For today’s electronic module and equipment designer, product life-cycle management has become an increasingly important competitive consideration for initial product design as it relates to both ongoing manufacturing and to end-use customer application. The high rate of change in the packaging or obsolescence of IC’s along with pressure to add new functions gives product managers for electronics a whole new challenge. There are two ways to leverage the investment—get to market sooner and keep the electronic module in production longer by managing the availability and new function turmoil.