Product change notifications and EOL notices: what they mean and how to respond
By Mark Tomasi, Managing DirectorLast updated
In short
Manufacturers announce changes to a component with a product change notification (PCN) and its discontinuation with a PDN or EOL notice. Each notice has deadlines — for acknowledging a change, placing a last time buy or raising objections. Companies that route notices to a named owner, check which products are affected and respond in time avoid most obsolescence surprises.
What is a PCN — and what is an EOL notice?
A product change notification (PCN) is the manufacturer's formal announcement that something about a component will change: the die, the manufacturing process, the fab or assembly site, materials, packaging, marking or datasheet values. The part number usually stays the same, but the part you receive may not be identical to the one you qualified.
A product discontinuance notice (PDN), usually called an EOL notice, announces that a part will no longer be produced. It sets a last time buy date for final orders and a last time ship date for final deliveries.
Types of notices and what they mean for you
| Notice | What it announces | Typical response |
|---|---|---|
| Major PCN | Change to die, process, fab or assembly site, or materials that may affect form, fit or function | Review the change, request qualification data or samples, requalify if needed |
| Minor PCN | Administrative changes: marking, labels, packaging, datasheet corrections | Check packaging and labels against your process; usually accept |
| PDN / EOL notice | The part is being discontinued, with last time buy and last time ship dates | Decide between last time buy, alternative part and redesign |
| Status change to NRND | Not recommended for new designs — an early warning of discontinuation | Stop using the part in new designs; start planning |
What a notice contains
A complete notice includes the affected part numbers, a description of and reason for the change, the effective date, any last time buy and last time ship dates, suggested replacement parts, and whether qualification data or samples are available.
Many manufacturers follow the JEDEC standard for change notification (J-STD-046). Significant changes are announced in advance — commonly around 90 days before the changed parts ship — and customers are given a short period to acknowledge or object. Many notices state explicitly that no response counts as acceptance.
Machine-readable notices
In Germany, VDMA 24903 defines what change and discontinuation notices should contain. The smartPCN format built on it lets notices be exchanged electronically and imported directly into ERP and lifecycle systems — worth asking your suppliers for.
How to respond to a notice: a six-step process
- Receive: every notice goes to a named owner, not a shared inbox or a colleague who has left.
- Find where it's used: check which products, BOMs and customers use the affected part numbers.
- Assess the impact: for a PCN, whether the change affects your qualification or certification; for an EOL notice, how much demand remains for production and service.
- Decide: accept, request samples or data, object, place a last time buy, qualify an alternative or plan a redesign.
- Respond within the deadline: acknowledge the notice and place any orders before the dates run out.
- Record and pass it on: document the decision, and inform your own customers if they are affected — EMS providers to OEMs, OEMs to end customers.
Sole-source parts
Some manufacturers let customers flag a discontinued part as sole-source within a set period after the notice, to negotiate longer end-of-life terms. If a part has no alternative, ask immediately.
Why notices get missed
- The notice is sent to a contact who has changed role or left the company.
- Parts bought through distributors or an EMS provider: notices may reach the buyer of record, not the company that designed the part in.
- BOMs use internal part numbers that aren't mapped to manufacturer part numbers, so nobody can tell which products are affected.
- Notices arrive as PDFs in email and are never entered into a system.
Close the gaps by subscribing to manufacturers' PCN portals for every critical part, agreeing with your EMS provider that notices are forwarded to you, keeping manufacturer part numbers in every BOM, and using lifecycle data to catch changes a notice didn't reach you for.
If the notice reached you too late
When the last time buy date has already passed, the options are remaining distributor stock, licensed aftermarket production or the open market. Our last time buy guide covers how to size a final order, and the obsolescence management guide covers the wider process.
How Emporra handles it
Every part we ship is inspected before shipment to a published counterfeit-avoidance standard — IDEA-STD-1010-B or SAE AS6171 — and arrives with a written inspection report. Deeper analysis is available on request. Read how our inspection works.
Send us the part number and quantity — we'll search our vetted global supplier network and come back with sourcing options within one business day.