Strategies to the Prediction, Mitigation and Management of Product Obsolescence

8.2 SCHEDULE AND MILESTONES

During the product definition phase, the members of the Proactive Obsolescence Management Board should define the projected life cycle time and planned shipments of the electronic assembly board as far as possible. Expertise from similar past projects should be included. If the projected life cycle time is less than two years or if a “one-shot” production is planned, proactive obsolescence management focuses on development, prototyping, first production run, and aftersales support. Otherwise, the project will be reviewed after a defined span of time.

In the next step, all the participants are requested to agree on the defined time span. The purpose of this step is to raise awareness and prevent making narrow-minded future decisions.

The milestones are as follows:

1. First component selection is finished.

2. Initial obsolescence risk analysis is performed on the entire bill of materials.

3. Create a prioritized list of part candidates for proactive management.

4. Select parts from the proactive management list and open resolution cases for them as resources allow.

5. Monitor the availability of all the parts.

6. When parts that are not proactively managed are discontinued, the reactive management process is initiated (cases opened, resolved, and closed).

7. Reprioritize the proactive management list (add or subtract parts from it) as needed and continue monitoring all parts.