Configuration Management Books, Templates, Seminars, & Consulting - PDM/PLM System Selection & Implementation

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1. In the first state, “Designer Control”, the design is initiated and controlled by the designer. Control of the design data is in the hands of the designer. He or she can use any means at their disposal or within their range of preferences to manage these design data. Your designers’ only constraints are those imposed upon them by the system level specification, which defines the product requirements. This specification is the output of Design Review #1, and is immediately placed under Configuration Control, i.e., via a Configuration Control Board (CCB). Appendix A provides a detailed description of how Design Reviews should function in your Engineering Development process and how they should be utilized for CM planning and execution. Your Functional Baseline (system level) and Allocated Baselines (subsystem level) are established at this point.

2. In the second state, “Design Internal”, the level of control (still informal) is increased because at that point, an event has occurred which establishes the expectation of a certain amount of “goodness” in the design, and the design efforts of other people may be impacted by changes to your design as you move into your prototype build phase. In the example presented herein, that event is Design Review #2. The designer has enough confidence in his design to sign the drawing and turn it over to your engineering development laboratory to start construction of your prototype hardware. Proposed changes to the design must be approved by the design lead. It is your lead design engineer’s responsibility to communicate with other functional areas and personnel proposed changes, which may impact their design activities.

 As the prototype evolves and design problems and improvements are identified, the initial drawing and/or design tool database is updated, i.e., redlined drawings and new design files or model versions are created. This iterative process continues until Design Review #3 is held and all identified problems are resolved. Your Development Baseline is established at this point.

These two states are generally referred to as “Work-In-Progress” (WIP).

3. At the conclusion of Design Review #3, there is sufficient confidence in the design to justify the procurement of production hardware. This event triggers the transition to the “Formal Internal” state. At this point, the design database is updated, the design data are fed into your business’s manufacturing inventory and ordering system, and initial (or all) orders are placed for production hardware. Drawings that represent the Development Baseline are issued by your Documentation Control Center or CM organization and the digital data design files that represent the Development Baseline design are inducted into your PDM system. It is important to again mention that, throughout this book, the “master” design documentation is represented by the CAD design tool files and not by Mylar or paper drawings, as in the past.

Future proposed changes to the design (including changes to the system level specifications) are documented on your internal “change notices” and are approved or disapproved by your internal Configuration Control Board (CCB). Unless otherwise negotiated, your customer should not participate in the change approval process until the Product Baseline has been established, as defined below.

Your Functional Configuration Audit (FCA) is conducted on the engineering prototype during the “Formal Internal” state. The purpose of the FCA is to assure that tests have been conducted to verify that each requirement specified in the system level specification has been met by the design. If tests cannot be performed to verify a particular requirement, then a ‘theoretical error analysis” must be performed to verify satisfactory compliance to the requirement. These tests are generally referred to as Design Evaluation and Qualification tests. They are used primarily on military product programs. The purpose of these activities is universal, though and should be an integral part of every development program.

4. The transition to the “External” state occurs at the successful completion of the FCA. This event initiates the conduct of the Physical Configuration Audit (PCA). During the PCA, the engineering drawings are proofed by comparison to the first production unit. This unit should be built to manufacturing planning that was created from the engineering drawing package. Measurements are verified and all instructions, processes and technical data specified on the engineering drawings are verified against the hardware. Historically, many businesses referred to this activity as the “First Article Inspection (FAI)”. The second major activity of the PCA is the capture of drawing revision and serial number data and comparison to “as-defined” revision levels plus verification that serial numbers have not been previously used. The final activity of the PCA is the performance of an Acceptance Test (AT) to assure that the unit examined is physically and functionally the same as the unit that passed the FCA. Your Product Baseline is established at this point.

By conducting your CM activities, tasks and duties per the instructions provided in Appendix B and structured in accordance with the methodology represented by the four state level of control system model, you will be assuring the establishment of ‘best CM practices’ within your organization.