=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2220/19_CONFWS18_paper_18
|storemode=property
|title=Configuration Lifecycle Management – An Assessment of the Benefits Based on Maturity
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2220/19_CONFWS18_paper_18.pdf
|volume=Vol-2220
|authors=Anna Myrodia,Thomas Randrup,Lars Hvam
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/confws/MyrodiaRH18
}}
==Configuration Lifecycle Management – An Assessment of the Benefits Based on Maturity==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2220/19_CONFWS18_paper_18.pdf
Configuration Lifecycle Management – An Assessment of
the Benefits Based on Maturity
Anna Myrodia1 and Thomas Randrup and Lars Hvam
Abstract.1To handle the increasing product complexity the accumulated impact would be significantly higher than the
manufacturing companies of configurable products tend to utilize gains on each individual lifecycle phase.
configurators to cover more lifecycle phases of their products. This For an organization, to be able to implement and connect
is described as configuration lifecycle management (CLM) and it is product configurators across all lifecycle phases and business
concerned with the management of all configuration models across processes is considered a rather challenging task. When it comes to
a product’s lifecycle. However, to connect and align all the utilization of a configurator in the sales phase, there are
configurators and IT systems to each other remains a challenging numerous challenges identified not only by the literature but also
task. Apart from the technical perspective, on an operational level from industrial user cases [5,6]. Resistance to change, difficulties
the integration and alignment of the IT systems also requires a in data acquisition and verification, valid product modeling and
structured approach and is highly related to the maturity of the maintenance of the models, accurate documentation are some of
organization. Therefore, this research focuses on studying the the most commonly reported challenges in the utilization of
relation between the maturity level and the expected benefits from product configurators in the sales phases [7,8] .
implementing CLM. It is expected that the more advanced an
It could be assumed that similar challenges are expected to be
organization is in using product configurators in different lifecycle
experienced in the other lifecycle phases during the
phases and integrating and aligning them to each other and to other
implementation and utilization of a product configurator. However,
IT systems, the realized benefits would be significantly higher than
the sum of benefits from applying standalone configurators to this research claims that even though some of the challenges would
support each life cycle phase. Empirical evidence from seven case be faced in all lifecycle phases, there several aspects that are not
studies demonstrate that there is a relation between the maturity addressed in them. For instance, developing a universal product
and the realized benefits with regards to the utilization of product model to be used by several configurators across all lifecycle
configurators. phases, business units, even external organizations (e.g. suppliers,
resellers, vendors) requires input from various sources and is
Keywords: configuration lifecycle management, maturity, highly related to numerous dimensions of the organization [9].
benefits, product configuration In particular, the integration of product configurators with other
IT systems for data exchange, as input and/or output of each
configuration step, is considered a rather challenging task,
1 INTRODUCTION especially when it comes to IT systems that are used by several
departments [10]. Apart from the technical challenge of
Configuration lifecycle management (CLM) describes the connecting, aligning and integrating IT systems with product
management of all configuration models and related data across all configurators, the operational perspective is of high importance and
lifecycle phases of a product [1]. A CLM solution is highly it should not be discarded. At an operational level, the process
relevant for manufacturing companies of configurable products, as standardization, resources allocation, knowledge sharing and
its purpose is to provide one valid source of configuration data and support, established ways of cross-departmental collaboration are
models that is shared among different business units within an some of the factors that are highly related to the success of
organization. utilization a CLM solution [6,7,10,11]. Additionally, on a strategic
The utilization of product configurators comes along with level a clear mission and vision for CLM deployment,
various benefits. During the last decades, several researchers have communication to all stakeholders and engagement with specific
performed studies to identify and measure the realized benefits of goals for each involved department are of great importance and
the use of a product configurator [2–4]. The identified benefits highly related to the level of success of the CLM solution.
cover a wide range of aspects, from process improvements to All these aspects mentioned before that influence the success of
impact on products’ profitability. However, the majority of these a CLM solution are related to the maturity of an organization.
studies are concerned with configurators that are implemented in Maturity in this context does not only describe the development of
the sales phase and some in the engineering phase [2,3] . the IT systems and the possibilities of seamless integration of a
Therefore, the focus of this research is to identify possible gains universal product model for a CLM solution. Maturity also
when the utilization of a product configurator is not limited only to describes the process and the organizational development, from an
the sales phases, but it includes all lifecycle phases of a operational, strategic and cultural point of view [12,13]. The
configurable product, such as engineering, sales, manufacturing readiness of an organization to implement and utilize a CLM
and service. It is expected that the realized benefits would be solution, and the support and involvement of the stakeholders are
similar but not identical in the remaining lifecycle phases and that crucial success factors for a CLM solution.
