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Purchase of Components on eBay is "Misguided"
01 Dec 2004
The decision by Tube Lines to resort to using auction website eBay to track down and purchase vital spare parts was described as "misguided", by one of the UK's leading experts in component obsolescence.
Michael Trenchard, who is chief executive of the Component Obsolescence Group, commented that the problem of component obsolescence should have been foreseen during the original privatisation negotiations and a pro-active policy put in place for dealing with it.
"I am not suggesting that Tube Lines has bought inappropriate components, but the risk is increased if component obsolescence is not dealt with as a mainstream management issue, " said Trenchard.
"Component obsolescence is a growing problem in industry and any organisation with a substantial amount of ageing capital equipment is particularly vulnerable, because an inability to replace a small component can mean that the whole system breaks down, " he added. "There is a large body of knowledge about how to deal with it and buying components on eBay is certainly not part of the lexicon!"
www.cog.org.uk
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