The dark side of innovation: Exploring obsolescence and supply chain evolution for sustainment-dominated systems

The problem of technological obsolescence in vendor supplied parts in the new product development process has increased in importance in recent years. This is compounded by both the rapid pace of technological advance and increasingly disintegrated supply chains. This issue has become particularly problematic for products with both a high degree of technology and long life cycles. This exploratory study relates empirical obsolescence findings to theoretically predicted models of innovation diffusion for different product-market conditions. Implications are analyzed for supply chain evolution and obsolescence management.