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• Obsolescence Management

Obsolescence Management

In our experience, there can be a tendency to over complicate the issue of obsolescence management, whereas in reality we would suggest that the options open to users of COTS equipment boil down to just three alternative strategies.

Defensive:
Under the defensive approach, the customer freezes the design of the system from the outset of production. The impact of obsolescence is then managed through a combination of component health checks, 'buy ahead' of spare parts and their long-term environmentally controlled storage. GE Intelligent Platforms Intelligent Platforms provides these services for customers who determine that the defensive approach is their best option.

In the defensive approach, configuration control is used to manage any potential changes to the build state. Although potential obsolescence liability increases with time and the features/performance may lag behind more up-to-date systems, this defensive approach does ensure excellent equipment interchangeability and the highest in-service reliability for the whole program life.

Progressive:
Under the progressive approach, technology insertion comes into play. This enables regular, planned system updates which can take advantage of the very latest COTS technologies, facilitated by standard product architectures and layers of software insulation. This strategy minimizes obsolescence liabilities whilst ensuring that features and performance stay up to date.

Both the above strategies have their potential down-sides, whether that be the potentially prohibitive cost of finding component EOL-buys, or the possibility of introducing unforeseen problems with more up to-date products. It may simply be that the circumstances of a particular program do not suit either of these strategies and maybe a combination of two might be the best approach.

Mixed:
Under a mixed approach, it is possible to combine the defensive approach with technology insertion to achieve the optimum result. An example of this is to break a fifteen-year project into three planned five-year cycles. Having initially frozen the design, the customer would use defensive techniques for the Phase 1 production monitoring obsolescence, finding EOL-buys while at the same time taking a progressive approach to planning for technology insertion system enhancements to be integrated for Phase 2. This is a good compromise for many programs, providing the benefits of the two methods outlined above while minimizing the problems associated with each of them. GE Intelligent Platforms offers a flexible array of services enabling our customers to adopt the strategy best suited to their program scenario.