Configuration Management—Why

Asset Management Can’t Do Without It

Greg Wilcock and Peter Knights

Abstract A clear understanding of the design status, the effect of any design
change, and the performance of systems, equipment and facilities, is essential for
effective asset management. Configuration Management (CM) provides a sound
engineering framework for design identification, design change control, data
management, and the audit of the safety status and performance of systems,
equipment and facilities to assure their ongoing performance and safe operation. In
this paper, the major elements of CM are explained. How a CM system can meet a
number of the key requirements for asset management is also discussed. Two
apparently disparate examples of the use of CM are provided: the first showing how
CM can provide necessary data to assure safe and effective operation of military
aircraft ejection seat systems, whilst the second outlines the industry requirements
for the adoption of CM for the management of mine tailings dams. Properly
implemented within an operation’s asset management system, adherence to CM can
mitigate many of the risks associated with managing complex and safety critical
systems (SCS) and provides a sound basis for business decisions that can assure
capability. CM should be considered as an enabler for, and an integral part of, any
operation’s asset management system.

1 Introduction

Asset management requires ‘effective control and governance of assets … to realize

value’ from balancing ‘cost, risk and performance’ [6]. There are a number of
recent cases where a lack of effective asset management of engineering systems,
equipment and/or facilities has resulted in catastrophic outcomes and significant

G. Wilcock (&)
P. Knights

Department of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia
e-mail: gregw09@sent.com
P. Knights
e-mail: p.knights@uq.edu.au

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 705

J. Mathew et al. (eds.), Asset Intelligence through Integration and Interoperability
and Contemporary Vibration Engineering Technologies, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95711-1_69
706 G. Wilcock and P. Knights

financial consequences. Examples include the recent Samarco tailings dam collapse,
which resulted in 19 deaths and led to an immediate settlement of $US6 billion, and
the recent $US9 billion recall of Takata car impact bag inflators [2, 10].
Conversely, an engineering management system that can provide effective design
control, data management and performance reporting, particularly of complex and
safety critical systems (SCS), can be a key enabler for effective asset management
ensuring the maintenance of asset value.
One engineering approach to ensure design control, provide effective data
management, and provide data to characterise performance, is to adopt a rigorous
Configuration Management (CM) system that includes, among other aspects, audit
or surveillance programs whose results provide necessary data to management
teams of ongoing safety and performance.
The adoption of CM is particularly useful where systems, equipment and/or
facilities are expected to have life spans of greater than 25 years. In order to
maintain asset value, improve productivity and reduce life cycle costs, these sys-
tems, equipment and facilities are often subject to design modification, changes to
maintenance plans, and/or operating conditions. Where this occurs CM provides a
rigorous system to incorporate and maintain these design changes efficiently,
effectively, safely and with minimal risk.

2 Scope

This paper provides background on CM and discusses the advantages of CM in

supporting the effective control, operation and governance of assets. Specifically,
this paper:
• provides a background to, and explains the elements of, CM;
• provides a discussion of how CM can achieve a number of the objectives of
asset management;
• provides a case study on the approaches to the analysis of, and benefits gained
from using, performance data generated from a CM-based audit program of
military aircraft ejection seat system components;
• discusses the use of CM in managing the ongoing safety of mine tailings dams;
and
• lists advantages for the adoption of CM within an asset management framework.

3 CM Background

Configuration Management assists with the establishment and maintenance of the

technical integrity of systems, equipment and facilities and is typically part of an
organisation’s engineering and asset management system. CM was developed by,
Configuration Management—Why Asset Management … 707

