Managing Obsolescence in the Aircraft Life cycle

Abstract In a complex aerospace product with long development time scales and long durations of in‐service use there are many opportunities for obsolescence to appear. Apart from the obvious examples of obsolete technology and component parts, obsolescence is often a major factor in the initial operational requirement or indeed, the design and manufacturing processes, the design toolset, organizational skills, support, and operations as well as the information processing system that supports this. A failure to recognize where obsolescence can exert an influence can lead to major costs in the project life cycle as a result of a failure to meet the original specification or a failure to respond to competition in the market place. The authors believe that a comprehensive knowledge of where obsolescence can strike and how to plan to manage obsolescence must be incorporated into the earliest stages of design.