EOL Process Example — Industrial
Product: NFA-200 series retrofit controller (Northfield Automation) Level: 3 — Heavy · Elapsed: ~30 months and still running Context: ~120 installations, 8 channel partners, service contracts through 2028, UL 508A and CE certified. NFA-500 is the successor but needs a different mounting bracket — every migration is a scoped site visit.
Why this example exists: the SaaS example runs the six phases in order. This one shows the loop — Phase 2 sent the process back to Phase 1, and the outcome changed from "retire the NFA-200" to "stop selling it, keep servicing it, and fund the retrofit path first." That backwards step is the process working.
## EOL Process Tracker: NFA-200 Series Retrofit Controller
**Level**: 3 -- Heavy
**Landing place**: Replacement (NFA-500) -- NOT READY: no drop-in retrofit path
**Current phase**: 6 (in progress -- service obligations run to Dec 2028)
**Target announcement date**: March 31, 2026
**Target EOL date**: Not scheduled
---
### Phase 1: Decide (first pass) Status: [x] Superseded (Oct 2025)
- Trigger: Internal only. Manufacturing wanted the NFA-200 line reallocated
- Verdict (first pass): Go -- retire the NFA-200, migrate the base to NFA-500
- Obligations to check: service agreements, UL/CE certification, spare parts,
8 channel partner agreements
**DP1**: Go, and is the landing place real?
- [x] Verdict is Go
- [ ] Landing place readiness -- ASSUMED ready, not verified
- Note: this assumption is what Phase 2 broke
---
### Phase 2: Align Status: [x] Done (Nov 2025 - Feb 2026)
| # | Stop | Held? | What it surfaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Legal (contracts) | [x] | Service agreements run to Dec 2028. Not terminable |
| 2 | Regulatory | [x] | Certification unaffected, but 14 sites run validated processes |
| 3 | Finance | [x] | Service revenue through 2028 is material. Spares carry cost modest |
| 4 | Operations / Supply Chain | [x] | Spares coverage to 2028 feasible with one final buy |
| 5 | Executives | [x] | See DP2 -- the ask changed here |
| 6 | Sales | [x] | Three customers mid-standardization on NFA-200 across sites |
| 7 | Channel partners (8) | [x] | Two partners holding stock; one mid-bid on a project |
| 8 | Service org | [x] | Can staff to 2028; two techs retire in 2027 |
| 9 | Key accounts (3) | [x] | Retrofit needs a production shutdown at 2 of 3 sites |
| 10 | Engineering | [x] | Retrofit bracket designable, ~9 months, unfunded |
| 11 | Marketing | [x] | Held pending decision |
**DP2**: Did anything invalidate the decision?
- [ ] No blocking contract, regulation, or commitment <-- FAILED
- [ ] Landing place still holds <-- FAILED
- **Returned to Phase 1.** Two findings broke the original verdict:
1. Service agreements to Dec 2028 cannot be terminated (obligation lock)
2. NFA-500 is not a drop-in -- 120 site visits, 2 of 3 sampled sites need a
production shutdown, and the bracket work is unfunded (no landing place)
---
### Phase 1: Decide (second pass) Status: [x] Done (Feb 2026)
- Trigger restated honestly: manufacturing capacity, not customer need
- Verdict: **Hold on EOL. Go on End of Sale.**
- Reasoning: EOS returns the manufacturing line -- which was the actual ask --
without committing to a shutdown date we cannot keep
- Condition: fund the retrofit bracket work as the precondition to ever
scheduling an EOL
- Precondition to schedule EOL: validated retrofit path with per-site cost,
plus installed base below 20 units
**DP1 (second pass)**: Go, and is the landing place real?
- [x] Verdict is Go-with-conditions, scoped to End of Sale only
- [x] Landing place honestly recorded as NOT READY
- [x] Phase 5 permitted for an EOS announcement; an EOL announcement is blocked
---
### Phase 3: Plan Status: [x] Done (Mar 2026)
- Gates in scope: NSC, EOS, EOE, EOR, EOM, EOSRV
- Gates deliberately excluded: EOL -- not scheduled; precondition recorded
- EOR included because service agreements run past EOS (contract-driven)
- Enablement complete by: March 13, 2026 (partners March 6)
