A component's lifecycle risk does not end when someone types NRND into a spreadsheet. It ends when the affected products are known, an owner has evaluated the options, and the decision — with its evidence — is recorded where the next engineer will find it.
PCNshark manages that workflow end to end: lifecycle evidence from supplier notices and distributor signals, BOM and program exposure, an owned engineering evaluation, alternate recommendations (Team plans and above), distributor sourcing context, and a part-level decision history — without rebuilding the story in spreadsheets and email.
Available on Starter and Team. A payment method is required.
PCNshark organizes lifecycle evidence, exposure, and the decision workflow. Engineering owns qualification — similarity rankings and sourcing estimates are prioritization inputs, not approvals.
An NRND or EOL status is only the beginning. Before the risk is actually resolved, someone has to answer:
Most teams can answer each question individually — with enough spreadsheet archaeology. The problem is that the answers live in different tools, under different owners, with nothing connecting the status to the decision it produced.
The same lifecycle risk, handled two ways. The response path — use existing stock, lifetime buy, qualify the manufacturer's replacement, qualify a functional alternate, or redesign — is chosen by your team. PCNshark does not choose it automatically.
One component record connects the signal, the exposure, the evaluation, and the decision — so a risk resolved once stays resolved.
A lifecycle status tells you what someone concluded. A lifecycle decision record tells you why — and holds up when the conclusion is questioned a year later.
One word: Active, NRND, EOL
The old value, the new value, and the reason for the change
Whoever last edited the cell
A named person, with a timestamp and a source
Kept elsewhere, if kept at all
PCNs, EOL notices, manufacturer sources, uploads, datasheets, and notes attached to the part
The cell is silently overwritten
The conflict is flagged for review — a manually reviewed decision is never silently overwritten
Re-research from scratch
Part-level decision history: who, old → new, when, and why
PCNshark builds this component decision history — a part-level audit trail — as a by-product of doing the work, not as extra documentation someone has to remember to write.
Upload supplier PCNs or forward them to your workspace email address; PCNshark extracts the affected MPNs, change details, and dates for your review and matches them against your uploaded BOMs with program and revision context. Lifecycle signals from DigiKey and Mouser enrich the component records, and alerts and digests keep owners informed. PCNshark does not discover notices on your behalf — keep your manufacturer and distributor subscriptions, and PCNshark handles everything after a notice lands.
Each impact becomes a workflow with an owner, a due date, notes, and a per-line disposition — including excluding false-positive matches, with manufacturer-mismatch detection to catch same-number, different-maker collisions. Lifecycle evidence sits next to the decision, you can attach your own, and conflicting signals are flagged for review rather than silently applied; a manually reviewed decision is never silently overwritten. Automation can surface lifecycle evidence. Your team owns the final decision.
The manufacturer's recommended replacement is extracted from the notice itself; functional candidates are ranked by specification similarity, with the differing specs shown (Team plans and above). Sourcing context — stock, MOQ, price breaks, estimated lead time, and authorized-versus-independent distribution across ~15 distributors — is distributor data refreshed on demand: estimates, not quotes. Datasheets are found and attached from available sources or uploaded. The resolution lands in the part's decision history. Engineering remains responsible for qualification.
An illustrative NRND progression on a widely used microcontroller, from first evidence to a recorded decision. Illustrative data throughout — sourcing figures are distributor estimates refreshed on demand, not quotes.
Illustrative data. Similarity is a prioritization signal, not qualification — engineering qualifies the replacement. Sourcing figures are distributor estimates, not quotes or availability guarantees. The decision is recorded on the part: who, old → new, when, and why.
Every part across your BOMs gets one organization-wide record. That matters because lifecycle risk multiplies: one component can sit on 14 BOMs across 6 programs and 3 active revisions. The record shows that full exposure so the team can review where the decision applies before making it — and record the exceptions where a program genuinely differs.
A cell someone edits
Status with the evidence behind it
Search each BOM export
BOM, program, and revision rollup
Inbox folders
PCN impacts connected to the part
Cross-reference tables and datasheet hunting
Mfr replacement + spec-ranked candidates (Team plans and above)
Distributor tabs, one by one
Stock, MOQ, price-break, and lead-time estimates across ~15 distributors
Re-downloaded per person
Found via available sources or uploaded — attached once
Ask whoever was in the meeting
Who, old → new, when, and why — on the part
PCNshark does not make lifecycle decisions automatically. The record organizes evidence, exposure, and options; the responsible engineer reviews where the decision applies — including per-program exceptions — and records it.
Your PLM owns product configuration, released BOMs, ECN/ECO workflows, and revision control. PCNshark owns the stage before and around it: supplier notice → BOM impact → evaluation → documented decision → formal change where one is required. The handoff is manual — a BOM-impact CSV and a PDF impact report the change owner attaches — not a sync.
Where the supplier-notice workflow sits relative to controlled change.
Supplier-notice triage before formal Windchill change management begins.
Reviewed BOM and product exposure before a Teamcenter change process is initiated.
Document-level notice intake and disposition alongside Arena change workflows.
From design-side lifecycle visibility to an owned supplier-notice response.
PCNshark is the lifecycle-risk workflow around the tools you already use: notice in, exposure known, options evaluated, decision recorded.
Bring notices, BOMs, and decisions into one workflow: lifecycle evidence and exposure on every component, an owned evaluation with alternates (Team plans and above) and distributor sourcing estimates, and a part-level decision history the next engineer can actually find.
EOL and NRND response: exposure, LTB, and the decision.
Read →Manufacturer replacements and spec-ranked candidates, evaluated by engineering.
Read →Evidence, conflicts, and part-level decision history.
Read →Distributor stock, MOQ, price-break, and lead-time estimates.
Read →The role-level PCN review workflow.
Read →EOL, last-time-buy, and BOM exposure, end to end.
Read →Focused lifecycle workflow vs. a broad data platform.
Read →Workflow descriptions are based on PCNshark's current production capabilities. Sourcing figures are distributor estimates refreshed on demand, not quotes. Lifecycle responsibilities and qualification requirements vary by company, product, and regulatory environment.
