A modification is a physical change made to or planned for deployed As Configured serialized equipment, whose configuration is controlled by AssetWise.

Suppose an item has been manufactured and released and a problem is discovered. A good example would be a defect in the car brakes on models that were produced during a certain time period at one specific plant. The modification would be incorporated in the new version of the item.

The intent of a modification is to change the functional and physical characteristics of the item, and can stem from the following motives:

• As a design deficiency corrective action (for example, to improve safety, reliability or maintainability)
• To change the characteristics of the item as to make it more suitable for a specific mission.

Modification to an item can impact directly on the following:

• Functional and/or physical interfaces with other items
• Product data underwriting the configuration, use and support of the item
• Infrastructure (for example, persons, organizations, equipment and other facilities employed in the use and support of the item)
• Spares supply and holding.

Modifications can only be associated with serialized (or batched) items and work orders. Modification records form part of the underwriting documents specifying a specific (serialized) item, as modifications are performed on the equipment itself and do not affect the product baseline. At any given time, the configuration of a serialized product will be denoted by the As Configured definition plus all modifications implemented up to that point.