Engineering Change Management in the Engineer-to-Order Production Environment: Insights from Two Case Studies (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Production Research, 2020
Engineering Changes (ECs) are a fact of life for companies in the Engineer-To-Order (ETO) production environment. Various Engineering Change Management (ECM) strategies, practices and tools exist, but no explicit distinction has been made regarding ECM in different production environments. Using a multiple case study method, this article investigates how ETO companies manage ECs and how ETO characteristics influence ECM. A generic ECM framework was developed and used to map ECM in the cases. The study showed that ETO companies use similar practices for handling ECs, while ECM tools are either not used by the companies or used to a very limited extent. It was found that the use of some ECM practices and tools is complicated by specific ETO company characteristics. However, no reasons were found for the lack of computer-based tools, change propagation and impact assessment tools, change reduction and front-loading tools, and design tools. This suggests, firstly, that there is vast roo...
Managing engineering changes in the engineer-to-order environment: challenges and research needs
IFAC-PapersOnLine, 2018
Engineering changes (ECs) in companies in the engineer-to-order (ETO) production environment are practically unavoidable. It is important for ETO companies to accommodate ECs throughout the project duration, effectively and efficiently managing them in order to decrease their potential detrimental consequences. A lot of research exists on engineering change management (ECM) in general, but our study reveals a need for further investigation of ECM in the ETO sector. This theoretical study has two main contributions: (i) analysis of research on ECM, outlining general challenges and discussing these in the light of the ETO production environment, and (ii) suggestions for future research.