Principles for Managing Technological Product Obsolescence

Abstract

Products evolve to accommodate competitive market pressures, rapid rates of technology change, and constant improvements in performance and functionality. While adding functionality and value, the fast moving technologies also make products obsolete quickly. One of the primary reasons for product obsolescence is technological obsolescence which results when consumers are attracted to functions in newer models of products that are more technologically advanced. One way to deal with problem is "piggybacking," a strategy that enables renewed functionality of a technologically obsolete product through the integration or add-on of a secondary device or component. Not to be confused with upgrading strategies, piggybacking requires a device that fits adjacent to, upon, or within the existing product architecture. Piggybacking is an attractive strategy for consumer electronic products that are particularly prone to technological obsolescence as it offers a means to accommodate fast and slower changing technologies within a single product. Currently, piggyback products are realized with ad hoc methods that rely on the experience and intuition of the designer, often applied inconsistently and not well known by less experienced designers. In this paper, a set of formal principles is presented for guiding the design of piggyback products. These principles are derived from the results of an empirical study of 72 different products. As part of the study, various products are analyzed with a dissection tool with representative principles derived from the data. The utility of these principles is demonstrated via the conceptual design of a novel piggyback products.Index Terms-Design principles, piggyback products, product obsolescence, sustainable product development, technological obsolescence.

Design and Planned Obsolescence. Theories and Approaches for Designing Enabling Technologies.

“…An interesting view on how to face this issue, was given by Rai, et al They analysed how to deal with Obsolescence through the "piggybacking"; a strategy that enables renewed functionality of a technologically obsolete product through the integration or add-on of a secondary device or component (Rai, et al, 2007). This attractive design approach could be seen as a complement of usability aspects managed in the Computer Science area and at the same time by the product design aspects with the Design for Disassembly.…”

“…Almost the majority of disciplines, as outlined in paragraph 3.2, are involved within this topic, from different perspectives. One of the direct effects of product obsolescence is the large amount of waste it generates and Technological Obsolescence is one of the primary reasons for product ageing (Rai, et al, (2007). According to the formal literature review analysis processed with this work, the majority of academic studies related to the main topic refers to theoretical research methodologies.…”

A dynamic programming method for product upgrade planning incorporating technology development and end-of-life decisions

“…Rai and Terpenny supposed that one of the primary reasons for product obsolescence is technological obsolescence which occurs when customers are attracted to functions of newer products. [17] They claimed that piggybacking is a good strategy to enable renewed functionality of technologically obsolete products through adding-on secondary components; they have conducted an empirical investigation to support their claim using 72 different products. Based on their analysis, some principles for the design of piggybacking products were proposed.…”

Strategic management of component obsolescence using constraint-driven design refresh planning

“…Inventory obsolescence occurs when the product design or system component specifications changes such that the inventories of components are no longer required, e.g., (Song and Lau, 2004). Another type of obsolescence which is different from DMSMS and thus not addressed in this paper is functionality improvement dominated obsolescence, which is when manufacturers cannot maintain market share unless they evolve their products in order to keep up with competition and customer expectations (manufacturers are forced to change their products by the market) (Rai and Terpenny, 2008). 2 DMSMS management is not about forecasting and managing the effects of disruptive technologies that cause the effective obsolescence of whole classes of products; rather it is about the much more common problem of individual components (particularly electronic components) being discontinued by a manufacturer in favour of a newer version of the same component.…”