Enabling Agility in Product Development through an Adaptive Engineering Change Management

Agile development processes have recently regularly been named as key to the development of novel physical products. Coming from the software industry, these processes pursue the target of limiting both time-to-market and resources associated with the realisation of innovative products. In the case of physical products, agile development in the form of highly iterative prototyping is further rmore employed for assuring a stable ramp-up phase. The goal of this paper is the creation of an adaptive engineering change management (ECM) for rapid engineering changes which are identified as central enablers for the agile product development of physical products. Due to a lack of in-depth studies in this field, an agile development project in a manufacturing company has been investigated. The findings of the case study are based on action research. Challenges and requirements faced by the case company have been identified in workshops and interviews. A broad study of closely related literature improved the understanding and helped in the generation of a framework for an adaptive ECM. The investigations led to an approach that employs a step-wise product development process with different stages of maturity. Hereby, the shift of requirements in the course of the agile development project as observed in the case study is taken into account. The ECM is continuously adapted along the different stages of maturity of the agile product development to cope with this shift of requirements. It is illustrated that the adaptive ECM is reflected in three layers: responsive means of communication, a responsive design of engineering change processes and roles, and consistent data structures. Examples for the specific design of these layers are presented. The result of the work is thus a framework for an adaptive ECM that meets the specific requirements of agile product development for physical products.