Some Principles of Designing Configuration Control Systems

In assemble-to-order industries Product Design often has created a large number of products which are basically similar, but differ on a number of engineering characteristics. For every customer order the functional specifications (e.g. voltage, torque etc.), which define a product that suits the customers needs, have to be determined. In order to define a Bill-of-Material for that specific product, the functional specifications have to be related to the engineering characteristics (e.g. a specific type of motor). The task of determining appropriate specifications and creating a corresponding Bill-of-Material can be very complex and time-consuming and is often subject to errors and inconsistencies.