Technology Day

Session Title

CLM + PLM: Creating a Reliable Foundation for Digital Threads and Agentic AI

Manufacturers of complex configurable products often invest heavily in PLM to manage engineering intent yet still struggle to translate that intent into what is sold and what is executed. Inconsistent data and product definitions across PLM, ERP, and sales channels create a familiar set of problems: invalid option combinations, late-stage rework, order exceptions, and delivery risk. The core issue is not a lack of data, it is a lack of alignment and validation across the lifecycle, so engineering, operational, and commercial intent drift apart.

In this session, Sigrún Ívarsdóttir, Product Manager at Configit, will explain how combining PLM and CLM closes this gap. Adopting a CLM approach complements PLM by making configuration intelligence explicit, governed, and executable so constraints, dependencies, and allowable choices can be shared and enforced consistently across systems. Sigrún will show how manufacturers can import and extend engineering intent in a shared product configuration model enabling validation of intent before it reaches customers and align downstream outputs with operational realities.

Attendees will learn how this alignment creates a reliable source of product configuration intelligence, because only valid choices are offered and the same validated logic drives what is delivered. This provides an ideal foundation for Digital Configuration Threads, broader Digital Threads and future Agentic AI.

About the Speaker

Sigrún Ívarsdóttir

Sigrún Ívarsdóttir is a Product Manager at Configit, focusing on the company’s core technology and improving product performance through close collaboration with customers and engineers. She holds a Master’s in Engineering Management from the Technical University of Denmark, where she wrote her thesis on configuration systems.

Session Title

Deloitte’s Case Study on Managing Customization Complexity

As products become more individualized many organizations struggle to keep engineering, sales, and operations aligned. In Deloitte’s Product Strategy & Lifecycle Management (PSLM) practice, this challenge appears consistently: complexity grows faster than the structures needed to manage it across the product lifecycle.

In response, companies often launch single digital initiatives to deliver quick wins. While it does that, it frequently exposes deeper issues – fragmented configuration knowledge, disconnected ownership between domains, and limited visibility into the impact of change. These patterns occur across ETO, CTO, and hybrid environments and are often masked by manual workarounds and spreadsheets that compensate for missing digital continuity.

Drawing on a MedTech industry case study, Thomas Kaufmann, Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting, will share real-world insights from a transformation effort focused on product configuration. While the initiative delivered measurable results in Sales, it did not fully unlock the potential of an end-to-end integrated product lifecycle due to insufficient cross-domain integration across the lifecycle.
By linking these experiences to the digital thread, the session demonstrates why mastering customization complexity requires Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) to connect digital engineering with commercial execution to enable sustainable growth.

About the Speaker

Thomas Kaufmann

Thomas Kaufmann is Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting, focusing on product strategy and lifecycle management. An expert in his field, Thomas combines extensive consulting experience with a master’s degree in industrial and mechanical engineering to deliver innovative and impactful business solutions.

Session Title

Ace Prompt: Leveraging Gen-AI with Determinism

Gen-AI has rapidly emerged as a powerful accelerator across industries. Yet in manufacturing, particularly in the configuration of complex products, speed alone is not enough. Configuration requires determinism, traceability, and repeatable outcomes. The question is not whether to use Gen-AI, but how to apply it in a way that strengthens, rather than undermines, reliability.

In this session, Laura Beckwith, Director of Product Management, Configit, will discuss the current state of Gen-AI, where it delivers value and when it fits in a manufacturing context. As an example, Laura will present Ace Prompt; an accelerator that converts “what the business knows” into usable configuration content quickly. Ace Prompt enriches a product configuration model using non-structured sources such as Excel sheets, product brochures and prompt-driven capture, enabling capture of commercial intent that can be reliably aligned with engineering intent for refinement and management in Configit Ace.

The result is a faster path from scattered inputs to a streamlined, reliable and deterministic configuration process.

About the Speaker

Laura Beckwith

Laura Beckwith, Director of Products, has been working with Configit’s customers since 2010 to understand how the products can best accommodate user needs. Laura holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington, where her research focused on designing programming environments for non-programmers to support the particular needs of the audience, a perspective she brings with her when designing Configit solutions.

Session Title

CLM as the Backbone of Software-Defined Product Lifecycles

As products evolve into complex, software-driven systems, managing configurations across sales, engineering, manufacturing, service, and operations becomes significantly more challenging. Treating software as just another item in the eBOM is no longer sufficient. Internal efficiency pressures, customer expectations for traceability and cybersecurity transparency, and regulatory demands such as Digital Product Passports (DPP) and ICTS restrictions require a new approach.

This session explores how Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) serves as a holistic approach for integrating ALM and PLM within the broader enterprise architecture. Acting as the operational integration layer, CLM connects MBSE models, Product Line Engineering (PLE), software modules, bills of materials, IT system landscapes, and configuration decisions into a continuous digital configuration thread across the organization.ct Passports (DPP) and ICTS restrictions require a new approach.

