Legacy Product Modernization (LPM)

•  Taking inventory of product status, existing documentation, and developing problem statements for legacy-driven pain points.
• Reverse-engineering existing products, systems/subsystems, and assemblies (as applicable) to better understand how pain points arose and how failures manifest.
• Applying FMEA principles to forecast obsolescence and legacy-driven issues.

• Given FMEA/intake data from phase 1, EM consults on internally developed technologies and researches publicly available solutions, developing a turnkey solution to the pain points and problem statements previously developed.
• Implementation of drop-in solutions and supply chain realignment.
• Development of novel technological innovations and turnkey market differentiators.

A subphase of phase 2 involving the rapid prototyping and integration of the modernized product into existing ecosystems for functional testing and low-market (beta) validation. Continual iteration and development continue within integration testing.

• Tailoring modernization solutions to final production parameters given integration testing data.
• Reintroduction of a modernized product into its respective market with optimized supply chains for product lifecycle management. EOL revisions and respective redifferentiations of the product lines typically ensue for which EM supports.

A majority of LPM projects follow the above three-phase development cycle. Depending on the scope of work of the respective product, phases or subphases may be added or subtracted to better suit the time to market, budget, or other constraints applied.

EM's LPM design standards are heavily influenced by DFx. principles and industry-standard frameworks incorporating the four-facet design philosophy of LPM:

1. Integration Feasibility: Do the modernizations applied meet the functional requirements of the problem statement(s) and initial project discovery? Do the modernizations integrate turnkey into the original ecosystems or allow for the future implementation of such? Do the modernizations applied accomplish the business developmental, financial, and scalability goals of the respective project?
2. Obsolescence Resistance: Do the modernizations applied effectively combat the previous pain points and failure cases in a turnkey manner that ensures resilience? Does the modernized supply chain allow for the natural fluctuations in business demand? Do the modernizations and respective integration resist obsolescence within themselves while not forcing obsolescence on others?
3. Compliance: Do the modernizations applied effectively comply with all regulations and certifications a modernized product in the respective industry must hold? Do the modernizations inhibit compliance obsolescence, allowing room for continual improvement as necessary?
4. Preventive Maintenance (PDM): Do the modernizations effectively combat all foreseeable PDM cases in a turnkey manner? Do the modernizations allow for the PDM cases to fluctuate given real market data?

The use cases of LPM generally include, but are not limited to:

•  Product Lifecycle Extension: Extending the lifecycle of current products at or near the end of their respective lifecycles.
• Product Revival: Reviving a product that has been discontinued or retired, internally or externally.
• Leveraging New Technology: Modernizing existing products using new technologies to regain viable market sectors
• Emergency Inoperability or Obsolescence: Rapidly innovating to solve an acute destabilization in the supply chain or operability.

LPM is applicable to nearly every industry; however, a few industries that EM supports by example are:

• eMobility 
• Consumer & Industrial Products 
• Medical Products 
• Oil, Gas, & Petroleum Product Development 
• Industrial Equipment & Process Industries 
• Robotics, Automation Systems, Manufacturing, Machinery, & Tools 
• Aerospace & Defense 
• Motorsports 
• Agriculture/AgriTech

At EM, turnkey ecosystems are our primary design language, and they are no less integral than in LPM. We integrate turnkey ecosystems into LPM predominantly in two ways:

• Product modernization into existing ecosystems: Integrating the design language, cross-linking, and interfaces of an existing product line/ecosystem into the respective modernizations in a turnkey nature -- seamlessly and with end-user experience in mind.
• Ecosystem generation: Configuring modernization for eventual differentiations, product lines, or integration into future ecosystems with turnkey design as the centerpiece for integration and user experience design.

Restabilizing the environmental impact of a product through modernization is a primary goal of many clients, citing factors such as energy consumption, GHG, and e-waste. Due to the rapid advancements in supply chain architecture, manufacturing, and design language itself, EM can save, on average, 85-90% of CO2 emissions across the respective product lifecycle of a modernized product, allowing clients to capitalize on new markets and comply with ever-changing regulations while maintaining profitability.