Customer (as published)	One of the world's largest manufacturing technology groups
Product supplied	An industrial HMI tablet family used across manufacturing environments, in multiple variants including high-performance configurations
Industry	Industrial automation / manufacturing technology
Scope of work	Embedded-board obsolescence management, second-source qualification, refurbishment program, regulatory & material-compliance documentation
Engagement horizon	Supply recovered in H1 2026; relationship continuing, with new orders since

 

The Challenge

This customer relies on us for an industrial HMI tablet family deployed across its manufacturing environments, produced in multiple variants including high-performance configurations for more demanding workloads. Mid-lifecycle, the embedded board at the heart of every variant in the family reached end-of-life. Because that board sits at the core of the whole family, not just one variant, this created a genuine supply bottleneck that put the customer's rollout schedule at risk right as demand was ramping up.

At the same time, and independent of the supply issue, the compliance burden on the product family kept rising. RoHS and REACH obligations, plus material-compliance declarations spanning PFAS, TSCA, the Stockholm Convention's persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and California's Proposition 65, all needed to be maintained across the entire family — not just whichever variant happened to be newest.

Our Approach

Rather than managing the situation quietly and hoping it resolved on its own, we treated it as a crisis to manage transparently, together with the customer. That meant in-person status alignments at the customer's own site rather than updates by email, and a jointly agreed priority list, so that the first batch of high-performance units produced went to the production lines that needed them most rather than being allocated first-come, first-served.

• Second-source qualification — an alternative embedded board is being qualified as a longer-term replacement for the discontinued one; validation is still running.
• Refurbishment program — reusing existing board stock to bridge the supply gap and keep deliveries moving while that qualification finishes, rather than waiting on it.
• Structured compliance documentation — built out across the entire tablet family, so the customer's own regulatory reporting didn't fall behind while the supply issue was being resolved.

None of these ran in isolation — the priority list, the bridge supply from refurbishment, and the second-source qualification were coordinated together so the customer always knew which units were coming, from which source, and when.

The Solution

The product family stays deliverable without the customer having to redesign their ecosystem around it. A second source for the embedded board is in qualification; refurbishment provides an additional, more sustainable supply path alongside it; and compliance reporting for the full family is handled as an ongoing part of the relationship rather than a one-off exercise triggered by the crisis.

Impact & Results

Deliveries recovered, and new orders have continued to come in since — the clearest sign that the customer's confidence in the supply chain returned, not just that one crisis passed.

The Relationship

There is no written quote for this one, but the order pattern is itself the feedback: orders continued, and grew, straight through — and after — a supply situation that could easily have pushed a customer to start qualifying a second supplier of their own. That is not the behavior of a relationship on probation; it is what confidence in a supplier looks like once that confidence has actually been tested.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of product is at the center of this case study?

An industrial HMI (human-machine interface) tablet family used in manufacturing environments, built in multiple variants including high-performance configurations for more demanding production lines.

Why did one end-of-life embedded board turn into a rollout risk for the whole product family?

Because that board sits at the core of every variant in the family. Without it, or a qualified alternative, production of new units stops — regardless of how much manufacturing capacity or demand exists elsewhere in the business.

Why manage this “transparently” instead of simply fixing it and moving on?

In-person alignment and a jointly agreed priority list meant the customer's own production planning could adapt in real time instead of discovering a shortfall after the fact. That kind of visibility is arguably worth as much as the parts themselves during a genuine supply crisis.

What's the difference between the second-source qualification and the refurbishment program?

The second source is the longer-term fix — an alternative board design qualified to replace the discontinued one, with validation still running. Refurbishment is the bridge: reusing existing board stock to keep deliveries moving while that qualification finishes, rather than pausing production until it does.

Why does compliance (RoHS, REACH, PFAS, TSCA, POPs, Prop 65) come up in a supply-crisis case study?

Because none of those obligations paused just because supply was under pressure. Keeping compliance documentation current across the whole product family, in parallel with the supply-side work, meant the customer's own regulatory reporting never fell behind while the crisis was being managed.

What's next for the product family?

Continued dual-path supply — second source plus refurbishment — until the new board is fully qualified, with compliance documentation maintained as an ongoing part of the relationship rather than a one-off deliverable tied to the crisis.