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 are an integral part of development of modern products. Changes also provide an opportunity for an organization to get more benefits and also to foster some innovation across the whole organization.
There are 6 phases that makes up a generic engineering change management process:
Request for engineering change
A formal request which is known as an engineering change request is made and will help define clearly the changes that are needed.
Alternatives to the requested change are evaluated
Alternatives to the ECM are evaluated and the best one is normally taken.
Risk evaluation of the alternatives
The alternatives should be evaluated in terms of risk and benefits on other department that will be affected by the change.
Solution approval
The top management needs to give approval to the favored solution.
Implementation stage
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.
Written by Robert Bellarmine for www.visitask.com
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