We are investigating somehow setting a product lifetime for a part/assembly when it is first released, note that I am carefully avoiding using the word lifecycle here. The intent is to force some revisit of the product design (after a few years) at the end of the original lifetime, the design would then be reviewed paying particular attention to the components used and their ongoing availability from suppliers. Some decision would be made regarding the design and it would either be retired, revised or have its lifetime reset to some future date.
I expect the business reasons for this are obvious, and I can think of a variety of ways to handle this using Windchill. Before I re-invent the wheel I would like to hear if anyone else has implemented a way to handle component/product lifetime in their PDM implementation? Any lessons learned would be appreciated.
Thanks and best regards,
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Lewis
