Engineering Change Management:

Three Challenges, Five Fixes

Five Fixes to Improve Engineering Change Management

FIX #1: Go Electronic

Moving away from paper-based engineering change, product development, and documentation processes frees you from the limitations that paper imposes. Cloud-based product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management system (QMS) software solutions are designed for real-time, collaborative change management processes.

Create electronic engineering change orders (ECOs). Stop shuffling paper and create automated routings and reviews for internal and external teams.
Capture complete change history with a traceable audit trail. With electronic engineering change management, tracking review cycles and change history is easy. You don’t have to wade through file cabinets, binders, or depend on disconnected information silos that are not connected to your parts, assemblies, documents, policies, quality, or training records.
Secure your intellectual properties. Set up user permissions to ensure the right people can track, view, and approve ECOs and related product information.
Incorporate changes to parts, assemblies, and documents automatically into the product record. Don’t rely on manual incorporation processes or reconciliation. You can set up your change and revision processes to ensure your affected product records are ready with updated information upon release.

FIX #2: Write Change Orders Clearly

Write change orders clearly, so reviewers and others understand them easily. The more time product teams and individual reviewers spend trying to understand an ECO, the longer the process takes.

Include only the information that is changing in the ECO. If you ask for approval on a simple sourcing change, there’s no need to include the entire product specification in the ECO. Extraneous, unchanging information just slows down the review process.
Attach relevant documentation to the ECO. Consider what information will help the team understand the nature and reason for the change. Do you have customer input? CAPA-driven resolutions? You can share information to give the reviewers the reason for and impact of your changes.
Group changes for multiple parts or assemblies in fewer ECOs. Don’t think part-by-part—think about the whole product being designed or changed. Your reviewers will thank you when they can see the big picture without wading through multiple ECOs.
Include redlined BOMs. Specifically, a redlined BOM that clearly indicates modified quantities, part numbers, and reference designators and makes it easy to see exactly what is changing. See an example below.

FIX #3: Route ECOs Electronically

Once your engineering changes are managed online, tracking, reviewing, and releasing changes is easier to drive immediate product updates, especially with dispersed teams. A dynamic and flexible change process that allows you to get changes to the affected teams and partners will ensure you can grow and scale as needed.

Notify reviewers automatically. You can configure changes to automatically notify and remind your change control board (CCB), their proxies, or external reviewers via email with links to the related changes.
Don’t limit visibility to the CCB. The change control board (CCB) is not necessarily the only group that needs to know about pending ECOs. Let other people view and subscribe to product lines and related changes so that they are notified whenever ECOs have been submitted, modified, rejected, or approved.
Create electronic approval traceability. Enable reviewers to approve or reject ECOs immediately and let others see their decisions.
Adjust the level of change control for each stage of development. Set up simpler revision controls while in prototype and more controls while in limited or volume production.
Route different kinds of changes to specific people. Consider using different change board teams for various part types or product lines. This will ensure that those who know the most about any product are making the approval decisions.
Add additional reviewers on the fly. Your change boards will likely comprise the same departments and players in most cases. However, you need the flexibility to add other reviewers or participants who may have additional responsibility or insights regarding certain product lines, types of changes, or unique situations. Your change management software should allow for adding ad hoc or additional

FIX #4: Rely on a Single Source of Truth

Encourage your team to adopt your PLM or QMS as the primary source of information and integrate it into the company’s culture. This will simplify information management and remove confusion.

Find product change history. Your ECO history will help your teams trace decisions and product changes. If issues arise (and they will) in the field or with customers, you can use your change history to identify why decisions were made and by whom to drive faster resolution.
Track all reviewers and status. When monitoring who has reviewed ECOs is easy, it’s easier to follow up when approval delays hit.

FIX #5: Accurately Define and Track Implementation

Getting all the details correct is critical to execute engineering changes flawlessly and consistently. When implementing a change, knowing who needs to do what, by when, and comprehensive follow-through makes the difference between a well-executed change and a costly error.

Define implementation tasks with due dates