Glossary · Change, versions and configuration
End-of-life plan
Also known as: Discontinuation plan, Product phase-out plan
German: Abkündigungsplan
In product lifecycle management, an end-of-life plan defines how a product, component or software version is discontinued: announcement dates, last-time-buy, end of sales, end of support and security updates, spare-parts availability and recommended successors.
- Systems engineering
- Technical documentation
In one sentence
An end-of-life plan defines how a product or version is discontinued: announcement, last-time-buy, end of support and recommended successors.
Example
A drive manufacturer announces the end of sales of a servo series, offers a last-time-buy for 12 months, guarantees spare parts for seven years and names a successor with a migration guide.
How it applies
- Engineering: Machine builders track the end-of-life plans of controllers, drives and safety components to plan redesigns before parts become unavailable.
- Security: The end of security updates is often the critical date; after it, Patch management is no longer possible and compensating measures are needed.
- Documentation: The documentation team should publish discontinuation notices, migration guides and replacement tables, and mark discontinued variants in manuals and spare-parts lists without deleting information still needed by operators.
- Customers: Operators of long-lived machines need early notice to plan spare-parts stock, migrations and budget; an end-of-life plan communicated in time protects both availability and the customer relationship.
End-of-life plan vs. decommissioning
The end-of-life plan concerns a product type or version on the market. Decommissioning concerns one installed machine being taken out of service and dismantled safely.