCNs, because product lifecycles are generally getting shorter than they were in the past. Often the shorter the product lifecycle, the quicker components become obsolete, and the more EOL and PCNs are.

“Another issue is a buyer at one site may get the EOL notice, but “doesn't know what to do with it. In a large company it may not be known which sites are using the part” said Cliff Frescura, the CEO of PCNAlert, a company that provides software and services that help companies manage component obsolescence.

For defense and aerospace industries, component obsolescence usually means dilemma. Technology innovation and product renewal can benefit enterprises with more market shares, but the cost to qualify a new component is huge, how to choose?

Component obsolescence will always be with us, part obsolescence management is needed; tracking the product lifecycle information to make a forecasting would be better. Then how to monitor the life time of electronic component?