7 Best Practices in Engineering Change Management
What is engineering change management?
When we talk about engineering change management (ECM), we are talking about a lot of data—as in all modifications and alterations made to products, processes, and systems, including regulatory requirements, supply chain factors, and market shifts. But it can also be boiled down to its primary objective: effective and efficient responses to engineering change notices.
Why is engineering change management important?
Bringing innovative products to market ahead of competitors creates a sizable opportunity for manufacturers to increase profitability. It can mean the difference between defining the market and playing catch-up. However, innovation requires continuous improvements and optimizations to the product development process. And managing all those changes can cause a significant bottleneck.
Effective engineering change management processes ensure systems remain calibrated no matter the number of changes. ECM enforces adherence to quality and regulatory compliance standards and provides an audit trail so stakeholders can track who made which changes, and when. Changes require less time and fewer resources via an efficient ECM solution, which begets a culture of collaboration and innovation. ECM can also identify and assess risks introduced through changes, such as incompatibility or safety concerns.
Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a very effective ECM solution. With a PLM solution, teams can create data governance, visibility, and associativity to promote best practices in ECM. All changes are fully defined and controlled, tasks are assigned appropriately and delivered via repeatable and automated workflows, and issues are resolved accurately and in real time.
What is the cost of inefficient change management?
Change management, when done effectively, provides a major opportunity for improving development efficiency. When done poorly, it can lead to delays as stakeholders waste time waiting for decisions and updated information, or scrap and rework due to outdated design details.
A poorly managed change process prevents organizations from responding to time-to-market and cost pressures, which in turn, has a direct impact on product profitability.
Engineering change management best practices
At the core of change management success is communication and collaboration. But you must build on that foundation to streamline the change management process. According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 85% of executives saw a significant increase in change projects over the last 5 years. To keep pace with the rate and volume of changes required to compete in today’s market, consider implementing the following best practices for engineering supporting change management.
Establish clear change management procedures
Define comprehensive procedures outlining how changes are proposed, evaluated, approved, and implemented. Identify stakeholders, roles, responsibilities, and the workflow for change requests to enable ownership and accountability.
Change impact assessment
Before implementing any change, it is best to conduct a thorough impact assessment. This enables organizations to understand exactly how the change will affect functionality, performance, cost, schedule, and compliance.
Risk analysis and mitigation
Effective ECM requires thorough attention to risk analysis and mitigation. Evaluate potential risks associated with a proposed change and develop mitigation strategies to address them. Consider how introducing this change could impact any existing systems, workflows, and dependencies.
In addition, it’s recommended to prepare contingency plans or fallback options in case an implemented change does not produce the expected results or causes unforeseen issues. In such instances, a swift response will further mitigate disruption to your operations.
Cross-functional collaboration
Cross-functional teams and stakeholders must be included and highly communicative within the change management process. Keeping all relevant parties abreast of approved changes, their implications, and the expected outcomes streamlines production and answers questions before they’re asked.
Change control board (CCB)
Establishing a CCB, comprised of key stakeholders, ensures that changes align with organization goals and standards. The CCB will review, prioritize, and approve or reject change requests based on predefined criteria.
Test and validation
Perform rigorous testing and validation of a proposed change in a controlled environment or through simulations before fully implementing it to protect your operations. Not only will you identify potential issues, but you can assure that the proposed change will achieve the desired outcome.
Document everything
Maintain detailed documentation for all proposed changes, including impact analysis and rationale for the change. Be sure to document relevant technical specifications, risk assessments, cost implications, and schedules.
Streamlined ECM
In an industry where innovation and agility are the keys to success, you must be equipped to handle change requests and variable data at high-speed. Dig into all the complexities of product data management and how PTC’s PLM solution, Windchill, deftly manages them all in our E-book, Understanding Change Management in Windchill, packed with more best practices and case studies.