I had a call recently with a guy who was doing some upgrading for a facility that wanted to keep some of their legacy components — specifically, their legacy Rexroth electric motion control. This is great stuff. That’s why it’s still around and working after decades in the facility.
The guy wasn’t happy about it, though. He didn’t want to hook up his shiny new stuff to those dirty old things. It was going to break his heart.
This is the wrong attitude.
Contrast it with the attitude of another company that also wanted to upgrade. They sat down with a clear idea of their goals and determined which of those goals could be accomplished with the components they already had, which would need new components, and which they might be able to find remanufactured. They thought about ways for all the machinery to work together, and made a plan that combined old and new into one excellent system.
They saved a ton of money, as you can imagine. But they also saved a lot of scrap metal from going into landfills, which was another high priority for them. A frugal, smart, conservative plan that makes the best possible use of resources is worth a lot.
As for the dirty old things, maybe that guy can wash them.