A Taxonomy for Engineering Change Management in Complex ETO Firms

Abstract

In this paper, we study a specific type of Engineer-to-Order (ETO) firms called Complex ETO characterized by one-of-a-kind products with high complexity and low volumes. Such firms are at high risk of encountering significant engineering changes due to their characteristics. The management of engineering changes have a large impact of time, cost, and quality of the project. The purpose of this paper is therefore to provide a holistic taxonomy for Engineering Change Management (ECM) that can guide the companies with set of actions to prevent, handle, and manage engineering changes. The study is based on literature and empirical findings from a single case study conducted in an offshore platform producer, which resulted in development and verification of the taxonomy.