Events

The research group Obsolescence as a Challenge to Sustainability (OHA) is a joint project of the Technical University of Berlin and Fraunhofer IZM and is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Since 2016, up-and-coming researchers have been investigating the phenomenon of obsolescence from various points of view: they are looking at business models, consumer behavior, and product features.

One driver of obsolescence in the area of products is device discontinuation. As semiconductor technology develops at breakneck speed, individual components quickly become obsolete and are discontinued. If, however, suitable spare parts are no longer being produced, this may affect the availability of the entire system. Particularly in the case of long-term products such as cars, replacing a single electronic component can become a problem: for industry, the environment, and for resources.

That is why, on September 25, the OHA research group hosted an expert discussion on the topic of device discontinuation as a driver of obsolescence among products.