Obsolescence management and its importance to mechanical engineering Whethe..

Whether you are involved in PCB design or making processor cabinets, engineered products must be viable throughout their entire lifecycle, from the design phase onwards. This means they must have continued manufacturability, be relevant to users and have parts which can be easily replaced at low cost – the core of good obsolescence management (OM).

Good mechanical design engineers make systems which can be relied on to work well. However, the best design engineers make reliable products which have continued manufacturability, with parts which won’t suddenly become obsolete and difficult to obtain. This requires a lot of forward thinking; assessing which products have a long life-cycle and which are liable to become obsolete. For example, the drivers that LCD displays depend on can become obsolete while the displays are still relatively new, so mechanical engineering companies need to take this into account, buying displays only from reputable OEMs who can guarantee continuity of the product over component obsolescence.

One of the most important areas of obsolescence management is good communication which covers all areas of the product or system being manufactured. Commercial computer hardware products rely on both electronic/electrical and mechanical design engineers, who may not necessarily be working at the same location. The former are concerned with areas like FPGA design, while the mechanical engineering team are responsible for housings, assembly etc. So each member in the product development should have access to the life cycle status of each part in the Bill of material.

If a PCB design changes due to an obsolete component being replaced, it can impact on the entire system. For example, the thermal dynamics may alter, which can mean a rethink of the PCB layout. This in turn can affect the design of the housing, cabinet, etc. To avoid complications further down the line, it’s important to document all PCN communications, both internal and external, relating to the system specifically regarding the part and module lifecycle changes.

In both mechanical and PCB design, virtual software is the norm these days at both the building and testing phases. These files and folders must be archived. CAD/CAM technology is constantly evolving, and new test tools and compilers may differ markedly from the originals, so it’s important you have a set of original blueprints to refer to. You should also have archived data files for the components needed to repair or rebuild the system, such as hard drive clones and test jigs. This can also be applied to mechanical designs that exist only in a non-virtual form (e.g. as hand-built models.)
Once a design is in production, the electrical and mechanical design engineers in the product development team will be keen to get on with their next project. For this reason, many companies hand over completed projects to the manufacturing. Most manufacturing departments do not have any methodology to assess the obsolescence risk of the parts in the product with time.

We at Enventure Technologies offer a wide range of services to the electronic and mechanical engineering industries. Our obsolescence management services enable product designers and other professionals to evaluate the product life cycle from the design stage onwards, identifying components at high risk of early obsolescence and minimizing this risk by locating second sources and alternatives.



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