and adopted within, the aerospace industry and the US Department of Defense in
the late 1960s and 1970s to, in general terms, improve system availability and
reliability, assure design safety, and assist in monitoring and maintaining system
performance over a system’s life. Since that time CM has been widely adopted, in
addition to the aerospace industry, by the automotive, large infrastructure con-
struction and Information Technology (IT) industries. CM is detailed in the current
international industry standards ANSI/EIA-649B and ISO 10007:2017 [7].
CM has been implemented within complex multi-million dollar facilities and
projects in disparate industries by organisations such as Airbus, the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and the £14.8 billion London Crossrail
underground rail project [9]. CM is also seen as an essential tool to address project
issues where un-checked changes in one sub-system can have significant conse-
quences for other sub-systems [5]. Similarly, CM is increasingly finding more
generic applications in project and operations management and is also now being
recognised as an essential part of an engineering management system [3, 8]. It is
also widely recognised that CM plays a vital part in system, equipment and facility
life cycles to provide visibility and control on levels of performance and status [1].

4 Configuration Management

CM can be considered as a technical discipline applied to manage the evolving

design of systems, equipment and facilities over their life and, in general terms, can
include associated software, support and test equipment, and documentation.
Importantly, the scope of CM covers management activities applying to ‘tech-
nical and administrative direction over the life cycle of a product and service’ and
‘its configuration identification and status’. Consequently, CM can be used to ‘meet
the product and serviceability identification and traceability requirements specified
in other international standards’, such as that for asset management [7].
In general terms, CM is made up of the following four elements:
1. identifying and recording the physical and functional characteristics of items,
including large scale equipment, systems and facilities (known as configuration
identification);
2. controlling design changes to those items, usually within an engineering design
change management system (known as configuration control);
3. recording the status of the configuration of those items, including documentation
and data that describes those items (known as configuration status accounting);
and
4. regularly auditing and verifying physical characteristics against design docu-
ments, and the functional performance of the item against identified design
baselines and the relevant specification (known as configuration verification and
audit). This activity is also known as surveillance.
708 G. Wilcock and P. Knights

In addition to those CM elements listed above, a CM system would also typi-

cally identify:
• build standards for items that reflect authorised design configurations;
• authorised design change processes, including requirements for the review of
the original item specification and methods for verifying and validating the
design change;
• personnel authorised to develop, approve and accept design changes; and
• processes and responsibilities for the review of approved design changes before
implementation into the operations, requiring the consideration of logistic
support requirements and effects on other areas of the asset being managed. This
wider view of an entire asset operation is central to mitigating risk associated
with changes in one system having significant effects on other, apparently
unrelated, systems.

5 CM within Asset Management

ISO 55000:2014 [6] recognises that supporting systems may be required to meet
organisational objectives. For example, the standard states that asset management is
data intensive and ‘new tools are often necessary to collect, assemble, manage,
analyse and use asset data’. Additionally, the standard states that ‘…the use of these
tools can…improve organisational knowledge and decision making’. That is, ISO
55001:2014 [6] allows the option for organisations to use other tools to meet asset
management objectives. Given that an organisation should be implanting ‘planning,
control…and monitoring activities to exploit opportunities and reduce risks to an
acceptable level’ the opportunity exists to identify systems that provide those
activities. CM is one such system.
Table 1 shows the major areas in which CM can meet the requirements of an
asset management system applied in accordance ISO 55001:2014 [6].
Table 1 shows that CM satisfies part of the solution for an asset management
system. That is, if ISO 55001 specifies ‘what’ needs to occur for effective asset
management, then CM can be considered as specifying ‘how’ a management
activity occurs. Table 1 is not meant to be an exhaustive compliance checklist but
rather provides an indication of the suitability of CM to meet key asset management
requirements. Of course, ISO 10007:2017 [7] can only meet that part of any
individual asset management requirement to the extent of the scope of the CM
system. Obviously, other complementary systems and processes will need to be
identified and implemented to satisfy all asset management requirements.
CM is a well-developed engineering management philosophy and can be seen
as, at a minimum, complementary to an asset management system and, more likely,
an integral component of, though subordinate to, an organisation’s asset manage-
ment system. For example, the CM system’s Configuration Management Plan
(CMP), which details how CM is to occur within an organisation, could be a
Configuration Management—Why Asset Management … 709

