Title: Design and development of a framework for effective engineering change management in manufacturing industries

Authors: Parag Potdar; Venkatesh Jonnalagedda

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering & Technology, Vishnupuri, Nanded – 431606, Maharashtra, India ' Quintessence Engineering Consultants LLP, Nanded–431605, Maharashtra, India

Abstract: Engineering changes are inevitable and emerge at any stage of the product lifecycle. Lot of research and implementations have been done for development of support systems at the design stage. However, fewer efforts have been found in the area of manufacturing and associated management. Implementation stage in a plant must be considered as critical as the design stage, and involved teams must be equipped with the right system and tools. The paper proposes a framework for effective engineering change management (ECM) based on the experience of working with major automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and well supported by review of past literature. Working closely with various domain experts has resulted in a large chunk of knowledge which is summarised in this paper. Three cases from the OEMs are also reported for understanding impact of improper change management. Proposed framework was tested and successfully implemented in one of the leading OEM.

Keywords: engineering change management; ECM; product lifecycle; decision support system; obsolescence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2018.097880

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2018 Vol.11 No.4, pp.368 - 385

Received: 29 Jun 2018
Accepted: 14 Dec 2018
Published online: 20 Feb 2019 *

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