Traceability and configuration lifecycle management (CLM) are major challenges for companies in manufacturing industry. They are not only important when it comes to meeting legal requirements but also for getting to grips with increasingly complex development projects. If they do not know the current status of the development steps and the maturity of and dependencies between the deliverables, the people involved in development often have to spend a great deal of time and effort on coordination or laborious fact-finding before they can make informed statements about the progress of a project, assess the impact of changes and implement changes efficiently. This can have a significant negative impact on efficiency. The traceability of the relationships between data from the operating phase (digital twin) through to valid configurations of the associated digital models (digital master) is also a prerequisite for making it possible to locate the source of errors (defects) in systems correctly and identify their cause faster.

In general, ensuring traceability and CLM involves a considerable amount of time and effort for collecting and linking data, which in practice is distributed across numerous different data silos. This is why holistic solutions and platforms from individual providers do not fulfill requirements relating to traceability. OpenCLM bridges the heterogeneity of the IT system landscapes (ALM, PDM, ERP, etc.) with the help of OpenPDM connectors and also provides components for integrating process, project, task, maturity, configuration, change and release management.

The extensible data model maps the most important industry-specific standards and maturity models and provides the basis for creating reusable process and project templates. The latter ensure consistent, traceable project and product documentation that complies with standards such as DIN ISO 10006, ISO 9001 / IATF 16949, ISO 13485, (Automotive) SPICE, ISO 26262, ISO 10007, ISO 15288, EN 9100.

OpenCLM displays the data, which is linked from different sources, with metadata such as status, change date, owner, etc. in a clear and concise cockpit, so that it can be easily compared with or linked to other data statuses. Baselines, i.e. views of the data statuses that are valid at a given time together with the link information, can be generated at certain points in the product development process. If necessary, these baselines can be exported, exchanged or archived in standardized formats such as 3D PDF or STEP.

OpenCLM also coordinates distributed and cross-domain changes. A distributed change process can trigger subordinate, domain-specific change processes or, if these already exist, it can be linked to them. If the change process refers to a baseline, the solution also makes it easier to define the scope of the change and provides support for impact analysis. The range of functions that OpenCLM offers not only provides companies with support for certification and audits, but also for planning and controlling complex, distributed development projects, validating maturity or improving product quality and error management.

Further information about OpenCLM
you can find under
openclm.prostep.com