What Is Configuration Lifecycle Management?

Editor's Note: This blog was originally published in April 2023; new information was added in February 2024.

What is configuration lifecycle management, and why is it important?

One of the most influential factors in the growth of manufacturing complexity is the demand for increasing product configurability and the resulting proliferation of product variants. Configuration lifecycle management (CLM) is the process by which bills of material that have been adapted for different product configurations and business purposes are aligned and coordinated for maximum quality and productivity.

In recent editions of this blog series, we’ve discussed the critical nature of fully digital and holistic BOM management, and at a more granular level, the distinctions and relationships between different BOM types: engineering, manufacturing, and service bills of material. A sound configuration lifecycle management strategy is crucial to tie the BOM management processes into the broader enterprise ecosystem including PLM, ERP, CRM and more.

What are the benefits of configuration lifecycle management?

The key benefit of CLM is to help manage and maintain the immense volume of data, rules, and models required by the increasing number of options across the entire product lifecycle, from birth to death. Products are becoming more complex; product configurability is more crucial than ever, as nearly all manufacturers are under pressure to increase product options, variants, and extensions.

CLM helps ensure not only that all relevant product data is unified, current, and centrally stored and tracked, but that it’s accessible in the form required by each of the various enterprise functions, whether engineering, manufacturing, sales and marketing, or service.

1. Enables a platform approach to product families

CLM facilitates a frictionless, well-ordered flow of harmonized data between different systems and the teams that rely on them. This in effect creates an enterprise platform for integrated, real-time management of every variant within a product family. Global and regional variations are clear, well-ordered and always available.

2. Ensures that configured data is captured in a single source of truth

The data that defines your product and its variants exists in differing forms across departments, and even among teams within the same department. It’s therefore critical to ensure that, regardless of department, the essential vision – the design intent – of the product is clear and always protected. CLM aggregates and harmonizes all configurable data across the enterprise within a single source of truth, connecting silos and amplifying the quality of communication between teams.

3. Provides end-to-end product lifecycle traceability

For many reasons, both market- and technology-driven, it’s more important than ever that manufacturers be able to thoroughly trace and document all inputs and processes, upstream and downstream from the enterprise itself. A well-implemented CLM strategy ensures comprehensive traceability, from the point at which materials are procured, through production, consumption, maintenance, and retirement. The value of full traceability, especially in complex supply chains, is wide-ranging – from regulatory compliance and improving inventory management to fueling sustainability goals and increasing the efficiency of product recall processes.

What are the phases of configuration lifecycle management?

Multiple processes and priorities within the enterprise require visibility and access to the configuration data. Considered as phases of the CLM process, they comprise a sequential view that defines the product lifecycle.

1. Develop

Product development is the phase in which the core product is designed, and the point of origin for the data that defines the intended options and customizable variants.

2. Price

The costs involved in creating a customizable product and all its potential variations must be accurately calculated to define appropriate pricing. Prices must also be aligned with demand, competitive factors, and other commercial dynamics. Configuration provides the logic for accurate costing based on parts and intended product positioning.

3. Market

In this phase, market demand and the impact of regulatory requirements define the rules by the which the enterprise delivers the product to its users. Aligning variants with the expectations and regulatory requirements of local or regional markets is a top priority.

4. Sell

The specific requirements of customers, both individual and as cohorts of similar buyers, must be managed up the point at which an order is placed, and downstream from there through fulfillment of the order.

5. Source

Complex supply chains, often global in reach and comprising dozens if not hundreds of sub-suppliers, are coordinated with the CLM system. That coordination includes synchronizing these inputs to arrive at the production line in proper sequence. Through CLM the variant BOM communicates automatically with ERP for effective purchasing and production planning.

6. Build

In the build phase, the CLM system generates variant forms of the manufacturing bill of materials to inform the production process. Work orders, build instructions, and process flows are aligned across multiple configurations.

7. Maintain/Service

As the product begins its useful life and matures, CLM is critical to the generation of variant-specific service and maintenance materials, including the service bill of materials, spare parts lists, and maintenance manuals.

8. Dispose

When a product has reached the end of its useful life, CLM ensures that variant requirements for its recycling, reuse or appropriate disposal are aggregated, accessible, and up to date.

How are CLM and PLM related?

For manufacturers who already understand and rely on product lifecycle management, its relationship with CLM is entirely complementary. CLM, in fact, is derived from the same technologies and approaches as PLM, including, at their center, a single source of truth.

In fact, PLM is necessary to enable the product structures, BOM management, and configuration management capabilities that enable CLM. Both PLM and CLM leverage modular product structures, part-centric (as distinct from drawing-centric) BOM management, configuration management, and other technologies that collectively enable the product’s digital thread along the entire continuum of its lifecycle.

Using configuration lifecycle management for digital transformation

CLM unites and harmonizes PLM with other critical business systems, including not only PLM but ERP, CRM, and others on which the enterprise relies. By closing the digital loop defined by all these systems at the enterprise level, CLM maximizes the productivity not only of the manufacturing process specifically, but of the individual teams across the company whose work contributes to or draws on information related to the product and its variants.

Effectively, CLM creates a single fluid and responsive digital system that unites multiple teams, paving the way for comprehensive digital transformation without impairing the impact or efficiency of those individual processes.

Watch this video to see how Polaris is taking on lifecycle and configuration management:

How does configuration lifecycle management address today’s manufacturing challenges?

Fundamentally, CLM addresses today’s manufacturing challenges by streamlining communication between previously siloed functions and workstreams. From design and engineering through procurement, manufacturing, sales and service, CLM brings all teams together to work from a single source of truth.

When the impact of every product-related decision or event is immediately and accurately propagated throughout the organization, teams can make subsequent decisions confidently within their area of expertise, while amplifying value to the enterprise at large. Better decisions mean higher-quality products, manufactured more efficiently, and brought to market faster. These advantages, facilitated through configuration lifecycle management, contribute powerfully to increase profits, amplify brand equity, and grow shareholder value.