I was recently working on an assembly file for a product featuring 6 physical configuration options.

The overall assembly therefore has 6 configurations, there are two sub-assemblies within the main assembly which then also have their own set of configurations (2-4 depending on the sub-assembly) based on the top level configurations. Each of those sub-asseblies then also have parts with up to 6 configurations.

I have now been asked to add another option to the product which will double the ammount of top-level configurations required.

At this point is is recommended to add all the new configurations to the same model? Or is more practical to generate a new assembly? It seems at some point that managing all the suppresses/not-suppressed components and mates will become unreasonable.

By best practice, is there a guideline or general rule of thumb addressing how many configurations are too many?