Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) is the management of all product configuration definitions and configurations across all involved business processes applied throughout the lifecycle of a product. The development of the concept of CLM has been prompted by the proliferation of configuration capabilities in different enterprise systems and a subsequent need to establish a master system of records for product definition logic and configurations, especially for manufacturing companies that rely on business processes related to assemble-to-order or mass customization. CLM differs from other business disciplines as it focuses on cross functional use of information of configurable products. This entails that users of CLM include both back-office engineers, financial controllers among others, and marketing, sales and customers.

Configuration lifecycle management (CLM) encompasses all configuration models across a product’s life cycle. CLM covers manufacturers’ needs for complex configurable products, which tend to require more seamless integration of all their business units and external stakeholders in terms of process continuity and data exchange. CLM differs from existing life cycle management tools because it focuses on sharing the configuration knowledge and data of a configurable product throughout its entire life cycle across all the involved business units of an organization.

The Need for Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM)

CLM defines goals to:

• Establish Leadership and Executive BuyIn: develop a CLM vision and strategy as a corporate objective
• Streamline Processes: use CLM as a platform for cross functional collaboration
• Improve Product Development: shorten development times, support model driven development, provide faster product availability to market
• Transform Business: establish dedicated support in the organization for managing configuration definitions throughout the lifecycle
• Harmonize Data: provide an open and interoperable platform through standards and data harmonization

THE CLM VISION

A Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) system is the master system of record for configuration logic and the individual configurations. The figure below illustrates how a CLM system is integrating traditional enterprise systems such as ERP, CRM and PLM.

source: Configit

All configuration-related business processes access CLM for configuration definitions and queries. At the simplest level, product configuration is an interactive process in the selling of a product whereby a customer chooses a value or an option, which is then validated via a configuration engine before allowing the customer to make the next choice about the remaining variables to be configured. This process of choice followed by validation continues until all choices have been made and a complete and valid configuration has been found. The apparent simplicity of this process hides a significant amount of complexity to construct the rules used to drive the configuration process and it does not reveal all the processes involved in running a business with customizable products.

Product configuration is the process through which product features (which represent both technical aspects and customer choices) are modeled in a configuration application. A product model is developed which consists of a set of parameters called feature families, a set of possible values for the parameters called features, and rules describing dependencies among the features.

A product model consists of rules to control the technical parameters of the product as well as rules that control the commercial presentation of the product. A product model is then used by a configuration engine to assist in generating a configured product. Product configuration management is, therefore, the process through which a full or partial product configuration is solved via a configuration engine to generate an analytical, a digital or a physical representation of a product.

What variants of the products that is valid for a specific customer depends upon a range of parameters including thecustomer’s market and the local regulations and conformance conditions in that market. The exact time for the delivery of the product will also influence what options are available, as will the overall business decisions made from a profit perspective on what will be offered to what customers on a market by market basis.

The key idea in a CLM solution is that there is only a single version of configuration truth, i.e., the CLM system is the master of record. Thus, the product model contains rules to support all phases of configuration, from design, to ordering and manufacturing, to maintenance. We briefly describe how product configuration is an essential part of the seven key phases:

• Develop. During the development of new products, decisions have to be made on how to modularize the product so that it will be amenable to customization. The allowable variants and options must be defined so that the necessary dependent engineering, sourcing processes and other business processes can be initiated. In this phase, the allowable combinations forming the configuration space are being defined. This involves defining legal and technical constraints representing, for instance, as a concrete example the permitted radio frequencies for wireless door locking in specific markets. It is important to understand the consequences for the downstream processes and profitability of the decisions taken on the offered options. This involves analyzing the space of allowed configurations.
• Price. Pricing is a key activity for any business. It involves analyzing the cost prices and the market acceptable sales prices and from these deducing the expected profit margins. With customizable products this is grossly complicated because the calculations have to be made over the full space of possible configurations and not just on a list of predetermined products.
• Market. When marketing a customizable product on a global scale there will be differences in the offering across the geographical markets. The differences arise as a consequence of local regulations and varying customer preferences. It is necessary to ensure that the offered configurations match the needs. Sales and Marketing departments often express the mapping of offerings to markets using large availability matrices which, in essence, are configuration rules.
• Sell. The sales process involves the key operation of deciding on a specific configuration meeting the customer requirements. A customer will be faced with a lot of choices and it is important to ensure accurate guidance when making the selections so that the end result will be a satisfactory product at an acceptable price. The result of the sales process is a valid order to be fed into the downstream systems.
• Source. Manufacturing of complex products involves using parts and assemblies from sub-suppliers. When the overall product is configurable the parts and assemblies vary according to the individual configurations. It is, therefore, important to ensure that the sourcing of parts is such that correctly configured sub-assemblies are delivered in the right sequence for the production line. Configurations must, therefore, be communicated correctly to the suppliers. Other constraints to be considered are the suppliers’ yearly or monthly capacity that must be taking into account in the production planning.
• Build. The building of the product is defined by the configuration. Each product will have its own defining configuration that is used for selecting the correct parts to be mounted. An error in a configuration is very costly if it makes its way down to the factory floor. The result can be that the end product will be useless or that the production line must stop for a period of time while the problem is overcome. Other constraints to be considered are build constraints on the production line reflecting known line labour balancing issues and lineside feeding constraints.
• Maintain. After a product is delivered it will typically go through service and maintenance where these activities are also dependent upon the configuration of the product. The configuration of the product can also be changed over time by upgrading sub-systems.