Tania Scroggie is back with another episode of “Tania’s Teachables” over on the GDCA YouTube channel, this week tackling the frequently asked questions that we get here at GDCA about how we support both OEMs and customers! 

Throughout her time at GDCA, both working directly with our customers and partners, and representing the company, Tania and the team have received many of the same questions about how GDCA supports discontinued embedded electronics. In this particular episode, she tackles a few of the most common questions asked of GDCA.

1. How does GDCA help OEMs bridge the gap between product lifecycle and customer needs?

Creating a bridge between the end of a product’s life and a customer’s need for this product is the core of what we do at GDCA. More often than not, customers come to us with products that are crucial to their systems–and they need them longer than the 2-5 years that the OEM actually manufactures and sells that product. Once the last-time buy hits–the very last time the OEM will sell that product–the ability to source the product swiftly dwindles. 

Once the product is discontinued, GDCA takes over the manufacturing, repair, and support for these crucial discontinued products after the OEM has officially stopped making them. This way, OEMs can focus on new product development, and their customers can receive those older products that they need. 

2. Why is the last-time buy (LTB) not a practical solution to electronics obsolescence?

GDCA has seen this happen several times–the OEM offers an LTB and their customer attempts to use whatever they can purchase off of that to support their system. Unfortunately, this strategy  is rarely practical and tends to get expensive quickly. During the LTB, customers have to forecast the entire future need of their critical embedded system or circuit board and purchase all components at once–an expensive venture that rarely provides enough components to last more than two years. For customers who need their electronics for five, ten, or even twenty or more years, getting everything they need during the LTB just isn’t feasible. 

3. What does long-term support for an obsolete electronic component actually look like? Is there a standard order size or product quantity that GDCA covers?

Customers often ask us about the size of the orders we often receive–whether we’re talking a few units, dozens, or hundreds. However, for GDCA, it’s not about the number for us–after all we typically only get orders for an average of seven boards. What we’re more focused on is ensuring that our customers get the support that they need for the entire product life cycle. It doesn’t matter to us if it’s just a few products–our goal is to keep our customers’ systems up and running smoothly. 

If you have any questions for Tania or GDCA, don’t hesitate to reach out! Head over to the comments section on her latest video to ask any questions that you’d like to see potentially featured in the next Q&A video or contact GDCA to speak with one of our representatives.