Viewing the Engineering Change Process from a Lean Product Development and a Business Perspective

Engineering change (EC) has a major impact on companies' success regarding quality, productivity, time-to-market, customer value, and profitability. EC in product development (PD) is a complex process, involving many actors and functions, especially in the late stages of PD. This article builds on an in-depth single case study from a Norwegian automotive supplier. The study identified perceived enablers and disablers of the EC process, both internally initiated and customer driven, in relation to the front-loading concept as an approach to managing ECs. Based on this, we have outlined a framework with the aim to improve the odds of benefitting economically from customer-driven ECs. Different PD strategies are depicted to consider, depending on the current situation of both internal and customer-driven ECs and the degree of front-loading. An interesting finding from this study is that under certain conditions, for instance when a company faces relatively few internal ECs at the same time as customer-driven ECs increase, a more business-oriented strategy may benefit the company more than would a pure front-loading approach. One important industrial implication of this work is a description of different strategies to consider, depending on the current situation of both internal and external ECs and the degree of front-loading. In additional, the article will provide an important contribution to how companies can organize EC process better for future success. This should also be relevant for the academia.