Table 1 ISO 10007 compliance against ISO 55001 requirements

ISO 55001 requirementa ISO 10007 complianceb
4.3 Determining the scope of the asset 5.2 Configuration management planning. The
management systems CMPc includes the scope of systems/equipment/
facilities to be included for configuration
management
4.4 Asset management system 5.2 Configuration management planning. A CMP
is developed and implemented that supports the
asset management objectives
5.3 Organizational roles, responsibilities 5.2 Configuration management planning.
and authorities The CMP identifies and appoints personnel to
leadership positions with engineering and
logistics authorities
4. Configuration management responsibility. The
organization identifies, describes and assigns
responsibilities and authorities (including for the
logistic implications of any design change),
including accountability, related to the CM
process
6.2 Asset management objectives and 5.2 Configuration management planning.
planning to achieve them (6.2.1 and 6.2.2) The CMP details technical, regulatory and
organizational requirements consistent with asset
management objectives. Additionally, the CMP
documents method and criteria for decision
making for development, approval and
incorporation of design changesd
7.2 Competence 5.2 Configuration management planning.
The CMP details competency requirements for
all staff involved in CM activities
7.6.3 Control of documented information 5.5.2 Documented information (configuration
status accounting). A CM system provides
necessary documentation control (including
change control), storage and retrieval
8.2 Management of change 5.4 Change control. This includes a process for
managing design changes including evaluating
design change proposals the incorporation of
changes and implementation and verification of
changes
9.1 Monitoring, measurement, analysis 5.6 Configuration verification and audit
and evaluation
Notes
a
A number of the requirements of each of these sections may be applicable to CM. For simplicity,
only the high level requirement has been listed
b
This compliance may be met by either the 10007 requirement or is typically included in a
configuration management plan under that general heading
c
Configuration management plan
d
These terms have special meaning in a design change management system and would be defined
in the relevant CMP
710 G. Wilcock and P. Knights

component of the asset management system’s strategic asset management plan

(SAMP). Consequently, CM can be seen as an enabler for those aspects of an asset
management system dealing with configuration identification, design change con-
trol, data management and system/equipment/facility performance.

6 Application of CM in the Analysis of Military Ejection

Seat System Components

As an example of how CM can be implemented into a complex asset management

system, data from a CM system covering a military jet aircraft’s ejection seat
system was considered. The performance of a number of energetic components
(such as propellants) fitted to the system were monitored and analysed within a
CM-based surveillance (or functional configuration audit) plan. That is, the func-
tional performance of the component was measured against identified design
baselines and the relevant specification. The analysis was to establish, amongst
other requirements, the effects of age and operating temperature on component
reliability. Based on this data, key asset management decisions, such as expected
life and likely reliability, could be taken to ensure that the safety and capability of
the system could be both assured, and managed cost effectively, over an extended
period.
A number of Critical Performance Parameters (CPP), based on a component’s
Function and Performance Specification (FPS), were identified, whose trend in
operation would provide data on which to assess the component’s ongoing ser-
viceability and, subsequently, on which larger asset management decisions could be
made. Based on these surveillance results Fig. 1 shows the performance of one
component as a function of total age. The horizontal lines are the upper and lower
specification limits.

Maximum Pressure (psig) Total Age (All Temps)

Maximum Pressure (psig)

y = -0.8401x + 3245.6

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Total Age (mths)

Fig. 1 Maximum pressure versus total age (all temps)

