End Of Life
End of Life (EOL) in reliability engineering and CMMS is the point when an asset's failure intensity becomes unacceptable, it is unrepairable, or cumulative maintenance costs exceed its economic contribution. It includes End of Useful Life, Normal Expected Life, Economic End of Life, and Technical/Functional End of Life.
In shop floor maintenance, EOL is managed by tracking MTBF trends in CMMS; when MTBF drops below 50% of original baseline, the asset enters EOL. Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prognostics predict EOL by monitoring degradation rates and State of Health. CMMS like ServiceGrid trigger repair-vs-replace decisions when EOL thresholds are met, auto-generating replacement work orders or budget requests to prevent unexpected failures.
- Running assets past Normal Expected Life via run-to-failure strategies, leading to accelerated degradation and catastrophic breakdowns.
- Ignoring economic EOL by continuing repairs where cumulative maintenance costs exceed replacement value, draining budget without ROI.
- Failing to detect obsolescence by operating EOL equipment with no vendor support, no spare parts, or outdated safety features, risking regulatory penalties.
How is EOL distinguished from End of Support (EOS)?
EOL means the product is no longer sold or renewed but may still receive limited patches. EOS means all support ceases, including critical security fixes, making operation high-risk.
What reliability metric definitively signals EOL?
Declining MTBF below 50% baseline combined with rising failure intensity per IEC definition (IEV 191-19-06) signals EOL.
Can an asset be operational but still be in EOL?
Yes, End of Useful Life (accounting) and Economic EOL both allow operation despite zero book value or negative cost/benefit ratio.