To avoid solderability issues we place restrictions on our suppliers that electronic components must be newer than a specific age in order to be accepted. Most comply without an issue, however for obsolete items we don;t have much choice. We don't perform any solderability testing in-house. Our current specification is 18 months for through hole parts and 12 months for SMT parts. 

Do any other companies use similar requirements? My purchasing group brings this up every so often but we are hesitant to change our requirement. I don't know why this is that uch of an issue with suppliers, if they are practicing first in first out inventory then components in their stock shouldn't be too old.

Thanks,

Blair