Back to case studiesOT automation obsolescence audit across three food plants
From invisible risk to a measured migration path: a complete obsolescence audit across three factories — every PLC, drive, HMI, switch and server classified, risk-rated, and turned into a phased replacement plan.
16% → 7%
risk reduction with compatible components
3
food plants audited with one repeatable methodology
Context
Three food plants in Morocco — a drinks factory, a cheese and dairy site, and a fresh-milk site — each running multiple production lines with automation hardware accumulated over two decades. Corporate launched an IT/OT modernization program, and the first task was to answer a question nobody had data for: which components are end-of-life, which are about to be, and what does that mean for production continuity? I ran the obsolescence audit across all three sites, translating raw equipment lists into a risk-rated migration roadmap.
The problem it fixes
Every plant had grown its automation layer project by project: different vendors, different generations, no single register. PLCs from eight different Siemens models in one process area, obsolete Mitsubishi drives on packaging lines, Schneider Premium TSX units announced end-of-life, SCADA stations running operating systems no longer supported. The risk was invisible because nobody had counted — and the plants kept running until a failure forced the conversation.
The idea: count everything, then classify
Instead of fixing problems as they broke, the audit defined a four-level obsolescence model — Active, Active Mature, End of Life, Discontinued — paired with a temporal lens: more than five years of availability, two to five years, one to two years, less than one year. Every unique component in the plant got classified against both dimensions. The result was not a fear list but a decision matrix: what to watch, what to stock, what to replace, and what to migrate before it failed.
The solutions it provides
On inventory: a complete register of every automation reference — PLCs, drives, HMIs, switches, servers — collected from engineering archives, online PLC projects, and visual control on the floor, then concatenated into a single global list with quantities per area. On classification: each reference mapped to its life-cycle status and availability timeline, with compatible replacements identified where they existed. On synthesis: a manufacturer-by-manufacturer analysis covering sixteen suppliers, highlighting where compatible components reduced risk and where no drop-in replacement existed — forcing a revamping decision.
The migration playbook
The audit produced a phased plan tied to production reality. Packaging lines with identical obsolete machines could be sequenced — study one, generate spares for the other. Process separators with obsolete CPUs got priority because a failure there stops the plant. SCADA systems running unsupported operating systems moved to a virtualization track to extend life without rewriting applications. Networks were flagged for modernization to managed switches supporting segmentation. Each plant left with its own risk-rated action list: secure stock, engage OEMs, plan replacements, or accept and monitor.
Results
The three plants moved from invisible risk to a measured, prioritized migration path. Using compatible components reduced the potential risk from sixteen percent of installed references to seven percent. The remaining risk was concentrated in a small number of critical components — exactly the ones that needed human attention rather than automated patching. The audit methodology itself became repeatable: count, classify, synthesize, plan. That is how obsolescence stops being a surprise and becomes a budget line.
Next steps
This is the exact work INOPSIO runs today: a structured obsolescence audit of your OT estate — every PLC, drive, HMI, switch and server classified by life-cycle status and availability, translated into a risk-rated migration plan. If you cannot say which of your components are end-of-life and what replaces them, a free assessment call is a short conversation away.
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