As a result, it is expected that the more mature an organization
1
is, the higher the realized benefits would be. Therefore, this
Configit A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark, email: amyrodia@configit.com
research relates the expected benefits to the maturity of the knowledge sharing and support activities are among the most
organization. The maturity is evaluated in terms of years of widely discussed dimensions in the literature that describe most
implementation of product configurators and the spam of lifecycle accurately all functions of an organization [12,18]. The maturity is
phases they cover. The expected benefits of a CLM solution are measured in each of these dimensions; however, the maturity level
estimated to be higher than these of standalone configurators in the does not have necessarily to be the same across all of them. This
different lifecycle phases. Exploratory case studies are conducted could explain why companies implementing state of the art
to examine this proposition. configurators are still not able to experience all the expected
benefits. This is aligned to the findings of [19] that business
Proposition 1 The size of realized benefits when implementing processes and IT alignment should fit into the organization.
a CLM solution is related to the maturity of the organization.
The improvement of configuration management policies and
tools, and the establishment of requirement engineering processes
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2
are considered top priorities of organization maturity. Seamless
includes a literature review on the expected benefits from the use
of product configurators in different lifecycle phases and the integration, knowledge management, monitoring, support and
characteristics of maturity of an organization. Section 3 presents training activities for the users are additional aspects related to the
the empirical evidence from the case study research and discusses maturity and affect the success of implementing a configuration
the results. Section 4 provides some overall conclusions regarding solution [20]. Empirical studies also indicate that the maturity of IT
the connection of realized benefits and the maturity of an processes is connected to the gap between organizational targets
organization when implementing a CLM solution. and processes’ aims [21].
Challenges in realizing expected benefits are identified in the
sales and planning process [22–24] and are connected to the need
2 LITERATURE REVIEW of horizontal reorganizational of the structure to include customer
and supply chain stakeholders [25]. The current vertical
organization structure is a source of delays, increased costs and
2.1 Benefits from implementing product
challenges of managing subcontractors [20]. This is also supported
configurators by [26] who claim that when the manufacturing company is in
This section discusses the findings from the literature regarding the control of the entire supply chain and it is able to coordinate
expected benefits from implementing and utilizing product internal and external processes, then it is more mature and can gain
configurators. As this field has been examined in detail, we refer to a competitive advantage [27,28].
previous work [2,3,11,14–16] and their lists of references. One aspect of knowledge management related to the maturity of
However, to provide an overview we present a short list of realized an organization is the lack of overview of the product portfolio,
benefits for the different lifecycle phases (Table 1). which is due to increased complexity. Keeping external variety
high to satisfy personalized customer needs to be induced by
Table 1. Benefits per lifecycle phase controlled internal variety and product standardization to avoid
Lifecycle phase Benefits increasing costs and complexity [28].
Sales Reduction in quotation time According to [12], the maturity of an organization is increasing
Improve quotation accuracy based on the level of standardization. That includes both
Improve control of product portfolio standardization of products and processes. Consequently, this
Engineering Reduction in number of errors would have direct impact of the realized benefits by utilizing a
Improve quality of specification and bills-of- product configurator, even more when it comes to CLM. However,
materials (BOMs)
this alignment and standardization is a task that requires time as it
Manufacturing Improve quality of production specifications
Improve communication with suppliers
comes along with numerous changes in the organization [6,29]. It
Reduced production costs is expected that the higher the maturity of an organization is, the
Service Reduced installation and maintenance time higher the gains form the realized benefits would be by the use of
Improved predictability in maintenance of products product configurators, especially across all lifecycle phases. This is
sold identified as an area not explored by the existing literature.
Even though the research from [12] focuses on the ETO
The benefits are grouped under each lifecycle phase to provide a companies, the underlying principles can be extrapolated and used
better overview when it comes to implementing a CLM solution, for manufacturers of standard but complex products too, such as
and they address three main factors: time, quality and cost [17]. the examined case studies. Therefore, this research aims at
However, it should be mentioned that that are some common contributing to this field by providing some empirical evidence to
benefits reported across all lifecycle phases, such as improved test the developed proposition.
process efficiency, reduction of hours spent due to iterations,
improved data validity, improved quality due to reduction in the
number of errors. 3 EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
To examine the suggested proposition, case research is selected as
the research method. The main reason for selecting case research is
2.2 Maturity that allows for comparison of the results across different case
The maturity assessment of an organization includes several companies, where the analysis has been conducted under the same
dimensions and maturity models are the tools used to perform the settings and followed a research protocol. In this study, 7
evaluation. Strategy, processes, IT, organizational structure, companies are used as cases. Through the case research the under
examination phenomenon is studied in its natural settings and it on process standardization and cross-organizational collaboration.
allows for deeper understanding of phenomena that are not fully Process standardization is assessed based on the following two
examined [30–32]. In this research, the under investigation criteria; the number of manual tasks that need to be performed on
phenomenon is the one described in the proposition; the relation top of the use of the product configurator, and the generated
between the size of realized benefits and the maturity of an documentation following the actual configuration process. Cross-
organization with regards to the implementation of CLM. The organizational collaboration is assessed based on the number of
following section provides an introduction to the companies and teams from different departments that are using the product
the set-up of the research, presents and configurator or providing input when setting up the configuration
analyzes the results. models. In addition to these findings, the research team took into
account the number of years that each company has been using
configurators and the number lifecycle phase they cover, to assess
3.1 Background the maturity of each case company. The assigned maturity level
For this study 7 manufacturing companies (A – G) were contacted. varies among low-medium-high. Table 3 presents the results of the
All of them are designing, selling, producing and servicing highly analysis.
