Industrial equipment must be upgraded from time to time for a company to remain competitive. Delaying modernization allows competitors to reap the benefits of new technology, like increased efficiency, decreased production costs, and higher quality end products. If this situation persists for too long, a company can lose their advantages that have historically made them successful and be left in the dust. But upgrading industrial equipment is a very expensive proposition — the equipment itself is very costly, and the time that the present equipment is taken out of service to perform the upgrade will impact production. Traditionally this has led to a precarious balancing act in which the heavy, immediate costs of upgrades have to be weighed against the future costs of aging and obsolete equipment.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.edgeimpulse.com/blog/weighing-your-equipment-upgrade-options