Designing for Long Lifetimes in Industrial Control Products

Industrial control systems are often expected to last 10, 20, even 30 years. However, electronic components and software tools rarely offer the same longevity. This mismatch creates a constant challenge: how do you keep products manufacturable and maintainable over such extended lifespans?

We build strategies into both hardware and software design to tackle this problem head-on - ensuring your product stays in production, performs reliably, and is easy to support for decades.

Designing for longevity: Smart component selection

The journey to long-lasting products starts with thoughtful component selection. Every part must be scrutinized not just for performance, but for its expected lifecycle. Wherever possible, we:

• Choose components that are part of a manufacturer’s longevity program.
• Ensure multiple alternative parts are available.
• Document a clear obsolescence strategy from day one.

This proactive approach minimizes surprises, reducing redesigns and keeping your production line moving.

Proactive Obsolescence Management

Even with careful planning, parts eventually become unavailable. That’s why we implement a continuous obsolescence management process:

• Regular Bill of Materials (BOM) reviews to catch components nearing end-of-life.
• Early warnings of supply issues, giving you time to plan.
• Expert guidance on alternative part selection, design rework, or lifetime buys where needed.

With BitBox, you're never caught off guard by supply chain surprises.

Future-Proofing Software Development

Hardware isn’t the only concern. Software obsolescence is an equally critical — and often overlooked — challenge. Many products rely on development environments and operating systems that evolve (or disappear) over time, making future updates difficult.

Our solution? Keep it simple, keep it robust:

• We limit our software development environments to command-line tools like gcc (compiler) and make (build tool).
• These tools are platform-agnostic, freely available, and easy to archive.
• This ensures that even decades later, the software build process can be reproduced reliably, without needing legacy systems or outdated software licenses.

Empowering Customers with Build Environments

As a side benefit of our development strategy, we can provide you with a complete build environment for your product, along with the source code. This means:

• You can rebuild your product software independently.
• You have full visibility of all resources involved.
• Supporting older products becomes a straightforward task, even years into the future.

The BitBox Advantage: Designed to Last

We don’t just assemble products — we engineer them for the long haul. By embedding lifecycle thinking into every design, we ensure your products remain manufacturable, maintainable, and supportable, no matter how long they're in service.

It’s not just about managing obsolescence. It’s about giving you control over your product’s future.