Configuration Management—Why Asset Management … 711

Whilst the trend in Fig. 1 suggests some dependence of the functional failures on
the total age of the component, a Weibull function was subsequently fitted to the
failure data to determine the extent of the dependence. The extent of this depen-
dence then informs the asset managers on the need to, or otherwise, replace
components, which has an asset cost associated with additional spare parts and
maintenance to replace those items (in this case removing the ejection seat from the
aircraft, over the entire fleet) and the commensurate loss of capability due to
unavailability (which may or may not also have a financial value). The results at
Fig. 2 suggest a clear dependence on total age (R2 = 0.958) of the likelihood of the
component operating outside specification limits.
To establish the effect of temperature on performance (as compared to age) a
proportional hazards model (PHM) was developed using a two parameter Weibull
function, given that the source data recorded two variables (time (t) (or age of
component), and test temperature (T)). In this case the hazard rate is given by:
 
b t  t0 b1 aT
hðt; T Þ ¼ e ð1Þ
g g

and it can be shown that the Failure Function can now be given by:
 
1
ln ln ¼ b lnðt  t0 Þ  b ln g þ aT ð2Þ
1  F ðt; T Þ

where a will indicate the effect of temperature on likely specification failure (and
and are the Weibull shape and scale factors). Solving this equation (via a multiple
regression giving an R2 value of 0.96, indicating good correlation) confirms that age
is a significant contributing cause of component failure, whilst operating temper-
ature (a = −0.0004) has negligible effect on failure (at any component age).
These conclusions then inform the requirements for asset management activities
such as determining optimum maintenance intervals for component replacement
and the (potentially expensive) requirement for restricting exposure of the

2 ScaƩer Plot - Total Age

1
0
Ln(Ln(1/(1-F(t)))

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6 y = 3.5623x - 16.865
R² = 0.9581
-7
Ln(t-t0)

Fig. 2 Scatter plot of failure function

712 G. Wilcock and P. Knights

component to temperature variations over its life. Importantly, this data also pro-
vides the basis for quantifying the risk associated with current maintenance inter-
vals or the risk that would be accepted should there be a requirement, for example,
to temporarily extend a maintenance interval for logistics or operational reasons.
Consequently, in this example, the use of surveillance/audit program within a
CM system allows an asset manager to:
• quantify the risk with the use of extant life;
• quantify the risk associated with any maintenance interval extension;
• optimise asset management activities and costs around temperature control of
components; and
• reduce acquisition costs of replacement lifed components within such systems
by accurately determining the component’s life.
This example of the use of CM in an ejection seat system to achieve positive
asset management outcomes achieves many of the benefits listed in ISO
55000:2014 [6] (Section 2.2) including improved financial performance, managed
risk, and improved efficiency and effectiveness.
In summary, and for this example, the detailed analysis of data from a CM
system can provide necessary assurance of ongoing asset capability, reduce asset
management costs, and quantify risk associated with continued component
operation.

7 Application of CM in the Management of Mine Tailings

Dams

The Fundão dam was a tailings dam constructed as part of the Germano iron ore
mine and operated by Samarco Mineracão SA, a joint venture between BHP
Billiton and the Brazilian mining company Vale SA. The tailings dam collapsed in
November 2015, resulting in the discharge of iron ore tailings and the deaths of 19
people. The incident is colloquially known as the Samarco dam collapse. As of May
2017 the circumstances of the Samarco collapse are still before the courts and,
consequently, only limited comment can be made on likely causes of the dam
collapse.
However, following this tailings dam collapse and a tailings dam collapse at the
Mount Polley copper and gold mine in British Columbia, Canada in August 2014,
the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) released a report
reviewing the management of tailings dams based on the Samarco, Mount Polley
and Los Frailes (1998) collapses. The ICMM report provided recommendations for
improvement of the management of tailings dams [4]. Those recommendations
included, inter alia, the adoption of a ‘formal change management process’ and
‘independent review (of designs) by suitably qualified and experienced profes-
sionals’. Additionally, the report recommended that an assurance program be
Configuration Management—Why Asset Management … 713

