An introduction to engineering change management

Engineering change management (ECM) is the challenging of the functionality of a product or its components following detection of non-compliance or as an act of improvement while production may have already started. The change can be either total or partial and related to an item (component, assembly or material) whose content has already been validated at various stages of its design, corresponding to milestones process or program, by the actors to whom this responsibility has been assigned.

Changes constitute a major component of the development of modern products. They represent both an engine of innovation, opportunities of benefits, but can also generate cost and delays.

Usually the engineering change management process is made up of 6 processes.

Request for engineering change

A formal request (engineering change request) must be made and it must precisely define what falls within the scope of changes that will be managed via the ad hoc procedure.

Alternative solutions to the requested change

Alternatives to the ECM are evaluated and the best one is normally taken.

Cost benefits analysis of the alternatives

The alternatives should be evaluated in terms of risk and benefits on other department that will be affected by the change.

Approval of Solution

The chosen solution needs to be approved by the managers of the concerned departments

Implementation stage

Once approval has been granted the change request becomes a change order and needs to be propagated across the whole organization. Either the changes are done straight away or in some cases the change is made over small phases.

Monitoring and Review stage

The change process is monitored to make sure that everything went out as planned and all the necessary information is documented for use in the future.

These are the steps that made up a generic engineering change management process but this can vary depending on the type and size of the organization.

Written by Robert Bellarmine for www.visitask.com

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