Insights into supporting complex systems under conditions of obsolescence

Abstract

Maintaining and supporting complex systems within a developing world context has many challenges including dealing with systems that are being operated beyond their designed life or where obsolescence is a major concern. Current methodologies to develop an integrated logistics support system (ILSS) are based on assumptions that are not valid in all cases, and a more robust framework with grounded design rules is required.The approach followed in developing the grounded technological rules was by deconstructing the available ILSS and related literature six case studies into the a framework. After analysis of this qualitative work, a third phase was added on where a questionnaire was used to explore the key areas of concern. Some of the insights regarding obsolete and beyond life complex systems were found to be: the effect of obsolescence is significantly wider than the obsolescence and retirement element of the existing frameworks; obsolescence planning must be done on reliability data for the specific operating environment, it is essential to understand technological changes and scan continuously for the impact on system or component obsolescence and that a risk based approach is essential to develop a obsolescence plan as part of the ILSS.

Variations of the Time to Failure (TTF) for Specific Components in Aeronautical Navigation Systems

“…In fact, the observed data do not look like data obtained under normal operating conditions, but are similar to data obtained under burn-in testing or accelerated failure [1][2][3][4][5]. Ironically enough, this observed phenomenon is in direct contradiction with (a) a common practice in many developing countries, wherein attempts are made to maintain and support complex systems that are being operated beyond their designed life [6,7], and (b) the situation where obsolescence is a major concern, such as when dealing with legacy electronic military systems [8,9]. This paper attempts to establish the existence of the aforementioned phenomenon, a preliminary step towards an extensive exploration, hopefully leading to full understanding of it, which might include or lead to:…”

Insights Into Beyond-Life Complex Systems Suffering From Obsolescence

“…The system itself is not just affected by obsolescence, but also by the support and test equipment (S&TE), processes, standards, logistics products, and software [25, cited in 26]. "The risk of having obsolescent components varies from system to system, as the criticality of the function of the component as well as the potential consequence on limiting the operational capability of the system will differ" [1]. Once a component becomes obsolete, it may also make the application, or the nexthigher assembly, obsolete [27].…”

“…Performance-based logistics (PBL) is a method that specifies requirements for operational availability, or the requirements for effectiveness of supply support [15], [14], [1]. One strategy to mitigate obsolescence is PBL [35].…”

“…In high technology complex systems, DMSMS can be viewed as "…the point in the system's life cycle when spare and repair parts are in short supply or are no longer available, or where a system can no longer be supported for various other reasons" [1]. A system can become non-operational as a result of obsolescence, and therefore obsolescence planning is important.…”

“…Supporting and maintaining high technology complex systems in the developing world faces numerous challenges, especially those systems operated beyond designed life and which suffer from obsolescence [1]. In order to gain a competitive advantage, an organization requires different methodologies to attain its business goals and objectives [2].…”