Learn how a model-based target architecture combined with early stakeholder alignment lays the foundation for scalable implementation and enables configurable software components to be managed consistently across the entire lifecycle. The result is lower integration complexity, faster execution of changes, compliance by design, and a robust CLM architecture embedded at the core of PLM that ensures true end-to-end lifecycle continuity.ct Passports (DPP) and ICTS restrictions require a new approach.

About the Speaker

Marcus Krastel

Marcus Krastel is Co-founder and CEO of :em engineering, bringing over 20 years of experience in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Since completing his PhD in Computer Integrated Design at Technische Universität Darmstadt, he has focused particularly on Simulation Data Management. Marcus has led cooperation and transformation projects with major OEMs and currently works on topics including IoT, AI, Test Data Management, and ALM/PLM integration. His expertise lies in strategic consulting for digitalization in engineering, taking a holistic approach to connecting systems, data, and processes.

Session Title

Profitable Customization at Scale with CTO and Partial ETO

Customization is now the norm for complex manufacturers, but it stretches teams, systems, and margins. Many manufacturers have adopted a Make-to-Stock product variant strategy but see the variant count explode as complexity increases leading to duplicates, repeated work, and lack of manageable overview.

Others rely on an Engineer-to-Order (ETO) strategy and gain flexibility, but at the cost of heavy engineering involvement, high operational complexity, and difficult-to-manage delivery commitments. In both cases, configuration knowledge becomes fragmented across engineering, sales, and operations.

Adopting a CLM approach enables these manufacturers to transition to a Configure-to-Order strategy based on modularized architectures but supporting customized modules. This CTO with partial ETO strategy supports the reality that manufacturers face today in a scalable and profitable way.

In this talk, Henrik Hulgaard, Configit VP Product Management, will explain the difference between Make-to-Stock, ETO and CTO and how a CLM approach can support customers at each step of their transition to CTO with partial ETO. Henrik will show the benefits that our customers have achieved by making this transition today and how this provides the foundation for digital threads and Agentic AI in the future.

About the Speaker

Henrik Hulgaard

Henrik Hulgaard is the Vice President, Product Management and co-founder of Configit, a global Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution provider and a supplier of business-critical software for configuring complex products. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Washington and is an associate professor of computer science. He has published more than 25 articles internationally.

Session Title

Delivering Great Customer Experiences for Configurable Products

For manufacturers of complex configurable products, customer experience is won, or lost, well beyond the sales moment. Buyers expect fast, guided configuration and immediate confidence that what they select can be delivered. Yet many organizations still struggle with slow configurators, invalid option combinations, order handling exceptions, and late-stage rework when sales intent meets engineering and operations reality. The outcome is familiar: missed promises, avoidable delays, and service teams that arrive on site without a reliable understanding of what was actually sold and delivered.

In this session, David Nedergaard, Product Manager at Configit, will show how a CLM approach supports an omnichannel sales experience with high-performance and zero-errors. This is possible thanks to Virtual Tabulation (VT), which ensures only valid options are presented so customers can configure with confidence and speed. This also minimizes downstream order handling issues by aligning what is sold with what engineering and manufacturing can produce.

Finally, the session will extend the experience into service and maintenance. By capturing “as-sold” and “as-delivered” configurations as a Digital Configuration Thread, manufacturers can plan maintenance precisely, prepare the right parts and procedures, and dramatically reduce time on site.

Digital Configuration Threads thus provide a practical foundation for end-to-end digital threads and agentic AI, while delivering tangible value today.

About the Speaker

David Nedergaard

David Nedergaard is a Product Manager at Configit, leading one of the company’s development teams and building high-impact solutions for complex product configurations powered by Virtual Tabulation®. With a background in media, marketing, and software development, he works at the intersection of technology, data, and business strategy. Outside of tech, he is also an ambitious musician and producer.

Session Title

Keynote – From Variant Complexity to Lifecycle Control: CLM in Regulated MedTech

MedTech companies operate at the intersection of extreme product configurability, strict regulatory requirements, and global scale. As variants proliferate across hardware, software, and services, traditional PLM and configuration approaches – often fragmented across functions – struggle to ensure consistency, traceability, and speed.

This presentation explores Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) as a critical capability for regulated MedTech organizations. Based on a case study from a global medtech company, the session illustrates how to address configuration complexity, reduce data inconsistencies, and establish a governed source of truth for configurable product knowledge.

The talk distills practical lessons for MedTech leaders on how CLM complements PLM, strengthens the digital thread, and enables scalable innovation without compromising compliance.

About the Speaker

Rene Zoelfl

Rene Zoelfl is Senior Director and Global Industry Advisor for Life Sciences at PTC. Since 2012, he has focused on supporting medical device manufacturers in transforming how they design, operate, and service products while meeting strict regulatory requirements. With a background in SAP consulting, product management, and global portfolio development, René brings deep expertise in industry-specific solutions for regulated industries. He is also a Certified Professional Medical Software (CPMS).