Design refresh planning models for managing obsolescence

Liyu Zheng, Janis Terpenny and Peter Sandborn

IISE Transactions, 2015, vol. 47, issue 12, 1407-1423

Abstract: Fast moving technologies cause high-tech components to have shortened life cycles, rendering them quickly obsolete. Obsolescence is a significant problem for systems whose operational and support life is much longer than the procurement lifetimes of their constituent components. Long field-life systems such as aircraft, ships, and other systems require many updates of components and technology over their life to remain in manufacture and supportable. Design refresh planning is a strategic way of managing obsolescence. In this article, efficient mathematical models based on Integer Programming for design refresh planning are developed to determine the plan that minimizes the total obsolescence management costs. Decisions are made on when to execute design refreshes (dates) and what obsolete/non-obsolete system components should be replaced at a specific design refresh. Data uncertainty is also considered and obsolescence dates of the components are assumed to follow specific probability distributions. With this approach, different scenarios of executing design refreshes and the probabilities of adopting these scenarios can be determined. The final optimal cost becomes an expected value. An example of an electronic engine control unit is included for demonstration of the developed models.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0740817X.2014.999898 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:uiiexx:v:47:y:2015:i:12:p:1407-1423

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/uiie20

DOI: 10.1080/0740817X.2014.999898

Access Statistics for this article

IISE Transactions is currently edited by Jianjun Shi

More articles in IISE Transactions from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().