Managing Change with Configuration Management

Craig A. Stevens and &Ten Wright

Forchangetobeeflective, it must becontrolled. 7hisarticleeqlainshow a configuration management (CM> system can help otganizations make sure that any changes introduced into itspmeses do not have any negative consequences. Indeed, a good CMprogram can help a company maintain product quality and boostproductivity.

What a nightmare: Your company is going bankrupt and your job is finished. Worse still, you are being held personally responsible for a release of toxic gases that injured six employees, people whom you have worked with for years. They would never support their families again. Everything you had been working for was hanging in the balance.

What happened? How could things turn around so fast? Just last week you got a bonus for having the highest productivity rating in the company’s history. The new Total Quality Management (TQM) program was getting into gear, and your people were starting to shine.

That was before the big accident. A shortcut, that’s all it was. You saved the company big bucks. It was logical. After all, you are the expert, and all those expensive tests and reviews were just slowing things down. . . .

As the world market grows more competitive, the U.S. domestic market is saturated with potential litigation. To survive, a company must improve and maintain the quality of its products and services, prevent accidents and failures leading to litigation, and enhance and maintain long-term produc- tivity. A system that leans too heavily on change control may free organizations from litigation, but it also will stifle progress. A company without change control can go bankrupt-or worse. In a potentially dangerous environment, the key to appropriate change control is a well- organized configuration management system.

WHAT IS CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT? CM ensures that changes affecting the physical characteristics of

specific critical systems are identified, controlled, approved, and docu- mented over the life of the systems. In short, CM provides checks and balances to keep things running and, at the same time, maintain quality and prevent oversight.

The term configuration refers to the arrangement of parts of a physical system. The configuration of a production line in a manufacturing plant is the machines, equipment, and systems used, along with the position and

Craig A. Stmenr is a syrtenrs/ hdwt-ial engineer and h r e n Wtight ira technical editorat the Oak Ridge offue of Science Appli- cations International Corporation (SAIC), a high-technology con- Szrltingfinn.

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CM ensures that proper thought is given to long-term effects instead of quick fixes.

physical relationships between each of the items. Critical systems are those that are vital to company issues, such as quality, productivity, and safety. By using CM, a company can

Protect long-term productivity Control quality Improve safety Document changes Set a baseline for the actual configuration (record on paper what is

Save design dollars Save capital resources Protect the environment Prevent equipment damage Avoid litigation

in place)

CM has little to do with programs to enhance productivity and almost nothing to do with productivity measurement. It can, however, have a significant effect on the control of the parameters used to ensure productivity. Directly related to the company’s profits, productivity should be continuously fine-tuned-for instance, by physically changing out-of- date equipment and procedures. Some changes that might boost short- term productivity, however, can have disastrous effects on safety and/or long-term productivity. CM ensures that proper thought is given to long- term effects instead of quick fmes.

Productivity-enhancement programs are important, for they help ensure that workers stay employed and benefit from the security and profits of the company. Some productivity enhancements, however, may not be cost effective. Therefore, organizations must seek the highest uffor&6kp&utivity. Once this level is reached, the organization must ensure that it is maintained. CM helps guarantee that changes are not made unless they are approved by the appropriate personnel.

To investigate the relationships between quality and CM, it is important to understand the concept of uppmprlatepdut qualiy. Consumers want the highest quality products they can afford. Although some might argue that a wooden baseball bat is of higher quality than a plastic one, the plastic bat serves a different group of customers and has a different function. For instance, it may be designed so that Junior can’t accidentally knock his little sister’s nose off. Both the wooden and the plastic bat manufacturers must provide appmprlateproduct quality to enhance the consumer’s motivation to buy. Furthermore, a responsible manufacturer must ensure customer safety. Once the appropriate quality standards are established by the company research teams and met by the manufacturer, fluctuations should be discouraged. One way to ensure that quality remains constant is to implement a good CM program. The following examples illustrate what happens in a manufacturing environment when CM is inadequate.

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Managing Cbangc witb Confzguration Management

. . .two.. .problems may remain hidden: a bad inventory control system and a reward system that stresses production rate over qudtY*

WHATHAPPENS WITHOUT CM? To illustrate relationships between CM and some of the benefits we've

considered, three scenarios dealing with inadequate CM programs in manufacturing environments are described here.

