Lean product development point of view to current challenges of engineering change management in traditional manufacturing industries

Abstract

Engineering change management causes many challenges in product development. For example, the impacts of a change can delay the whole product development project, and failed communication of changes can cause rework and scrap in production. Lean product development is one possibility to organize product development efficiently.We have conducted four case studies in heavy machinery, mechatronics and automotive industries in Finland and in Sweden to identity the current challenges in engineering change management. The challenges are categorized according to the lean product development principles they break. The results show that most challenges are related to processes and technology used in engineering change management. We suggest that implementing lean product development principles at the case companies could help in overcoming the challenges discovered.

Methods and Technologies for Mastering Uncertainty

“…Therefore, one of the most important tasks of change management is to avoid late changes and to shift changes into early phases by determining and recording product requirement as completely as possible [18,62,190]. In addition to , other change management approaches such as the "Generic Engineering Change Process" according to Jarratt [162], the "Strategic Automotive Product Data Standards Industry Group" (SASIG) [233], the "Implementation of a milestone-supported Customer Change Management" according to Sauer [234], the "Decentralised Change Management" according to Kleedoerfer [170], the "Design Change" process according to Yu [284], the "advanced CMII-based ECM framework" according to Wu [282], "engineering change process framework" according to Stekolschik [255] and the "Generic Engineering Change Process" according to Riviere [229] exist.…”