If components that are urgently needed for production or maintenance are suddenly no longer available, this can have a massive financial impact, especially for manufacturers of particularly durable devices and systems. In sectors such as automotive, aerospace, military, rail, power plant, medical and automation technology, up to 50% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) incurred over the entire product life cycle is already caused directly or indirectly by hardware or software that is discontinued or suddenly no longer available for other reasons. The COG (Component Obsolescence Group) Deutschland e.V. expects the situation to get even worse in the coming years.

Founded in 2005, the non-profit industry organization therefore works hand in hand with experts from its current 149 member companies in various working groups to develop ideas, measures and methods to support companies in avoiding or at least reducing potential obsolescence problems. "Over the past 14 years, we as an association have created many new tools and aids that make obsolescence management much easier for our members," confirms CEO Dr. Wolfgang Heinbach. However, in view of ever-shorter innovation cycles and new technology trends such as IoT, the association is also constantly faced with new challenges that can often only be overcome with great effort and over a long period of time.

In order to meet these challenges in the best possible way in the future, the COG Germany Board of Directors was expanded to eight members at the Annual General Meeting. In addition to Chairman Dr. Wolfgang Heinbach (Managing Director of GMP German Machine Parts), who was re-elected for a further two years, his deputy Axel Wagner(Würth Elektronik EiSos) and treasurer Anke Bartel (Velocity Electronics), the board now also includes Irina Werle(BMK Group), Frank Mützner (Osram Continental), Ulrich Vogel (Electronic Direct), Joachim Tosberg(Rafi) and Stefanie Kölbl(TQ-Systems).

In the coming years, the Executive Board sees a particular focus on expanding cooperation with other institutions and associations, both at national and international level. Heinbach explains: "The most effective preventative protection against obsolescence is comprehensive information about all associated risks and the identification of possible proactive and reactive countermeasures. This is why we have set ourselves the goal of raising awareness of this highly explosive topic among associations, companies and institutions much more intensively in future. For example, the VDMA standard sheet 4903 was developed with the involvement of COG members, which describes, among other things, the minimum requirements for the information content of change and discontinuation notices and the system interfaces required for IT-supported data exchange. International cooperation projects with organizations such as the International Institute of Obsolescence Management (IIOM International) are also conceivable.