Managing Obsolescence by Capitalizing on Planned Downtime

Unless you’re operating a new plant, chances are you’re running a variety of PLCs, VFDs, DCSs, and HMIs that are nearing, or have reached, their end-of-life. And while the adage, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” may seem like a good motto to live by, taking this approach with your aging plant floor equipment can cause much bigger problems, including failures that cause costly downtime. However, we often see manufacturers shy away from addressing obsolescence because of the misconception that a major capital expenditure with extended downtime is the only way to address these issues. But there are other options!

Rather than continue the cycle of pushing production until there is a problem that stops the line, or waiting to make changes until a large capital project is approved, we can help you capitalize on upcoming planned shutdowns to proactively address obsolescence in a more manageable way. Let’s look at a couple ways we can do this to best meet your needs.    

Tap Into Your Existing Parts Stockpile

If you are one of the many manufacturers that stockpiled parts for your aging equipment as the COVID-19 pandemic started to cause major supply chain disruption, it’s time to put those parts to work. Since scarcity issues have subsided, rather than wait for a part to wear and cause production inefficiencies or unexpected downtime, contact us now so that we can proactively replace the components that are past their expected lifespan or prone to wearing out during your next scheduled downtime. This is especially important to do if the parts you have stockpiled are now obsolete.

Improve Existing Equipment Efficiency through Reliability-Focused Upgrades

When you don’t have a stockpile of spare parts to tap into, you should consider which obsolete components are posing the most risk to your operations and could be upgraded during your next downtime window. Performing reliability-focused upgrades to obsolete components can help reduce unplanned downtime and maintenance costs, drive process optimization, and improve product quality. However, we know that it can be difficult to identify which components should be prioritized for replacement.

In an ideal scenario, we could perform a comprehensive risk assessment to determine this, we know that sometimes a manufacturer just needs a quick win, and we can help with that too. While this is not a comprehensive list, here are some of the common automation and control hardware and software products from Rockwell Automation that we may look to upgrade as these products have either been discontinued or are in the process of being phased out. 

If you know your system currently includes any of these products, talk to us about how to develop a strategy to address obsolescence while capitalizing on existing planned downtime. We can provide you with a quick plan to upgrade the riskiest components. Or, we can develop a longer-term plan for upgrading components versus your machinery so that you can compare the cost of your inefficiencies to the gains generated by potential investments and make the best decision for your business.

Polytron: Your Partner for Managing Obsolescence

Since your in-house engineers need to focus on supporting daily operations, the best way to ensure obsolescence projects are prioritized is to work with a system integrator such as Polytron. Whether you just need a quick component upgrade during an upcoming downtime window or a roadmap for combating obsolescence, we will capitalize on our technical expertise and decades of experience to help you combat obsolescence while also minimizing risk.

Learn more about our experience by seeing how we helped one manufacturer develop and implement a migration model to upgrade their obsolete VFDs or contact us to see how we can quickly address some of the obsolescence challenges you are currently facing.