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 computerbased tools, change propagation and impact assessment tools, change reduction and front-loading tools, and design tools. This suggests, firstly, that there is vast room for improvement in ETO companies when it comes to ECM; and secondly, that the applicability of such tools should be further tested in the ETO environment. Based on the findings, some suggestions as to how ECM can be improved in ETO companies are given to practitioners.
Engineering changes (ECs) are part of any Engineer-to-order (ETO) project. The engineering change management (ECM) literature provides various tools, methods and best practices, and this study investigates ECM practices in the ETO production environment. Through two exploratory case studies, we identify five main ECM challenges; EC impact analysis, EC data management, internal and external collaboration and communication, and EC post-implementation review. Both companies have implemented the main ECM steps recommended in literature but there are considerable weaknesses in the execution of the post-implementation review process. More ETO cases are needed to confirm the findings and investigate how ECM tools and approaches vary by different dimensions.
Engineering changes are driving forces of product development and improvement in any company. In shipbuilding projects, engineering changes are introduced throughout the project duration and cannot be planned or introduced to the next production run since products are only made once and never repeated. A lot of research exists on engineering changes and their management in general, but the focus of this study is to increase the awareness and understanding of the engineering changes specifically in shipbuilding projects. In this study, an in-depth investigation of engineering changes and aspects having influence on engineering change implementation performance in Norwegian shipbuilding company was performed. The findings indicate that engineering changes and their implementation performance are related to such aspects as market segment, supply chain network, design maturity, overlapping project stages, and timing of EC occurrence in the project. These aspects, their influence on the number of ECs, and EC implementation and performance, are described and analyzed in the paper, and future research plans are presented.
Manufacturing companies rely on advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) in order to increase their competitive position in global markets. Successful implementation of AMT depends greatly on justification tools. The availability of a large amount of tools with varying complexity makes it difficult for managers to choose the most appropriate ones. This study investigates application of various justification tools for different levels of AMT integration. The results are presented in a framework for AMT justification tools selection that could be used by managers. The research also suggests further research directions.
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