Sharing obsolescence information at Raytheon with the component obsolescence and reuse tool

Diminishing manufacturing sources (DMS) is an industry wide problem that still attains considerable attention. Every company and contract that deals with the manufacturing of electronic equipment has to deal with the problem of component obsolescence, that is using parts that are, or soon will be, no longer available. This issue has obvious impact on new designs, repairs, and product upgrades. It is especially difficult to plan for obsolescence when so many legacy systems exist as well. It is predicted that 70-80% of the US Military systems will be classified as legacy by the year 2010. Therefore, the challenge is to try to make an estimated 5 year redesign cycle last considerably longer than 5 years. Though many companies have developed policies and procedures to deal with obsolescence, software tools are needed to accompany processes and to gain maximum return on investment of those processes. The component obsolescence and reuse tool is a software tool that Raytheon Company has developed to enhance our obsolescence best practice process. Currently the tool contains over 100000 parts each containing obsolescence colored "life" indicators. So far, the return on investment that the tool is generating is exceeding long term savings estimates. Not only has Raytheon Company Northeast sites been using the tool, but Raytheon sites in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Falls Church, Virginia; Towson, Maryland; and Huntsville, Alabama have completed obsolescence assessments for their programs. Collaboration continues across other Raytheon sites to share and leverage component obsolescence management information.