Product Design Liability A company that makes safety helmets on a production line has a good

business and good reputation. Its name is well-known and can be seen on a wide variety of products.

problem

Effect:

The line runs out of key parts periodically because of a bad inventory control system. The line supervisor substitutes infe- rior and inappropriate parts to keep the production rate high.

Several customers are injured; the problem is traced back to the helmets. The injured customers file lawsuits and win large settlements. Eventually, the company is reorganized and the helmets are removed from the company's line of products. Several lawsuits are pending.

A good CM program would have preserved the quality of the product by preventing unqualified personnel from replacing the standard parts with inferior ones. Such a change requires review of the long-term effects on customer safety, company reputation, and sales and profits.

Without a good CM program, two other problems may remain hidden: a bad inventory control system and a reward system that stresses production rate over quality. The supervisor became so concerned about the production rate that he substituted inferior parts to maintain produc- tivity. CM would have stopped the production line if the parts were not available and would have forced a review of the causes, not the symptoms.

Rigging Material Flow Equipment A U.S. Department of Defense contractor has several dangerous

processes to manage, one of which deals with chemical reactions. A toxic powder flows through a large pipeline, then an auger feeds the powder into machinery

problem

Effect:

where chemical processes take place.

The powder occasionally clogs the pipeline and the auger, and the maintenance staff is repeatedly called to solve this problem. Frustrated, the maintenance staff shortens the auger and supplies the line workers with a sledgehammer to loosen powder in the pipelines. The plan: Beat on the pipes whenever powder is jammed.

The shortened auger no longer rides the same track. It beats against the inside of the pipeline, and the operators use a sledgehammer to beat on the outside of the pipeline. Eventu-

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Once.. .design specill- cations are known, CM can help ensure that out-of-specifica- tion changes are not made unless reviewed and approved.

ally, the pipe ruptures; the work area, the workers, and plant area are contaminated; and the local T V news team picks up the story.

After several similar problems and a public outcry, the plant eventually is shut down. Hundreds of people lose their jobs, several people lose their health (maybe even their lives), some managers go to jail, and thousands of people are concerned that they may have been exposed to toxic materials.

Using technical advisors to review proposed changes, a good CM program would have easily recognized that the alterations employed required additional design reviews. Short-term productivity might have been slowed in the process, but long-term productivity would have been improved. Once the design specifications are known, CM can help ensure that out-of-specification changes are not made unless reviewed and approved.

Adding Storage Space

additional argon storage space. A large, multifaceted company needs argon gas for its processes and

Problem: To save money, technicians decide to salvage an unused nitrogen tank. Argon is heavier than nitrogen.

Effect: When the tank was installed, it cleared the ground by three and one-half feet and resembled a giant cold capsule. When the tank is filled with argon, it only clears the ground by half a foot and starts to look more like a large football. Concerned but uncertain about what to do, the supervisor decides to fill the tank only halfway. Argon is an inert gas, but a tank rupture could damage equipment and possibly suffocate or otherwise injure people nearby.

What would happen if the supervisor were promoted for saving the company the cost of appropriate storage? The changes were never recorded; will the next supervisor know about the tank's history-r will he consider filling the tank to recover an even greater savings? Could this system for making changes continue and grow because of the rewards for (improper) innovation?

Thousands of changes occur in manufacturing and production plants around the world every day. Many are out of specification and may be ticking like time bombs. CM is the management tool designed to provide a check on these activities.

WHO NEEDS CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT? Every company needs a way to record changes to systems and

documents. Revisions to letters and documents are important even in the smallest of companies. But not every company needs a full-blown CM

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Mintaging Cbangc witb Configwation IUiznagemcnt

... ask yourself, “Ifthe worst-case system failure happened today, what would the effects be?”

system. To analyze your company’s CM requirements, you have to know your company.

For each of the issues listed here, ask yourself, “If the worst-case system failure happened today, what would the effects be?” Circle the number that best describes the anticipated effects to your company:

How would safety be affecCed? 0 No Effect 1 Very Little Effect 2 Some Effect (minor injuries) 3 Great Effect (hospitalization) 4 Critical Effect (death)

To what degree would quality be affected? 0 No Effect 1 Very Little Effect 2 3 4

Some Effect (some loss in sales) Great Effect (cutback in production) Critical Effect (elimination of product line)

How would downtime or productivity be affected? 0 No Effect 1 Very Little Effect 2 3

Some Effect (milestones would slip) Great Effect (missedflost deliverables, lost customers)

4 Critical Effect (layoffs)

How would cost be affected? 0 No Effect 1 Very Little Effect 2 Some Effect (profits affected) 3 Great Effect (expensive layoffs) 4 Critical Effect (bankruptcy)

If you have any fours in your answers, you probably need a full CM program. If you have all zeros, you probably do not need CM at all. If your answers do not exceed a three, CM is required, but a full CM staff may not be necessary. If twos are your highest score, a dedicated CM office may not be required. Scores of one are minor-you may just want to be aware of the CM process.