established ‘that provides…for the frequency and scope of various levels of

inspections, audits and reviews’. Whilst not using the term configuration man-
agement, these recommendations are for the establishment of processes that are key
components of any CM system (ISO 10007:2017 [7] Section 5.4 Change Control)
to manage or mitigate risk, and to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Consequently, and based on of the recommendations of the ICMM report, the
adherence to the principles of CM may have significantly reduced the effects, or
potentially eliminated the cause, of this incident and the Mount Polley tailings dam
collapse. That is, CM can also be considered as a risk mitigator or, alternatively, an
incident prevention tool, not unlike business quality systems though with an even
more direct effect on engineering operations. Of course, as with any risk mitigation
tool, it is difficult to quantify the direct financial benefit of CM implementation
since the incidents no longer occur and associated financial costs are not incurred.
Irrespective, and given the costs associated with incidents such as the Samarco
dam collapse, CM can be seen, and has effectively been recognised as such by the
ICMM, as an essential tool, in this case in the mining industry, in reducing oper-
ation risks and the larger parent business risks to levels which are considered to be
acceptably low.
The recognition of the need for CM activities by the ICMM for mine tailings
dam management shows how the application of CM as part of a dam asset man-
agement system can be used to manage risk, demonstrate compliance, and improve
efficiency and effectiveness.

8 Advantages of Adopting CM for Asset Management

The adoption of CM principles to support any asset management system provides a

number of significant advantages. Importantly, those advantages are consistent with
the identified benefits of asset management as promulgated in ISO 55000:2014 [6].
That is, CM can be seen as an enabler for positive asset management outcomes. The
advantages of using CM are:
• a clear understanding of the physical and functional characteristics of systems,
equipment and facilities, including their current performance against the original
function and performance specification;
• assurance that the engineering aspects of design changes have been approved by
appropriately trained, qualified, experienced, and authorised personnel;
• assurance that logistics implications of design changes, before implementation,
have been approved by appropriately experienced and authorised personnel who
have adequately considered the effects on through-life support and other,
apparently unrelated, systems;
• a single data repository containing all data that describes all systems, equipment
and facilities subject to CM used at an operation. This includes records of design
714 G. Wilcock and P. Knights

changes, performance data, CM surveillance and results, and engineering

drawings and specifications;
• a rigorous surveillance or audit program that constantly monitors the design
safety and performance status of all CM-identified systems, equipment and
facilities. The outcome of these surveillance programs provide assurance of
ongoing safe operation and is the basis for:
– effective and efficient system, equipment or facility management;
– quantifying and mitigating risk using data analysis techniques;
– reporting performance and configuration metrics, a number of which may not
linked directly to business outputs but do provide confidence of ongoing
safety of equipment and facilities; and
– documented configuration and performance levels that provide a legal basis
to protect an operation from suppliers whose equipment or services may not
be meeting contracted of levels of performance, as well as demonstrating
on-going compliance to statutory and regulatory requirements, including
company policies (such as ISO 9000 compliance).

9 Conclusion

Configuration Management provides a readily developed engineering management

philosophy and system to support the asset management of systems, equipment and
facilities. Specifically, CM provides a system of design identification, design
change control and data management, as well as a sound engineering framework
through surveillance and audit for determining the safety status and performance of
systems, equipment and facilities. An example using the analysis of surveillance
data from ejection seat system components shows that adherence to the principles
of CM can provide necessary data to assure safe and effective operation of com-
ponents, and quantify risk associated with ongoing operation. In the case of mine
tailings dams, the implementation of the principles of CM have been identified as
essential in mitigating risks associated with the continued operation of these types
of facilities.
A well-developed CM system can meet a number of the key requirements for
asset management and CM can be seen as an integral component of an organisa-
tion’s asset management system. That is, if ISO 55001 specifies ‘what’ needs to
occur for effective asset management, then CM can be considered as specifying
‘how’ a management activity occurs. Successfully implemented, CM can mitigate
many of the operational risks, and the larger parent business risks, of the operation
of any system, equipment or facility, to levels which can be considered acceptably
low.
CM should be considered as a key enabler for, and an integral part of, any
operation’s asset management system.
Configuration Management—Why Asset Management … 715

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