A piece of consumer electronic equipment a small business makes has a certain Bill of Materials. One of the major components is discontinued. Time it takes to fix it:
a) If a more-or-less equivalent piece exists (subs a TL052 for a TL072), a day.
b) If nothing comparable exists (subs a PIC microcontroller for a LSI IC):
define and staff the problem: 2-5 days
solve the problem: 2-5 weeks
debug the solution: 2-5 months
(The reason I think Debugging could take a long time is it might take extended use to find the bugs)
Loss of a finger—I think I would be able to regain typing, writing, driving, etc (supplemented with other tools) to near equivalent capacity in several weeks. Loss of an arm is more like several months. Loss of a leg, might take a couple of years (would have to get used to walking on prosthetic, so mobility seems extremely complex).
Changeover of an employee—This gets complicated. This could easily take months, with some trial and error involved. Given sufficient notice and ability to hire the replacement and let old employee aid handover, onboard, and train the new guy, this could take weeks after finding a good candidate—also my margin of error on the new hire becomes a lot wider. I still need a smart, capable employee, but if I and the previous person can spend solid time getting her/him up to snuff, this could be very fast and easy.
A piece of consumer electronic equipment a small business makes has a certain Bill of Materials. One of the major components is discontinued. Time it takes to fix it:
a) If a more-or-less equivalent piece exists (subs a TL052 for a TL072), a day.
b) If nothing comparable exists (subs a PIC microcontroller for a LSI IC):
define and staff the problem: 2-5 days
solve the problem: 2-5 weeks
debug the solution: 2-5 months (The reason I think Debugging could take a long time is it might take extended use to find the bugs)
Loss of a finger—I think I would be able to regain typing, writing, driving, etc (supplemented with other tools) to near equivalent capacity in several weeks. Loss of an arm is more like several months. Loss of a leg, might take a couple of years (would have to get used to walking on prosthetic, so mobility seems extremely complex).
Changeover of an employee—This gets complicated. This could easily take months, with some trial and error involved. Given sufficient notice and ability to hire the replacement and let old employee aid handover, onboard, and train the new guy, this could take weeks after finding a good candidate—also my margin of error on the new hire becomes a lot wider. I still need a smart, capable employee, but if I and the previous person can spend solid time getting her/him up to snuff, this could be very fast and easy.