Industry News & Updates

Industrial automation systems are designed to run for decades. That longevity is a strength, not a flaw. Yet many facilities treat aging equipment as a crisis only when it finally fails. The real risk is not obsolete hardware. The real risk is pretending it does not matter until production stops.

This article explains why obsolete automation is manageable, why neglect is expensive, and how proactive strategy turns aging assets into predictable operations instead of emergencies.

The Myth: Old Equipment Automatically Means Unreliable

Many plants still operate PLCs, drives, and HMIs that were installed 15 to 30 years ago. Some of them outperform modern replacements in stability because the process has already been tuned around them.

The issue is not age. The issue is supportability.

A legacy drive can run perfectly every day. But if one capacitor fails and the manufacturer discontinued spare parts ten years ago, your uptime depends on luck instead of planning.

Obsolescence does not create downtime. Lack of preparation does.

What Actually Happens When You Ignore Obsolescence

When companies postpone decisions, problems stack silently in the background. The first visible symptom is usually sudden downtime. But the real damage starts long before the machine stops.

1. Repair Time Becomes Unpredictable

Technicians cannot quickly source components. Engineers search forums and secondary markets. Procurement waits for unknown delivery times. Production waits for answers no one has.

2. Costs Multiply During Emergencies

Emergency freight, last minute sourcing, and rushed engineering changes cost far more than planned maintenance or scheduled replacement.

3. Knowledge Disappears

Senior technicians retire. Documentation is incomplete. The system still works, but nobody fully understands it anymore. Recovery time increases with every year of delay.

4. Safety and Compliance Risks Increase

Old safety relays and controllers may still function but fail modern standards. A failure becomes not just a downtime event but a liability event.

Why Companies Delay Action

Most facilities do not ignore obsolescence intentionally. They delay because the system is still running. Production pressure rewards short term stability, not long term resilience.

Common assumptions include:

✔️ If it works today, it will work tomorrow

✔️ Replacement can wait for the next shutdown

✔️ Spare parts will always be available somewhere

✔️ Repair is always cheaper than planning

These assumptions hold true until the day they do not. That day usually arrives during peak production.

The Real Strategy: Manage the Lifecycle, Not the Failure

You do not need to replace everything at once. You need visibility and prioritization.

A structured lifecycle approach removes panic from maintenance decisions.

Step 1: Identify Critical Assets

List PLCs, drives, HMIs, and power components that stop production if they fail. Focus first on bottlenecks and single points of failure.

Step 2: Check Manufacturer Status

Determine whether equipment is active, mature, discontinued, or unsupported. The support status matters more than the installation year.

Step 3: Define a Response Plan

For each critical asset, decide in advance:

✔️ Repair strategy

✔️ Spare stock strategy

✔️ Migration plan

✔️ Acceptable downtime window

Step 4: Prepare Before Failure

Acquire backups, clone parameters, archive programs, and test replacements. Preparation converts unknown downtime into scheduled maintenance.

Repair, Replace, or Retrofit?

There is no single correct decision. The right option depends on production criticality and lead time risk.

✔️ Repair works when components are still serviceable and turnaround is predictable.

✔️ Stocking spares works when failure impact is high but replacement engineering is complex.

✔️ Retrofit works when a subsystem repeatedly fails or parts availability is collapsing.

✔️ Full migration works when the system becomes a long term operational constraint.

The mistake is not choosing the wrong option. The mistake is choosing nothing until failure forces the most expensive option.

The Financial Reality

Unplanned downtime is rarely expensive because of parts cost. It is expensive because of lost production time.

A drive that costs 1,000 to repair can cause 50,000 in losses if the line stops for two days waiting for diagnosis and logistics. Planned intervention transforms that same event into a scheduled maintenance activity lasting a few hours.

Obsolescence planning is not a maintenance cost. It is production insurance.

Turning Obsolete Systems Into Predictable Systems

Facilities that manage lifecycle instead of reacting to failures share common habits:

✔️ They maintain a critical asset register

✔️ They review manufacturer lifecycle notices annually

✔️ They repair units before catastrophic failure

✔️ They keep parameter backups and tested spares

✔️ They schedule modernization gradually instead of all at once

Their equipment may be just as old as everyone else’s, but their downtime is predictable and controlled.

Conclusion

Automation equipment does not become dangerous the day it becomes obsolete. It becomes dangerous the day no one has a plan for it.

Ignoring aging systems turns small technical problems into operational crises. Managing them turns the same systems into stable long term assets.

Obsolete automation is not the problem. Unmanaged risk is.

If your plant still depends on discontinued drives, PLCs, or HMIs, the best time to plan was years ago. The second best time is now.