What Is Engineering Change Management? A Complete Guide for Engineers

Engineering change management involves handling changes to product designs, manufacturing workflows, and/or supply chain operations.

Engineering change management plays a role in product development and manufacturing workflows by allowing product updates before, during, and after launch. For supply chains, ECM processes can alert team members about incompatibilities among tools or needed material substitutions, which helps keep practices running efficiently.¹ 

There are four core principles of ECM.

Once engineering change managers are prepared to move forward with the change, they might complete one of three change documents.

These principles and documentation ensure engineering change management is conducted in a thorough and orderly manner and minimizes the risk of errors, miscommunication, and safety issues. 

Engineering change management helps engineering teams stay organized, up to date, and compliant with relevant regulations. With a defined structure, meticulous planning, and an eye for consistency, change management can be a thorough and effective process.

When a change process lacks structure, it can cause problems in a few ways:

Engineering change management plays a big role in continuous process improvement and ensures alignment among engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain stakeholders. By analyzing change history and patterns and enabling iterative designs, stakeholders can stay in sync across functions to optimize the product lifecycle. 

For example, design and manufacturing teams can confer about product design and address issues before designs go to production. Meanwhile, procurement and engineering teams can keep each other updated about how changes might affect shipping costs. Finally, compliance and R&D personnel can instill automated checks to block any non-compliant prototypes from moving forward.

ECM also improves overall operational efficiency and product lifecycle management by maximizing product design, documenting change history, controlling costs, and keeping engineering projects compliant.

The engineering change management workflow can take many forms, but most involve similar steps in order to ensure product modifications are clear, consistent, and less likely to cause process disruption. Stages may be repeated and some may take longer than others, but all steps need to be well thought out and documented so that teams can consult change history in the future.

From proposal to implementation, an engineering change workflow involves cross-functional collaboration among teams and multiple stakeholders to ensure accuracy and efficiency. This engineering change order process allows for structure, organization, and transparency, all while ensuring document management keeps track of change history for future changes.

An effective engineering change management implementation should include the following elements.

When multiple stakeholders are involved, leaders may face pushback on certain processes. Team leads need to explain the rationale behind each step and communicate each as a contribution to effective change management. Above all, an engineering change management procedure should be structured, clear, and available to all parties to have the greatest chance of success.

ECM plays a critical role in supply chain management and overall manufacturing efficiency. 

For supply chains, ECM affects bill of materials (BOM) updates every time a design is revised.⁴ When an engineering change is proposed and approved, the BOM for the product needs to be updated to reflect the change. Suppliers also need to be made aware of these changes to ensure they can adapt without disrupting the supply chain. 

To minimize production disruptions, engineering change managers need to be proactive in planning for possible changes and need to coordinate with suppliers to ensure timely adoption of changes. 

ECM affects manufacturing efficiency because any errors in ECM can be costly. Outdated or inaccurate design specifications can interrupt project timelines, cause delays, and result in unforeseen expenses. 

When appropriately documented, however, engineering change management can enhance quality control. As a result, the production process can become more streamlined by reducing waste and inefficiencies that may come from outdated procedures or components. By keeping manufacturing stakeholders involved in the ECM process, engineering teams can better identify potential production challenges with enough time to allow for adjustments before implementation.

Overall, engineering change management has a sizable impact on supply chain management, BOM management, and manufacturing.⁵ By streamlining operations across functions, the product lifecycle can be documented, replicated, and tested for efficiency.

Engineering change management is a complicated process that can present a number of challenges and ethical considerations for engineering managers. 

Common challenges of engineering change management include the following:

Issues may arise in terms of ethics, as well. Some of these ethical considerations include the following:

After these challenges and ethical considerations are taken into account, engineering teams and stakeholders can focus on continuous improvement mechanisms as their product needs grow and change.

When structure is applied to ECM, product development and evolution are streamlined and straightforward tasks. From supply chain optimization to manufacturing, engineering change management can streamline processes for seamless product development and product excellence.

A structured ECM approach is the key to creating and amending products that can succeed in the modern marketplace. By integrating design changes across the entire product lifecycle using proactive planning and supplier coordination, engineering teams can excel at cost reduction, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement. 

ECM enables teams to eliminate costs that come with errors, reworking, and production delays, allowing them to iterate and innovate to enhance product quality.⁶ This also creates room for teams to move ahead of the competition and keep pace with the ever-changing engineering industry.

With engineering change management as a priority, companies can set themselves on a path to long-term success through efficiency, quality, and innovation. 

To embrace engineering change management and build upon your capabilities for product development, supply chain management, and manufacturing, click here to learn which ECM tools are right for you.