The most revealing number in our ELAU PacDrive 2025 Customer Survey isn’t the breakdown rate. It’s the gap between what sites know and what action they’ve taken
Of the 200 UK sites we surveyed, 87.7% know their ELAU PacDrive M hardware is obsolete, but only a few have a plan to address the issue. 60.2% run legacy ELAU lines with no formal transition strategy at all. This means that whilst awareness is nearly universal, action isn’t. The risk lives in this gap and not addressing this has the potential for costly downtime.
The question most engineers ask first is the wrong one
When reading a survey like this the instinct can be to ask “…so how long do we have before we have to migrate to PacDrive 3?” It’s a valid question, but it’s also the wrong one to lead with. For most sites the migration decision can be years away and is dependent on budget, timing and line availability.
The better question is really “…what happens to this line in the meantime between a fault I can’t diagnose and a part I can’t source?” This is the exposure the survey actually measured and highlights the risks which really do need considering.
Why “we know it’s obsolete” doesn’t protect anything
Treating obsolescence as a future Capex topic risks missing three current issues.
Firstly, the probability of failure increases with age. Schneider Electric withdrew PacDrive M from sale at the end of 2018 and the service and repair period closed on 31st December 2024. Closer to the eight-year mark the probability of controllers, drives and motors failing rises sharply and repairs are no longer covered by the OEM.
Secondly, spares gaps are common. 60% of surveyed sites have significant gaps in their PacDrive inventory. A spare only helps if it’s on the shelf and only if it’s hardware and firmware compatible with the axis it’s replacing.
Lastly, skills gaps are often wider than most managers think. 44.5% of sites have staff who can’t parse an ELAU error log. A fault resolution in the early hours is only as fast as the person reading the diagnostics.
Awareness of the above is a start. However, having a plan addresses all three.
A single line and then the sample
Consider one FMCG production site we have surveyed (figures below are actual).
Two production cells were running ELAU PacDrive range. The line had 76 PacDrive M items comprised of 14 distinct product variations. 50 of those items were on Schneider Electric’s high-risk list and expired in December 2018 inlcuding a C600 controller, MC-4 drives and iSH motors. On paper the site appeared covered with stores holding spares for most lines. However, our assessment still rated it as Medium Risk. This was due to there being no like-for-like spare on a 22-amp MC-4 drive or two iSH motors. Should any of these fail and the line remains idle until a replacement can be sourced for a part the OEM no longer supplies.
Now scale the percentages across the 200-site sample (all figures are survey counts, not projections).
| What the survey found | Share | Sites in the 200 |
| Hit by unplanned line failure in the year | 93.8% | ~188 |
| Aware PacDrive M is obsolete | 87.7% | ~175 |
| No formal legacy transition plan | 60.2% | ~120 |
| Significant spares gaps | 60% | ~120 |
| Staff who can’t parse ELAU logs | 44.5% | ~89 |
The site in our example was aware it was using obsolete hardware. What it didn’t have, though, was a line-by-line picture of where one failure could cause a lengthy stoppage.
How one obsolete component can cause significant downtime
- Diagnosis. 44.5% don’t respond to issues as quickly as they should. The log is read by whoever is on shift. If nobody on that shift understands ELAU PacDrive diagnostics, then it takes a call-out before anyone knows what failed.
- Sourcing. The part is no longer OEM-supplied and stores holds no like-for-like stock on site. This is the 60% of those surveyed and means they now rely on specialist suppliers having this item.
- Configuration. Even when a replacement has been sourced, the hardware and firmware parameters must match and backups verified before the line can run.: “close enough” isn’t sufficient.
These three gaps are exposed by just one stop. However, each could have been addressed before the fault occurred minimising the risk of subsequent downtime.
A model to follow: “Map, Cover, Monitor”
Map. List every PacDrive item on the line, its age against the eight-year mark and how many machines share it. What is unknown cannot be planned for.
Cover. Close the gaps which can potentially turn a fault into a line stoppage. Ensure a compatible spare is available for every critical item and have at least one person per shift who can read the log.
Monitor. Watch the drift. Machine Analyser® reads the controller’s own diagnostic data (on a strictly read-only basis) and surfaces a developing fault before it stops the line. This can turn a surprise breakdown into a scheduled repair.
Try applying the survey results to your lines
The survey outlines the various issues; applying this to your own lines will help you identify where the gaps are which need to be addresed. There are three questions which can rank your true exposure faster than any migration timeline:
- which items are older than eight years?
- which have zero like-for-like spare onsite?
- who (on the night shift) can e.g. read a following error and act on it?
Answering these and the value of spares, training, backups and condition monitoring becomes very clear. Our survey didn’t necessarily find sites which were unaware of obsolescence. Instead it found sites which knew, but were yet to take any formal action to minimise the risk.