Design for Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing

6Design for Sustainability

6.1 Introduction

Design for Sustainability (DfS), also known as Design for Life‐Cycle Management, is ultimately about designing to avoid obsolescence issues and ensuring that electronic products are repairable and supportable. The decisions made during the design and development process greatly influence the ultimate life‐cycle results and costs experienced by end‐users. DfS is a comprehensive design strategy that incorporates:

• Design for Reliability (DfR) +
• Design for Manufacturability (DfM) +
• Design for Repairability and Testability (DfT)
• = Optimized total ownership cost

Planning for obsolescence is a critical element of Design for Life‐Cycle Management. Obsolescence management is a key driver that also mitigates the risk of counterfeit parts. The secondary market is frequently the supply chain of last recourse when a part becomes obsolete or has constrained supply. While it is possible to get high quality, authentic parts in the secondary market, it is also possible to get nonconforming, reworked, or counterfeit components. Component obsolescence management enables businesses to anticipate and plan for supplier disruption, end of life parts, aging technologies, and long‐life programs. Companies that don't prepare for obsolescence are extremely vulnerable to counterfeit parts in addition to quality and reliability challenges.

6.2 Obsolescence Management

Managing component obsolescence issues is critical to long‐term reliability (Tulkoff and ...