Of course, I'm old. Most of my contemporaries that I respected as fellow business and quality consultants are dead. One that I respected the most, Akio Miura, of Tokyo, fought the good fight almost to his dying breath. Akio was the first (and one of the few) non-Americans to earn and hold EVERY ASQ quality certification.
One thing Akio and I often commiserated over was the seeming futility of leading ignorant people to the drinking water fountain, showing them how it worked, and then watching them die of dehydration because they didn't have someone else to work the fountain for them.
HERE'S THE DEAL:
Configuration management has only one goal: do not use obsolete rules or tools to do current things.
Individuals and organizations may be able to task only one competent person with the power and authority or it may need a whole team to keep track of design or process changes and the ramifications each change has downstream and upstream.
It seems obvious from subsequent posts that OP did not follow the clue and read any of my previous postings on CM.
Let me push the button on the fountain:
The basis of Configuration Management is to do the following, more or less simultaneously:
- go through a formal process of revision and approval when you change any aspect of the part or document
- make a determination about the compatibility of the changed part or document with all the other Associated Documents (a specific term)
- determine if any of the Associated Documents must be revised to be compatible in form, fit, or function with the original changed document
- notify all parties who may be concerned about the change and get acknowledgment that change is implemented and obsolete documents or processes are withdrawn
- monitor the process to ensure all the changes work together
That may seem overly complicated. Let's explore a very simple change and see how the steps above would fit in.
One of my favorite examples I frequently use (to carry a premise of saving on assembly cost) is switching from Phillips Head fasteners to Torx drive or square drive fasteners for more efficient assembly. (Form and Fit of thread profile and length are the same, fastener Function remains - service personnel may need notice to add Torx driver to kit, but can replace with current stock of Phillips head)
On the surface, this is a simple change, but consider:
- organization needs to make a formal document change on the part, checking and approving the change.
- We check the compatibility with the mating parts, but we also have to
- change work instruction, assembly tools, inventory (use up old inventory first?), purchasing (same or different supplier? same or different price?), repair instructions sent to field personnel, pricing on the final product, advertising, etc.
- notify all parties - quality inspectors, assembly workers, quality inspectors at customer, suppliers, inventory clerks, repair stations, decide whether repair stations can continue to repair with Phillips head in inventory or must implement new Torx, decide whether recall is necessary to change out old parts,
- continue to monitor how all parties adapt to and implement change and decide whether further modification of any of the steps is necessary
- All of us go through these steps consciously or unconsciously. The key is to do the steps purposefully and consistently and to record the steps as they are completed to assure optimum efficiency. (It would be foolish to scrap or sell off all the old Phillips head fasteners and order in all new Torx ones, only to discover no one had thought to order new Torx drivers.)