Such specific environments as product design, manufacturing, facil ity management, computer services, administrative support, and publishing dictate the systems that an organization requires. The CM process must fit these environments and their unique needs. There is no an “Easy Insta-CM” software package that managers can plug in and watch. Smaller companies

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...an organization must identLfy its crlti- cal systems...

require less structure, and larger companies require more. Companies with hazardous processes or facing major quality and productivity issues require more organized effort than those that do not have such concerns.

IMPLEMENTING CM: WHERE TO START Because CM requires so much control over critical systems, top

management support is required to ensure that the proper resources exist and are allocated to the system.

Once top management is on board, building the infrastructure to support CM becomes very important. Information management systems are required to track, collect, and store important documents. Quality assurance programs are important. Numbering systems and archives for drawings must be established. Support personnel should be available to run the systems. Support procedures and policies must be in place, and correct as-built drawings should be required in contracts for work done by contractors or subcontractors. Once the infrastructure is in place, the CM program can be built. The program comprises four configuration practices.

Ickntification Configuration identification (CI) is the set of documents required to

design, build, test, operate, and regulate the systems being controlled. CI is represented by the as-built drawings, technical baselines, operating procedures, and updated reference documents. Therefore, a number of support systems are important to CI.

To identify the configurations that require CM, an organization must identify its critical systems, that is, the systems that are critical to company operations. Selection criteria may be used to specify the systems critical to productivity, quality, cost of operations, employee safety, customer safety, environmental effects/community safety, and company reputation. The types of critical systems related to the criteria may fall into such categories as management systems, procedures, mechanical systems, production processes, safety systems, products, documents, computer systems, and software. One of the first steps is to review all possible critical systems as candidates for configuration control. But organizations must take care in doing so. They can waste a great deal of time and money controlling systems that have been incorrectly identified as critical.

Control Configuration control is the act of controlling changes to the configu-

ration of critical systems. The backbone of the control process is the discipline it takes for a company to guarantee control. The entire CM process requires support-and sometimes enforcement-from top man- agement. The incentives required to maintain control are important. A blatant disregard for control of changes to a critical system should be dealt with swiftly and severely.

A CM system that does not work the first time can be as dangerous as not having a CM program. If the CM program is awkward, too slow, or not

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If decisions are not made at the lowest possible levels, the change control pro- cess tends to become overburden ed...

designed properly, progress may be slowed or stopped. Employees, supervisors, and managers may invent creative ways to get around the CM processes, or they may fight all changes, killing innovation altogether.

Organizations have various tools at their disposal to ensure proper control. These tools can be used to request a change to an existing system or to baseline it-that is, create documents that reflect the actual physical configuration of a system on a specific, referenced date.

Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) record a proposed change to the present configurations. ECPs are also used to baseline the present system if there is reason to believe that the current drawings, documents, and other records do not accurately reflect the configu- ration of the critical systems. In the case of a twenty-year-old company, for example, many changes that have taken place may never have been recorded. This can result in the design of new equipment (costing millions of dollars) based on drawings of configurations that have not existed for years. Construction Change Proposals (CCPs) may be used to record a proposed change to the configuration of a system that is presently being developed or built. Deviations and waivers are change proposals that represent a before- the-fact change (deviation) or an after-the-fact change (waiver) to the specifications of a product. Development or testing phase change proposals may be either ECPs or CCPs that are held open for changes to controlled systems when the details of the proposed change are not known. For example, development ECPs could be held open to propose a change to a specific part of a production line while several different methods are used to fine-tune the productivity of that line.

Change proposal screening is one of the most important parts of the control process. Different classes of changes (segregated for example, by cost or downtime) require different levels of review. If decisions are not made at the lowest possible levels, the change control process tends to become overburdened, requiring too much time for the important changes to take place. Companies should classlfy changes to provide decision making at the lowest process level possible. An example of classifying changes is shown in Figure 1.

There are several parties responsible for screening change proposals, including facility/process supervisors and technical advisors, such as engineers. Facility/process supervisors may be able to make decisions after technical review on Class 3 changes to critical systems. Class 1 and 2 changes may require the review of a control board.

