Change and Configuration Management as a Foundation for a new Digital Enterprise Education

Abstract

The principles of change and configuration management are foundational pillars for the operational excellence of any industrial enterprise, impacting every facet of its processes, technology, and personnel. They provide a method for identifying, analyzing, preparing, implementing, validating, and documenting engineering changes throughout a product’s lifecycle, ensuring everyone in the organization works from the same product record and changes are communicated in real-time. Change and configuration management are core enablers of the digital thread. However, the challenges and complexities of these subjects are generally not considered in current engineering or business curricula. In this paper, we report on the development and delivery of a graduate-level course dedicated to Change and Configuration Management and discuss a vision for a new digital enterprise curriculum. The course was developed in close partnership with industry and discusses the core elements, data structures, stakeholders, and workflows of change management and their role in the product lifecycle. The application of the industry standard CM2 methodology is emphasized as a strategy to provide control, maintain data integrity, and improve visibility and traceability of changes.

Keywords: Change management, configuration management, digital enterprise, digital transformation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005147