Product Configuration Management

There are multiple challenges to managing configurations:
Lack of Alignment—Requiring manual, paper sign-offs on changes means inefficient execution of changes and no holistic product design.
Outdated Product Designs—The lack of ability to make coordinated changes can leave stakeholders unable to access current data.
Lack of Reuse—Duplicate work and slows down time to market.
Lack of Governance—Changes to a product’s configurations throughout its lifecycle aren't traceable.

Product variant management is a critical process that enables teams to manage complex variants and configurations at scale. Product diversity brings challenges to operational efficiency, complicating processes, introducing the potential for errors and adding development and quality-related costs. Rather than reconfiguring a new product every time an order is placed, variant management allows engineering to reuse predefined configurations (or variants) and to apply change management, quality workflows, and other processes to all like variants simultaneously.

So-called knowledge-based configuration seeks to manage customization requirements more quickly and accurately for a particular customer. This is achieved by integrating learnings, experience, and knowledge from the product's previous use phases into the continuing configuration process, improving the accuracy and timeliness of BOM generation. Knowledge-based configuration is also a rich and well-proven application area for artificial intelligence, whereby a body of information can be searched for valid existing configurations that meet a given set of needs, using AI techniques.

When high-quality products are delivered faster, at lower cost, the customer's own business results are enhanced. CTO capabilities amplify these strengths. Effective product configuration management eliminates friction throughout the product lifecycle, ultimately strengthening the enterprise's reputation, its bottom line, and its brand.