OBSOLESCENCE MANAGEMENT AND HIDDEN COST OF AGING COMPONENTS.

Micheal (2005) ,commented that, organisation whose operation rely on long life span equipment cannot effort to hide their heads in the sand over the growing problem of component obsolescence, special interest forum set up to tackle the issue has warned that the components obsolescent group  (COG ), said that the research carried out for the ministry of defense outlined the likely cost, which the British Ministry could avoid in obsolescence management. This ranges from more than 300,000 thousand pounds for a major components for solution involving using existing stockpiled parts. These are non recurring engineering cost and do not include any other associated costs.,such a down time of equipment , any additional engineering to integrate the part , new training procedure which may be required, or storage cost.
Trenchard , (2005) ; emphasised that the costs metrics outligned in the research could be applied across many industrial sectors instances of vulnerable equipment which include military and commercial air craft, trains, transport signaling systems, automotive vehicles, equipment in power plant or special medical devices. According to COG, although the issue of how equipment could be maintained on when parts are no longer available is becoming necessarily widely recognized ,too many organizations are still not taken a proactive approach to managing the potential risk. He continued that by identifying an obsolescence problems early the more expensive problem could be   avoided .Once a component is obsolete, the cost of replacement part could be many times the original cost  not there could also be the additional expense of the equipment being out of service and the man hour it could also take to sources, is difficult to find components or reengineer a suitable replacement. There may not even be any replacement available ;where an equipment cost million of pounds and is intended to decays, managing components obsolescence proactive is very essential, if it is to last its full life expectancy and minimize unneccessary maintenance. The cause implication to an organisation reputation and cost relationships could also be significant, organization are therefore are therefore advised to take step to predict where potential problems might arise and to monitor the availability of components that have a high wish of becoming obsolete. They could work closely with others in the supply chain using well based obsolescence management tools. This will enable them to plan whether and when to increase their stocks and or update equipment , It could also help them to avoid  accidental buying counterfeit or substandard product.