Engineering Change Management Explained

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 can also provide an interesting opportunity for the organization to generate benefits and to innovate.
The generic engineering change management process is normally made up of 6 phases.

Engineering change request

The first thing that will take place is that a formal request for engineering change must be made to help clarify the problem clearly.

Evaluation of the alternatives

Other alternatives to the ECM are tried out and an evaluation of the alternatives is made and usually a single one is chosen.

Risk evaluation of the alternatives

Alternatives are normally evaluated in terms of risk and other benefits and also impact on the other departments.

Solution approval

Once a solution seems favorable it needs to be approved by the appropriate managerial department,

Implementation of Change

Once approval has been granted the change request becomes a change order and needs to be propagated across the whole organization. Changes can be made in a single phase or in some cases in various 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 6 steps make up the generic engineering change management process but may be more or less detailed depending on the organization.

By: Carolyn Salava

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