In this article
Why obsolescence hits hard
Most semiconductors have product lifecycles of 3–7 years. Industrial, medical, and aerospace products have product lifecycles of 10–30. Those two curves are incompatible — and the result is an inevitable collision that must be planned for, not reacted to.
The five core strategies
- Monitor PCN and end-of-life notices weekly
- Maintain multi-source alternatives on critical parts
- Use last-time-buy (LTB) with proper storage
- Engage franchised distributors for lifecycle data
- Run post-obsolescence redesigns in parallel
The right mix depends on your product volume, regulatory regime, and customer expectations. We have customers who buy 10 years of inventory upfront, and others who redesign every time a part is end-of-life-flagged — both strategies can be correct.
When to use last-time-buy
LTB is the right tool when the alternative is a redesign or a line stop, and the part is going out of production with no successor. It is the wrong tool for parts that go obsolete cheaply — you are pre-paying for the wrong thing.
Building the BOM risk register
Every production BOM should have a live risk register: which parts are obsolete, which are near obsolete, and which have single sources. We provide this to every long-term customer as part of our sourcing engagement.
How we help
Our role is to act as an extension of your supply-chain team: watching for PCNs, flagging risk early, and standing ready to source EOL parts when the time comes. We have shipped LTB orders as large as 800,000 parts.
Obsolescence is not a one-time event — it is a continuously unfolding design constraint. The companies that handle it well are the ones that treat it as a discipline, not a project.
