The risk that builds quietly
Control systems do not usually fail because they are old - they fail the same way any hardware eventually fails, through a component wearing out or a board giving up. The real risk with an aging, unsupported system is what happens next. If the platform is obsolete, there may be no spare parts, no vendor support, and increasingly few people who still know how to work on it. A fault that would take an afternoon to fix on a current platform can turn into a week-long production outage on an obsolete one.
An obsolescence audit exists to surface that risk before it turns into an unplanned outage, so replacement can be planned, budgeted and scheduled on your terms rather than forced by a failure.
What we assess
Vendor support status - whether each platform is still in active production, in extended support, or fully obsolete. Manufacturer end-of-life and end-of-support dates where published.
Hardware condition and age - physical condition, operating environment, and failure history where records exist. Older hardware in harsh environments is weighted higher risk than the same age hardware in a controlled environment.
Spare parts and repair availability - whether spares are stocked on-site, available new, or only available second-hand or through repair specialists. Platforms where parts are becoming scarce are flagged even if the vendor has not formally discontinued support.
Criticality to production - what happens if this system fails. A redundant, non-critical system carries a different risk profile to a single point of failure on your main production line, even if both are running the same obsolete platform.
Skills and knowledge availability - whether the platform is still well understood across the industry, or whether it is becoming a specialist, hard-to-source skillset. Some platforms remain physically available but functionally obsolete because very few people can still program or maintain them.
The replacement roadmap
The audit output is a prioritised risk register, not just a list of old equipment. Each system is scored on failure risk and production consequence, then sequenced into a recommended replacement order with high-level budget ranges. This is built to be used directly in capital planning - something you can take to a budget meeting rather than a technical document that needs translation first.
Where a system is flagged as high priority, we can scope the replacement project separately as a control system upgrade, carrying forward everything learned during the audit.