Characterising the industrial context of engineering change management

Abstract

Engineering changes (EC) and their management (ECM) can be categorized from several points of view. In this paper an EC is mainly considered from the position in lifecycle of the object of change: NPD vs. serial production. The performance aspects of engineering change processes emphasize the balancing of speed of the processes and the communication and assessment of consequent changes. ECM practices are studied by comparing two case companies. The cases indicate ECM is highly related to the organization, history and strategy of a company. The increased efficiency in engineering changes is aspired by streamlined ECM in new product development, while enhanced ECM processes apparently batch ECs for increased overall effectivity. The mutual challenge for the studied companies is that the NPD projects result with a set of change requests for serial production.