Comparison of Seven Company-Specific Engineering Change Processes

The management of engineering changes is an ongoing topic in academia and practice. To define the ideal engineering change process is still a challenge due to the opacity for necessary activities and the lack of efficacious supporting methods and tools. The comparison of seven company-specific engineering change processes gives insights into a detailed activity level of engineering changes in practice. By comparing the processes based on a reference process, commonalities and differences are derived. Coincidental, a generic engineering change reference process was developed, which describes an ideal process with all possible activities and process steps when dealing with engineering changes.