Technical review boards ('I'Rl3s) are made up of the technical or management personnel who are the responsible for the systems being controlled. The TRB reviews all but the lowest classifications of change and

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Example of Classifymg Changes

CLASS COST DOWNTIME OTHER CRITERIA Class 1 >$loOK >14 days Great Class 2 $10K to $100K 1 to 14 days Medium Class 3 <$10K <1 day Low

Audits of the systems being controlled ensure that as-bullt drawings reflect ac- tual configurations, baselines have been updated, and imple- mentation has taken place as approved.

makes the final decision on Class 2 changes. The Configuration Control Board (CCB) reviews only the highest classification of change (Class 1). The owners or people who have most to lose are represented by this board.

Priority classifications (routine, urgent, and emergency) have profound effects on the time required for the review process. An emergency situation may require action before any reviews. A routinely slow review time can lead to excessive downtime or innovative misuse of the CM process.

Status Accounting Configuration status accounting is related to the processes, personnel,

and systems required to track, file, verify, and audit the entire CM program. The group responsible for this task should be set up as soon as possible because it will be running the program.

In large companies, the status accounting aspect often requires a CM ofice that may consist of a CM manager, physical verification teams (PVTs), and administrators. The PVTs verify that the as-built drawing are correct and the critical systems have been baselined. The PVTs may be a part of a matrix organization that permits the members to change, allowing the teams to represent a variety of expertise and experience. Smaller compa- nies could delegate the required responsibilities to other key personnel.

One of the fundamentals of a good CM program is shrewd placement of key CM personnel within the company’s organization, providing them with an acceptable level of authority. The position of CM manager may be a staff position, with access to the highest level of the company. CM under any departmental group (maintenance, engineering, operations, etc.) can and sometimes does become controlled by the politics of that group.

Verification Configuration verification deals directly with the auditing processes.

Audits of CM systems are required to ensure that records, procedures, and time elements are intact and that the regulations are being enforced. Audits of the systems being controlled ensure that as-built drawings reflect actual configurations, baselines have been updated, and implementation has taken place as approved.

HOW DOES IT ALL FIT TOGETHER? The CM manager is directly responsible for the majority of the functions

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4 I

Safety Electrical Mechanical

I I

Figure 2

L - 4

Example of CM process

Check ECP, Record ECP,

Send out, Track

pF""l Change

h c o r d Check, Record, Start Track ~

*@ c

0 Suggestions

related to ensuring that all the CM systems work. Figure 2 shows a typical CM process and several of the groups required to support it. The CM program takes suggested changes through a controlled process of evalu- ation, implementation, and verification. Decision making is carried out at the lowest level possible.

When implemented incorrectly, a CM program can lower innovation, increase short-term downtime, decrease employee participation and satisfaction, raise immediate cost, and encourage personnel to ignore procedures. One possible problem with Ch4 is that creative improvements may be stifled because of the processes required for change control. Negative feedback has caused many a creative mind to wither. Sometimes

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a good idea at an inopportune time can be lost or screened out. Merging CM with other management tools, however, can encourage innovative ideas and help avoid problems.

INNOVATION AND CM The integration of two other management tools with CM can create a

method of checks and balances that will provide a creative competitive edge. Those ideas not directly related to changes required by circumstance could be funneled to a value engineering (VE) team, which uses economic analysis to add value to products, systems, and just about anything being reviewed. As part of the CM organization, the team would investigate suggestions for improvements. Incentive programs could be tied to the suggestions to encourage innovation. The incentives may vary, based on the type of organization, the level of employee participation, and the work environment. The trick is to provide the right incentives for the people involved.

CM, VE, and incentives can be consolidated into a configuration-value management. The key is in the systems integration and in the design of the organizational structure required to provide a free flow of ideas. By doing this, organizations can reduce design cost, encourage innovation, improve competitiveness, increase employee participation and job satisfaction, evaluate ideas, raise value while lowering costs, and improve designs and methods.

Change control is required to ensure quality and long-term productiv- ity, and the key to control is a well-organized CM system. A company’s CM system should be designed so that required changes can be made properly in a timely manner. With a good CM program in place, organizations can foster growth and innovation while avoiding problems that might other- wise lead to costly accidents. Q

The trick is to provide the right Incendves for the people In- volved,

518 National Productivity Review/Autumn 1991