DECLARACIÓN FUERA DE BASES Y LICITACIÓN DESIERTA

Having proposed a clear definition, it is important to make a clear distinction between EC and other terms often used within organizations. Most obvious is the need to differentiate the term Engineering Change Management from the frequently used Change Management. The term Change Management is widely accepted to describe the administration and supervision of transformation processes within an organization. It involves a structured approach of moving from a current state to a future state by implementing measures as diverse as minor changes in existing processes, up to pervasive changes, which can even cause deep amendments to an organization’s strategy (Strazdina & Kirikova, 2011). Furthermore, a large body of research exists on change processes involving organizational mergers and acquisitions. Within this context, the main concern is an integration and mediation process, mainly regarding the employee culture and acceptance. This is achieved through a combination of planning, management, personnel planning, control and leadership (Körfer, 2006). Being aware of the tremendous differences between the concept of Change Management, as referred to within many organizational contexts, one can clearly see the need for making a clear distinction to the Engineering Change Management process, which is concerned with the alteration to products, not organizations and business processes.

Another term, which is often heard in connection with ECM is that of Configuration Management (CM). Having been developed in the 1950s by the US military in order to control the documentation in the manufacturing of missiles (Gonzalez, 2002), Configuration Management is an approach that is widely used in safety critical systems, such as aerospace and nuclear projects. The main driver behind Configuration Management is to address problems occuring in projects due to unchecked changes in one of the sub- systems which results in consequences in the wider context of the system. Thus, the aim is to analyze the consequences of any change before it is made and to provide traceability of product data in order to understand causes of problems, as well as to diagnose and resolve any problem arising through the adjustment of any part of hardware or software. The main focus of CM lies in the processes, procedures and users keeping the data intact throughout the lifecycle by controlling and recording the changes in a data system (Lindkvist, et al., 2013). The current definition in the IEEE standard (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1990) describes CM as “a discipline applying technical and administrative direction and surveillance to identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of a configuration item, control changes to those characteristics, record and report change processing and implementation status, and verify compliance with specified requirements“. As can be seen by comparison of this definition

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with the previously stated characterization of ECM, the Engineering Change process is a sub-category of the Configuration Management process.

Engineering Change within Product Lifecycle Management

One of the most common images within economic theory is that of the Product Lifecycle consisting of different phases from product introduction to phase out.

Figure 52 – Revenue and Profit over the Course of the Product Lifecycle

While it is essential for any company to follow economic imperatives, further facets of a Product Lifecycle have been gaining prominence in theory and practice. Most prominent is the introduction of the “Triple Bottom Line” approach, which does, apart from the economic evaluation, also include factors of social and environmental sustainability (Elkington, 1997).

Tripple Bottom Line Description

Social Skills, motivation and loyalty of employees and business partners. Vaule is added to the community in which a company operates.

Environmental Reduction of the consumption of natural resources below the natural replenishment rate.

Economic Guaranteed cash-flow at any time while producing return for the shareholders.

Table 6 – Tripple Bottom Line – Based on (Elkington, 1997) and (Gmelin & Seuring, 2014)

Producing a return for the shareholders while guaranteeing a cash-flow is one of the essential goals of a company in order to ensure its economic viability. To reach environmental sustainability, the consumption

of natural resources must be reduced below the level of natural replenishment. The goal of social sustainability is not as clear cut and includes various factors, such as the skills and motivation of the employees, loyalty to the company and added value to the community (Gmelin & Seuring, 2014).

One can also view the product lifecycle from an IT standpoint. There are several phases, at which information regarding a product are produced. The data is to be integrated and made available to decision makers. The first phase is the product planning, which specifies the field of the product development. Following is the actual development effort, which entails a full description of the product. The production planning is the next step, which is then followed by the actual production. Sales, product use and service, as well as recycling, all produce different kinds of data and require for their completion the integration of information from previous phases of the lifecycle.

As has been described, organizations aim at reaching not only economic viability, but also intend to reach social and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, companies require the right information concerning the different steps of the lifecycle in order to maintain competitiveness. In managing the goals an organization has set for the life cycle of a product, the task of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is necessary. PLM is an approach for the integration of information on activities, actors and attributes of products in various phases of the product life cycle. Included in this are the adequate tools, standards and technologies for product development throughout the entire lifecycle. The key to effective PLM are the individual stakeholders and the communication and relations between them (Denger & Unzeitig, 2012). In order to achieve this, PLM systems must offer stakeholders adequate information to support their decisions without significantly increasing the effort for administration (Softic, et al., 2014).

Figure 53 – Product Lifecycle Management

Within the context of Product Lifecycle Management, the Engineering Change process is essential for managing any adjustments, which arise after a part, drawing or piece of software has already been released. ECM is therefore a sub-process of PLM, which is necessary in order to achieve a continous business process with optimized product lifecycles. In order to do so, many companies have adopted a standardized process, which will be described in the following section.

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