What is the best strategy when parts become scarce and even though you show empathy what do you really expect from your suppliers in these times?

Tom,

This is a very old problem.  When I worked on defense equipment, we always had to either stock pile, identify multiple suppliers, or resorted to custom made replacement parts.  Most equipment manufactured today is expected to be obsolete in a maner of five years or so, especially electronics chips.  Mechanical parts can often be salvaged from damaged equipment, but depending upon your application, they need to be certified.

For electronics, we used to resort to ASIC's and plug in replacement chips/circuits using the best qualified equipment available at the time.  Luckily, most industrial grade electronics meet a more robust set of requirements then when I started in this business, so old parts still work if you can salvage them.

I have also been on the manufacturing side, where we had to inform customers that we would no longer support equipment we had sold them.  You reach a point where the expertise, replacement parts, and cost to repair exceeds the benefits from the product.

If you are building products today, one key question has to be, "how long do you plan to support this product?"  From there you estimate number of units to build, number of alternative suppliers and how long you plan to provide your support.  After that you advise your customers to upgrade to the new and improved version you now produce.  Yes I know some people get attached to a product that works fine for their application and the just want the old one replaced.  Unfortunately, as a user and a supplier, there is a lifetime for the product and you must continue on with the next best or hopefully much better replacement.

I hope this post helps you understand the problem.  It is not new, it has been a pain for many vendors and users over the years and is not likely to be solved in my lifetime.

Thanks

DAB