What is product configuration management?

Product configuration management is used to manage products and system configurations throughout their lifecycles, and to share this data across functions and departments through well-governed, best-practice workflows.

This enables multidiscipline engineering teams to collaborate with one dataset for all variants, plan product families, and manage options, choices, and assignments to product structure. The bill of materials (BOMs) of product variants can then be delivered to manufacturing and service to ensure the right products are being made, delivered, and maintained as intended.

What are the benefits of product configuration management?

For companies dealing with complex products and a platform or variant-based go-to-market strategy, product configuration management drives better product development alignment, efficiency, and coordination across engineering, manufacturing, and service.

Implementing a connected digital thread with a robust product configuration management solution provides early visibility to change for all product stakeholders, better quality, more reliable compliance, and efficient concurrent manufacturing.

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Better Design Reuse
Engineers can reduce duplicative work, minimize product portfolio complexity, and accelerate product delivery by leveraging options and choices, as well as parts classification for design reuse.
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Governance and Traceability
Reduce risk and efficiently manage like products all under one overloaded structure. Track quality, compliance, and make changes across a family of product configurations more easily.
pcmcb-icons-better-design-reuse
Better Design Reuse
Engineers can reduce duplicative work, minimize product portfolio complexity, and accelerate product delivery by leveraging options and choices, as well as parts classification for design reuse.
pcmcb-icons-governance-traceability
Governance and Traceability
Reduce risk and efficiently manage like products all under one overloaded structure. Track quality, compliance, and make changes across a family of product configurations more easily.

Knowledge-based configuration case studies

Learn how industry leaders are using PLM for product configuration management.

Vestas: Offering configurable wind turbines

Hear how Vestas, a wind energy solutions leader, leverages PLM to effectively design, manufacture, and service highly customized and configured wind turbines.

Watch the Vestas Video

Groupe Beneteau: Streamlining product development

Learn how Groupe Beneteau leverages Windchill to manage their product customizations and configurations to help streamline product development.

Explore Groupe Beneteau

Polaris: Driving a connected enterprise with the digital thread

Learn how the powersports leader addresses the complexity of all its product options and variants with Windchill.

Explore Polaris

Volvo CE: Engineering for choice

Discover how Volvo Construction Equipment manages product configurations and complexity with concurrent design and manufacturing by first establishing a common product architecture.

Volvo CE: Engineering for choice
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Learn more about Windchill, PTC’s PLM configuration management solution

Realize value quickly with standardized, out-of-the-box functionality. Leverage BOM management and configuration management capabilities using a single source of data with real-time information sharing.

Explore Windchill

Product configuration management: FAQs


  • What is PLM quality management?

    Quality management is a key PLM process that ensures quality is designed into every product and process across the enterprise, including external partners. Quality management provides automated failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), enables closed-loop corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) and accurate root cause analysis (RCA) to accelerate identification, containment, and analysis of issues and tracking of affected items. Quality management is required to achieve compliance with regulatory requirements and quality standards in most industries. Configuration management goes hand in hand with quality management when it comes to improving the quality of complex products. By effectively managing and collaborating around a product’s parts and configurations with accurate data, there is less risk for errors, scrap, and rework.


  • What are the challenges of managing configurations?

    There are multiple challenges to managing configurations:
    Lack of Alignment—Requiring manual, paper signoffs 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—Drives duplicate work and slows down time to market
    Lack of Governance—There’s no traceability of changes to a product’s configurations throughout its lifecycle

  • What is product variant management?

    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.

Related resources

Digital Transformation Infographic
E-book

BOM: A Foundation for PLM Best Practices

Learn how a part-centric BOM is key to addressing configuration management challenges.
Digital Twin EBook
Analyst E-book

The Seven Building Blocks of the Digital Thread

Industry analyst Tech-Clarity shares how configuration management is critical to the creation of a successful digital thread.
PLM Handbook
Tips and tricks video

Taking Your Modular Platforms to the Next Level With Dynamic Positioning

Explore how modular platforms, the next step beyond basic configuration management, speed up valuable time in engineering and manufacturing.

Ready to connect?

Windchill, PTC’s product lifecycle management solution, gives stakeholders throughout your organization easy access to product data, helping to break down organizational silos.

Offering the performance and scale needed to manage large data sets along with easy integration to the ThingWorx IoT platform, Windchill taps into your smart, connected products in the field. Plus, with subscription pricing, you only pay for what you need.

Ready to find out what Windchill can do for you? Reach out today and a Windchill expert will be in touch.



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