- Announcement date: March 31, 2026
**DP3**: Every item owned, every date real?
- [x] No unowned items
- [x] No invented dates -- EOL carries "Not scheduled" plus its precondition
- [x] Data (telemetry retention), contracts (per-account end dates), access
(n/a), money (service wind-down model) all covered
- [x] Phase 6 review on the checklist -- Owner: Product
- [x] Post-EOL item added: reassess the EOL precondition -- Owner: Product
---
### Phase 4: Prepare Status: [x] Done (Mar 2026)
- Materials built: Support/field FAQ, sales talking points, objection handling,
escalation playbook, channel partner brief, 90-minute training with role-play
- Escalation owners: L1 Field service desk, L2 Ravi, L3 Elena, Exec Tom
- Partners briefed: March 6, 2026 -- 25 days before public notice
**DP4**: Enablement complete?
- [x] Field techs could answer "when does my controller stop working?" correctly
("it doesn't") without hedging
- [x] Role-played the bricking, mounting, and audit objections
- [x] Offers pre-approved; two explicitly forbidden (no parts past 2028, no
NFA-500 drop-in claims)
- [x] Partners had the brief and forbidden-claims list before customers
---
### Phase 5: Announce Status: [x] Done (March 31, 2026)
- Size: Full
- Path: Replacement, with channel and regulatory obligations
- Segments: customer notice, partner pack, validated-process customers received
the change-control documentation package
- Comms calendar: Mar 31 status change, Sep 2026 last-time-buy reminder,
Jan 2027 final order window, Dec 2027 non-renewal notices
**DP5**: Does it survive contact?
- [x] Legal reviewed service, refund, and certification language
- [x] Consistent with Phase 2 -- the three mid-standardization accounts were
called before the notice and given reserved last-time-buy quantities
- [x] Field service and partners had it first
- [x] Passes the sticky-note test: "your units are unaffected; last order
March 31, 2027"
---
### Phase 6: Close Status: [ ] In progress (through Dec 2028)
- Gates closed: NSC Mar 2026, EOS Mar 2027, EOE Mar 2027 -- signed off
- Gates pending: EOR Dec 2027, EOM Dec 2028, EOSRV Dec 2028
- Transition progress: 31 of 120 sites retrofitted to NFA-500
- Retention vs. forecast: 100% of service agreements retained to date
**Closure items**
- [x] Manufacturing line reallocated (the original ask) -- April 2027
- [x] Interim lessons-learned review written after EOS -- Owner: Product
- [ ] Telemetry export and archive (due Dec 2028)
- [ ] Contracts settled; non-renewals confirmed in writing (in progress)
- [ ] Revenue recognition closed (due Dec 2028)
- [ ] **Reassess the EOL precondition** -- Owner: Product, review each Q4
**DP6**: Is this actually closed?
- [ ] Not yet -- service obligations run to December 2028
---
### Interim lessons learned (excerpt, written after EOS)
- The first-pass Phase 1 verdict was wrong because we assumed the landing place
was ready without checking. One question -- "is the NFA-500 a drop-in for the
installed base?" -- would have caught it in October instead of February.
- Going back to Phase 1 cost four months and saved us from announcing a
shutdown date for 120 controllers we had no way to migrate.
- Executives asked for an EOL and accepted an EOS because we arrived at Stop 5
with four conversations' worth of evidence. Sequencing them fifth, not first,
is what made that possible.
- Briefing partners 25 days early cost nothing and surfaced a partner mid-bid on
an NFA-200 project we would have torpedoed.
### Assumptions to Validate
- Assumes no service agreement extends past December 2028 (Legal confirmed)
- Assumes component supply supported the final build (held)
- Assumes retrofit bracket funding stays approved (at risk -- re-check each Q4)What to notice
- Phase 1 appears twice, and the first pass is marked Superseded rather than deleted. The record of the wrong verdict — and specifically the unchecked box next to "landing place readiness" — is the most instructive line in the tracker.
- DP2 is the gate that earned its keep. Both of its checks failed, and the process looped. Four months looked like a delay and was actually the avoidance of announcing a shutdown date for 120 controllers with no migration path.
- The verdict got cheaper, not smaller. EOS returned the manufacturing line, which was the actual internal ask, without committing to an EOL nobody could deliver. Separating the presenting problem from the underlying one is what Phase 1 is for.
- Phase 6 is legitimately open for two more years. Closure is the obligation end date, not the announcement. Note the interim review written after EOS — waiting until 2028 to capture lessons would have lost them.
- A deferred decision has a named owner and a recurring review. "Reassess the EOL precondition — Owner: Product, review each Q4." Without that line, "not scheduled" quietly becomes "forgotten," and the next PM inherits a product with no plan and no explanation.