The document provides a basic introduction to Product Data Management (PDM) and Configuration Management (CM) for people working in the Engineering Analysis arena. It describes how the integration of all these areas could bring business benefits.

Configuration management is the process for establishing and maintaining the consistency of a product’s physical and functional attributes with its design and operational information throughout its life, using disciplined change management. PDM systems are software applications that embody many CM concepts to enable users to manage product information and its configuration.

Many companies are gaining benefits from implementing PDM systems to support Configuration Management and some are extending these implementations to hold and integrate their design data and processes with that of Engineering Analysis. This work is hampered by the lack of standards for the data and interfaces for these systems. The document outlines some of the standardisation work that is being carried out internationally.

For the reader, who wishes to implement some of the concepts described, the document outlines the areas the reader can explore and it provides references to enable the reader to obtain more detailed information about the subjects.

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