Engineering Documentation Control/Configuration Management Standards Manual

Engineering Documentation Control — sometimes called Configuration Management or Product Lifecycle Management — is a key ingredient to world-class product manufacturing.

In order to achieve best-in-class CM it is necessary to document what you do, do what you document and, preferably, continuously improve what you do. With this manual, companies can bridge the gap between engineering and manufacturing. While there are many commercial, military and agency standards, this manual is directed at how to achieve best-in-class processes which are “make sense,” fast, accurate, efficient, effective, measured and well understood.

With this manual, you have the best of the best management practices for the configuration management processes. They also go a long way toward satisfying Total Quality Management, FDA, GMP, Lean CM and ISO/QS/AS 9XXX process documentation requirements. The one requirement common to all those standards is to document the processes and to do what you document.

Frank Watts graduated in engineering from the University of Illinois engineering and has more than 48 years of industrial and consultation experience. He is an NDIA Certified Configuration and Data Manager. He founded his own company to specialize in configuration management and has presented seminars on the subject to over 4,000 product manufacturing people. He is the author of the best-selling Engineering Documentation Control Handbook which is now in its 4^th edition.

Frank has guided the development of the engineering change control process at many companies and made significant contributions toward improving the new product release process, installed ERP systems, new numbering systems, helped companies attain a single BOM database and guided reengineering of the CM processes. His industrial experience includes Caterpillar, Collins Radio, Control Data, Storage Technology, UFE and Archive.