Customer Success: ControlTek and Morpac Partner for Full Product Life Cycle Support

Longtime ControlTek partner Morpac Industries’ line of motor control operators are used by the U.S. Navy to remotely open and close valves and vents on Navy ships. These products have been in use for the past 25 years. Morpac and ControlTek worked together to develop the initial design, and ControlTek continues to produce the motor control boards at our Vancouver, Washington facility today. 

Managing Product Life Cycle

Managing the product life cycle of a device with such longevity has become a true team effort. Since first conception, the original design has been modified and updated twice to maintain the product’s success.

When it came time for the latest refresh, we discovered the current design included a component that had become obsolete. This could spell trouble for the customer if a new component couldn’t be substituted easily. Luckily, ControlTek has processes in place to quickly identify these types of problems and find solutions that keep the customer’s project on track. 

A Team Effort

In this case, our program manager identified the obsolete microcontroller and quickly informed Engineering about the issue. ControlTek engineers immediately began the search to find a replacement part that could offer the same functionality and footprint to avoid the need for any major changes to the design prior to manufacturing.

Unable to find a part that could simply act as a drop-in replacement, ControlTek design engineers teamed up with our manufacturing engineering team and the program manager to find a solution that would have the lowest business impact considering important factors like product longevity and production volume.

The Result

We successfully completed the redesign, including updated firmware, keeping production on time at no extra cost to our customer. All in a day’s work!

Learn more about Morpac Industries.