Black Squirrel by LochHarbour™

Our proprietary Black Squirrel by LochHarbour™ suite of tools reliably predicts, evaluates, and alerts our clients to potential or existing obsolescence in their supply chain before it results in either performance or requirement disconnects. LHG works directly with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to quickly source customer required parts.

Every system — from the simplest household appliances to complex planes and armored vehicles — requires maintenance and sustainment to remain operational and achieve designed service life. As each system ages, the risks associated with obsolescence rises. The unknown loss of sources for raw materials or critical components often results in an emergency requiring costly or unreliable solutions. The same result often occurs when a manufacturer goes out of business or discontinues production and warehouses end items and components.

Obsolescence is inevitable, but its impact is certainly manageable. The key is proactive management of the factors within the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) environment. A critical element of product sustainment is a detailed DMSMS plan that is continuously reviewed and updated.

Traditional DMSMS plans focus on engineering, logistics, suppliers and OEMs. Their structure and process can provide Program Managers strategic insight to design, sourcing, component and material selection.

Challenges arise as the systems age and as technology advances and sources vanish. Applying our proactive management techniques, that begin with the development of the DMSMS plan and continuing through to system decommissioning, dramatically reduces the inevitable impact of DMSMS and enables proactive management instead of reactive management.