engineered and complex products. All the companies have been As it can be seen from Table 3, the number of realized benefits
utilizing product configurators to support at least one lifecycle is increasing along with the maturity of the organization. In detail,
phase of their products. Furthermore, all 7 companies are large case companies E, F and G are ranked with medium maturity level
organizations, employing more than 1000 people, and they are due to the fact that they have cross-organizational implementation
operating globally, in terms of market, production facilities and of product configurators. Even though case company G has been
suppliers. They have been utilizing product configurators for at using product configurators for 3 years, which is relatively lower
least 2 years before the research was conducted. Table 2 provides than cases C and D, its level of maturity is still considered to be
an overview of the selected cases regarding their main medium, due to the fact that it has fully standardized and
characteristics and the lifecycle phases they are utilizing a product automated processes, and minimum manual work required on top
configurator. of the use of the configurators across the sales and the engineering
teams. In all these three cases, when setting up the product models
Table 2. Overview of the case studies in the configurator teams from both the sales and the engineering
Case Industrial sector Lifecycle phase No. of years departments were involved. Teams from these two departments
company utilizing product also undertake the maintenance and the update of product related
configurators data in the configurator, while at the same time product related data
A IE&M Sales 3 for the sales and the engineering phases are handled via the
(Mechanical) configurator. The realized benefits reported are related to the
B IE&M Sales 2 process standardization, control of complexity, knowledge
(Mechanical) management and data validity.
C IE&M Sales 5 Case companies A, B, C and D are utilizing a configurator in
(Medical) the sales phase, therefore the reported benefits are related to cost
D IE&M Sales 6 estimation, quotation and sales efficiency. It should also be
(Mechanical) mentioned that case company C was the only one able to provide
E Automotive Sales, 7 quantitative data regarding the realized benefits. Company C
Engineering reported that it has managed to reduce the hours used for preparing
F IE&M Sales, 7 quotations by 50% (from days to hours). Due to the reduction of
(Agriculture) Engineering errors in the specifications in the sales phase, they have managed to
G IE&M (Electrical) Sales, 3 reduce the costs of poor quality in production with 80% due to
Engineering more accurate production specification.
By summarizing the results can be concluded that there is a
relation to the maturity level of an organization and the size of
3.2 Results realized benefits. This confirms the under investigation proposition
in this study.
In each of the case companies’ data collection included interviews
with managers and head of departments that have been using a
product configurator. The form of the interviews was semi- 3.3 Discussion
structured, to ensure that the relevant data were collected and to
allow for some discussions regarding future directions and The benefits identified in the case studies are aligned to the
initiatives towards a CLM solution. All managers were asked the findings from the literature. On a high level it can be concluded
same set of questions to provide information regarding the use of that all the benefits can be grouped under the three categories
configurators, the lifecycle phases they cover, and the realized suggested in the literature; time, quality and cost [17]. This
benefits they have been experiencing or measuring. The benefits conclusion can be used for assigning key performance indicators
were predefined, based on the results of the literature review. To (KPIs) to monitor and measure the performance of different factors
ensure the validity of the results, two persons from each company that have a direct impact on these three categories. The KPIs
we interviewed separately. should both cover the lifecycle management aspects of the
During the interviews, the different maturity dimensions were configurable products and the configuration process itself (detailed
discussed. Since this is an exploratory study, the focus was given examples of KPIs can be found at [33]). By providing quantitative
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Table 3. Realized benefits per case company
Benefits Company A B C D E F G
Maturity (L=Low, M=Medium) L L L L M M M
Sales Improve quality - Reduction of number of errors X X X X X
Improved technology management X X
Increase productivity X X X
Increased sales X
Improve competitiveness X
Reduction in printing costs and distribution of catalogues X
Improve process efficiency X X
Reduce cost of IT systems and maintenance X X X
Improve functionality of integrated IT systems X
Reduction of complexity X
Reduced quotation time X X X X X
Improve accuracy of quotation X X
Support different market/regions/language/currencies X X
Improve guided-selling X X
Increased customer orders X
Improved dealer management X
Increase number of quotes through dealers
Improved ordering process and customer self-service X X
Improved validity of configuration data X
Engineering Improve efficiency and scalability of product modeling X
Bill of material validation X X
Component optimization X
Improve quality - Reduction of number of errors X X X
Improved technology management X X
Increase productivity X X
Increased sales X
Improve competitiveness X
Reduction in printing costs and distribution of catalogues X
Improve process efficiency X
Reduce cost of IT systems and maintenance X X X
Improve functionality of integrated IT systems
Reduction of complexity X
Reduced quotation time X
No. of benefits per case 5 3 3 3 9 15 18