Comparison of engineering change cause analysis in literature and industrial practice

Engineering changes are a permanent feature of product development. They enable the development of successful and up-to-date products. However, many engineering changes can be avoided or at least anticipated by deriving preventing measures from identified underlying causes. Cause analysis procedures of engineering changes presented in literature aim to identify technical and organizational causes behind a change as soon as the necessity for a change was recognized. The examination of six cause analysis examples from industrial practice shows that cause analysis in industry is additionally used to investigate the reasons for a change. Furthermore, cause analysis in practice is not only conducted ad-hoc when a change is required, but also retrospectively in project reviews. A comparison of procedures and methods described in literature and gained from practice indicates different classifications for cause analyses regarding their initial situation and purposes. It further reveals which procedure steps and methods are useful and where more methodological support is needed. Hence, a foundation for the development of specific cause analysis procedures is given.