A retrospective analysis of engineering change orders to identify potential for future improvements

A serious part of development capacity in industry is needed for implementing Engineering Changes (EC) in order to improve or adapt products. Companies usually apply workflowmanagement systems to administrate and document these ECs. Within this paper typically available data which arise within Engineering Change Management (ECM) processes were established based on a real data base with approximately 53,000 Engineering Change Orders (ECO) and a literature review. Subsequently, strategies for coping with ECs were examined in detail in order to derive indicators. These indicators signal which EC strategy should be selected. Resultant patterns of EC data were established, which in retrospect indicate that a change could have been identified earlier in the design process (front-loading), could have been prevented, or could have been implemented more efficiently or more effectively. These patterns shall aid Engineering Change Managers to identify the right strategy and activities for coping with ECs.