Strategies to the Prediction, Mitigation and Management of Product Obsolescence

1.2 CATEGORIZATION OF OBSOLESCENCE TYPES

The subject of this book is involuntary obsolescence, where neither the customer nor the manufacturer necessarily wants to change the product or the system. Involuntary obsolescence can be categorized as follows (Feldmann and Sandborn, 2007; Rai and Terpenny, 2008):

• Logistical Loss of the ability to procure the parts, materials, manufacturing, or software necessary to manufacture and/or support a product.
• Functional The product or subsystem still operates as intended and can still be manufactured and supported, but the specific requirements for the product have changed; as a result the product’s current function, performance, or reliability (level of qualification) become obsolete. For consumer products, functional obsolescence is the customer’s problem; for more complex systems (such as avionics) it is both the manufacturer’s and customer’s problem. For complex systems, the functional obsolescence of a subsystem is often caused by changes made to other portions of the system.
• Technological More technologically advanced components have become available. This may mean that inventory still exists or can be obtained for older parts that are used to manufacture and support the product, but it becomes a technological obsolescence problem when suppliers of older parts no longer support them.
• Functionality Improvement Dominated Obsolescence (FIDO) Manufacturers cannot maintain market share unless they evolve their products in order to keep up ...