A Physical Configuration Audit (PCA) is the formal examination of the "as-built" configuration of a configuration item against its technical documentation to establish or verify the configuration item's product baseline. The PCA is used to examine the actual configuration of the Configuration Item (CI) that is representative of the product configuration in order to verify that the related design documentation matches the design of the deliverable CI. It is also used to validate many of the supporting processes that the contractor uses in the production of the CI. This is also used to verify that any elements of the CI that were redesigned after the completion of the Functional Configuration Audit (FCA) also meet the requirements of the CI's performance specification. Additional PCAs may be accomplished later during CI production if circumstances such as the following apply:

• The original production line is "shut down" for several years and then production is restarted.
• The production contract for manufacture of a CI with a fairly complex, or difficult-to-manufacture, design is awarded to a new contractor or vendor.