You can redesign. For that you have to hear about it early enough.
An obsolete component is not a purchasing message for you, it is a schedule question: hearing about it early means putting the replacement into a layout revision you were going to do anyway. Hearing about it late means building that replacement under delivery pressure. PCBoffer carries the lifecycle status of every line of your BOM, makes obsolescence and lead-time risk visible before you order rather than at goods receipt, and proposes electrically equivalent parts by value, tolerance and package. Prices and availability come from over 350 catalogues.
The message reaches you last
A manufacturer discontinues a package, the change notice travels through the distributor, and it arrives with you as a question from purchasing or as a shortage at goods receipt. By then the boards are made, the testing is done and the delivery date is promised. What is left are the expensive routes: buying remaining stock at the price of the day, or squeezing a replacement in between two production runs that no project plan allowed for. The same change a year earlier is one line in the next layout round. The work is identical, the price is not.
From your BOM to a released alternative
- 1
Read the BOM in
Your development BOM goes in as a spreadsheet or as an export from your layout tool. The columns are detected and every line is resolved against the catalogue data, manufacturer part number by manufacturer part number.
- 2
Lifecycle status per line
Every resolved line states where it stands in its life: in production, discontinued, last time buy, no longer available. Beside it the lead time and the stock, so you can see how much time that line still leaves you.
- 3
An early warning while the replacement is still plannable
When the status of a line changes you see it on your BOM, not at goods receipt. An obsolescence notice with a year of warning is a task in the project plan. The same notice four weeks before a production start is a project of its own.
- 4
The proposal comes, you decide
The alternative search runs over the electrical values, the tolerance and the package, never over a similar part name. The software proposes and explains its proposal; the release is one click, made by your development team.
What the early moment is worth to you
Depending on when it arrives, the same message is one line in the next layout round or a separate project running next to the current build. Which of the two it becomes is decided by one thing only: when you hear about it.
The lever only a development team has
A manufacturing plant can look for an obsolete part, buy it and report it. Only whoever owns the circuit can replace it: a different package, a different manufacturer, an adjusted layout. That is exactly why an early warning is worth more to you than anywhere else in the chain.
Electrically equivalent, not similarly named
The search runs over capacitance, voltage rating, tolerance and package, in other words over the quantities that mean something in your circuit. A part that merely carries a similar designation is not a replacement.
The release stays with you
Nothing is swapped quietly in your BOM. Every proposal stands there with its reasoning: which values match, which deviate and by how much. You release it or reject it, and both stay documented on the line.
Price and availability on the same line
Every line and every alternative carries its price, its stock and its lead time from over 350 catalogues. So you do not only see that a replacement exists, you also see what it costs and when it can be delivered.
Every revision stays separately traceable
A replacement changes your BOM. Which state applied when, and which state was actually procured, stays provable. If the question comes years later about what sits in a particular build, that is a query rather than a search through old spreadsheets.
Single sources surface before they cost a date
A part only one manufacturer supplies is a schedule risk even while it is available. Lead time and manufacturer situation stand on the line at the point where you can still do something about it: in the design.
- 350+
- catalogues for price and availability, per line and per alternative
- 3
- properties the substitute search runs on: electrical values, tolerance and package
- 4
- entries that decide how much time a line leaves you: lifecycle status, lead time, stock and price
- 1
- release by a person before a replacement enters your BOM
What belongs next to it
An obsolescence notice hits the BOM, the layout and the schedule at the same time. These three pages describe the neighbourhood.
Bills of material for development teams
Your own parts list with prices at your own quantity, availability per line and revisions that stay separately traceable.
DFM analysis for development teams
What your layout triggers in a specific plant: the rule violation with its limit and its spot, plus the share a design decision has in the price.
PCBoffer for development teams
The overview of everything you get from the platform as a development company, from the BOM through to procurement.
Frequently asked questions
- How much warning is there between an obsolescence notice and the last time buy?
- That is the manufacturer's decision, not the software's: some notices name the last order date months ahead, some lines simply disappear from the catalogues. So the alert here does not hang on an announced date but on the state of your BOM. As soon as the lifecycle status, the stock or the lead time of a line changes, it says so on that line. Whether that turns into a stock buy or into a replacement in the next layout revision is your decision, made with the time you gained.
- What good is an early warning if we have to replace the part anyway?
- The moment is the whole difference. A replacement you build into the next planned layout revision costs a change in the design and a test build. The same replacement four weeks before a production start costs a special release, a sample build of its own and usually a conversation about a date with your customer. Only a company that designs has this lever: a manufacturing plant can look for an obsolete part and buy it, it cannot change the circuit.
- Does this replace the obsolescence notices from our distributors?
- You keep receiving those, one per account and per order. What is added here is the link to your own BOM: which of your assemblies contains the line, in which revision, what quantity is affected and which parts are electrically equivalent at that spot. A message becomes a task whose size you know.
- How do I know a proposed replacement fits my circuit?
- Because the proposal stands there with its reasoning: which values match, which deviate and by how much. The search runs over the electrical values, the tolerance and the package, never over a similar part name. A part identical in every respect would be the same part, so what is searched for is the electrically equivalent one. The release stays a decision of your development team, one click, with the proposal and its reasoning beside it.
- What about the assemblies already sitting at a customer?
- Which state of your BOM was procured, and when, stays separately traceable. If the question comes years later about which part sits in a particular build, you answer it from the revision rather than from old spreadsheets. For a product that stays in the field for a decade, that is the difference between an answer and a search.
See PCBoffer in action: book a demo
30 minutes with founder Dr. Josip Strutz, on your own bill of materials: what PCBoffer calculates from it and where it takes work off your hands.
- 30-minute live session via Google Meet
- Tailored to your parts and your BOM
- No commitment required
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