Configuration Management. A Wikipedia definiton

Configuration Management is the process used to maintain an understanding of the most up to date status of complex assets with a view to maintaining the highest level of serviceability for the lowest cost. Specifically it aims to ensure that operations are not disrupted due to the asset, or parts of the asset overrunning limits of planned lifespan or below quality levels.

Understanding the “as is” state of an asset and its major components is an essential element in preventative maintenance as used in maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) and enterprise asset management (EAM) systems.

Complex assets such as aircraft, ships, industrial machinery etc. depend on many different components being serviceable. This serviceability is often defined in terms of the amount of usage the component has had since it was new, since fitted, since repaired, the amount of use it has had over its life and several other limiting factors. Understanding how near the end of their life each of these components has been a major undertaking involving labor intensive record keeping until recent developments in software.

Many types of component use electronic sensors to capture data which provides live condition monitoring. This data is analyzed on board or at a remote location by computer to evaluate its current serviceability and increasingly its likely future state using algorithms which predict potential future failures based on previous examples of failure through field experience and modeling. This is the basis for “predictive maintenance”.


Availability of accurate and timely data is essential in order for CM to provide operational value and a lack of this can often be a limiting factor. Capturing and disseminating the operating data to the various support organizations is becoming an industry in itself.

The consumers of this data have grown more numerous and complex with the growth of programs offered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as the TotalCare program developed by Rolls Royce aero engines. These are designed to offer operators guaranteed availability and make the picture more complex with the operator managing the asset but the OEM taking on the liability to ensure its serviceability. This has created a situation where individual components within an asset may communicate directly to an analysis center provided by the OEM or an independent analyst.