Quick Start Guide for Asset Configuration Manager Models

Configuration Management (CM) is the specification of allowable as-designed asset assemblies ("models") and/or as-maintained physical builds. It can also refer to the process of ensuring that actual asset physical builds meet the requirements of an allowable configuration. Functional builds may also be represented (for example, an "electronic systems only" view of the equipment). For the purposes of this "models" application design, we take the rigorous view that Configuration Management refers only to reference data (that is, the configurations themselves).

The primary entity involved in CM is the model. The model's name is the overall name given to an allowable physical build or family of related physical builds. Once a model is established, the physical build of a model can be specified, variations of a model can be described, and so on.

What is a model and how do you create it?

Maximo Asset Configuration Manager is based on the configuration management of models which can be understood as the most general organization definition of a component hierarchy.

Before creating a model we should create the "CM item".

In Maximo Asset Configuration Manager, the "CM item" is used to refer to a part number instance in the CM Item Master catalog. This CM Item Master catalog is related to the base Maximo Item Master, but these two terms are not the same or interchangeable.

In our example, we create an F-22 model that uses 3 CM items:

• F-22 (Airframe)
• PW100 (PW Engine)
• SG100 (Starter Generator)

Note: The steps provided in this article create the following:

• a model record
• a build item of F-22 to represent the airframe
• a default label for the airframe
• a CM item of F-22 to represent the new model in the CM Item Master catalog

To create a CM item, complete the following steps:

1. Go to -> Asset Configuration Manager -> CM Item Master (CM).
2. Click New CM Item.
3. In the Part field, specify PW-100 or SG-100 (F-22 will be created when you create the F-22 model.).
4. In the Description field, enter a description.
5. Click Save.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 to create all the required CM items.

To create a model, complete the following steps:

1. Go to -> Asset Configuration Manager -> Models (CM).
2. Click New Model.
3. In the Description field, enter a description.
4. Click Save.

What are build items?

A build item is a collection of CM items and labels with the same description that can be associated with the model's build position.

Before adding a build item, we need to know what the labels are for? So, each build item has a list of one or more "labels" associated with it. The list of labels related to a build item is manually maintained by the user on this tab.

Note: You can take the same model that we created on the preceding section of this article, "What is a model and how do you create it?".

To create a build item, complete the following steps:

1. Assuming that we already located a model, click New Row for "Build Items".
2. Assuming that "TURBOFAN" doesn't exist as a valid build item name, in the Build Item field, specify TURBOFAN.
3. In the Label field, specify 000000.
4. In the CM Item field, specify PW100.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 to specify the following:
   Build Item: STARTER GENERATOR
   Label: 000000
   CM Item: SG100
6. Click Save.

Note: Normally the list of build positions is managed as a hierarchy on the Build Hierarchy tab, but this list shows all build positions, including orphans.

What is a build hierarchy?

A build position is a physical position on a model where a component can be installed. For example, the F-22 Raptor's Airframe will have two engine positions (a Left and a Right engine), and each engine will have a starter generator position.

To set the build hierarchy, complete the following steps:

1. In the Models (CM) application, select the Build Hierarchy tab.
2. Select the airframe, and click New Child.
3. In the Build Item field, specify TURBOFAN (or select a value from the lookup).
4. In the Position field, specify L for Left (or select it from the lookup).
5. Click OK.
6. Click Refresh, and the airframe's + (expand) button.
7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 to specify the following:
   Build Item: TURBOFAN
   Position: R
8. To add the starter generators for each engine, complete the following steps for each engine:
   1. Select the engine, and click New Child.
   2. In the Build Item field, specify STARTER GENERATOR (or select a value from the lookup).
   3. Click OK.
9. Click Save.

What are configurations and variations?

A model configuration has 2 components:

1. Variation - a version of the base configuration tailored for a specific design or equipment list, or role/mission.
2. Revision - a linear snapshot of the model's configuration over time.

When a model is first created, the system creates a base variation and a revision 0.
Typically the base variation is not used as an operational configuration, as it represents a superset of all other variations. However, for this example, we will setup the base variation as the (only) valid configuration of the F-22 Raptor model.

To set the configurations/variations, complete the following steps:

1. In the Models (CM) application, select the Configurations tab.
2. Clear the Abstract checkbox for the "F-22 RAPTOR - Base Variation" in the Configuration Node table.
   This means we will be able to use this variation as an operational variation. However the status is still DRAFT.
3. From the Select Action menu, select the Change Variation Status option.
4. In the New Status field, specify ACTIVE and click OK.
5. Click Save.

The base variation should now look like this (that is, not Abstract, and ACTIVE).

Basically, we already have a model.

Authors: Alessandra Lima Aguiar, Software Engineer, IBM; Alexis da Rocha Silva, Advisory Software Engineer, IBM