Streamline your processes
In manufacturing companies, engineering changes are part of everyday operations. New customer requirements, quality improvements, regulatory changes, or material updates continuously require products and production processes to be adapted.
In many cases, the real challenge is not the engineering change itself, but the path a change request takes before a decision is made.
When information is exchanged via email, spreadsheets, or disconnected systems, organizations face fragmented processes, delays, and a lack of transparency. Decisions take longer, the impact on costs or delivery schedules often becomes visible too late, and responsibilities are difficult to track.
Because engineering changes typically involve multiple departments—from engineering and procurement to quality assurance and production—a structured and transparent change process becomes a critical success factor.
Hidden costs arise between process steps
Most manufacturers closely monitor material costs, machine utilization, and production KPIs. Much harder to identify are the costs created by an unstructured engineering change process.
Common causes include:
- Long waiting times between individual process steps
- Limited visibility into the current processing status
- Incomplete information for decision-making
- Duplicate coordination between departments
- Late identification of cost or schedule impacts
These delays often accumulate over weeks without anyone being able to clearly identify where the process stalled.
Digitalization means more than a digital form
Simply digitalizing a change request does not solve the problem. The real benefits emerge only when the entire process is digitally managed. This includes:
- Structured capture of all relevant information
- Clearly defined responsibilities
- Parallel rather than sequential reviews
- Automated task assignment
- Transparent process status tracking
- Complete documentation of every decision
As a result, cycle times are reduced, collaboration becomes more efficient, and decisions are based on complete and reliable information.
Transparency leads to better decisions
Based on our experience working with manufacturing companies, one pattern appears again and again: delays are rarely caused by a lack of expertise. They are caused by a lack of transparency.
When you can always see:
- which change requests are currently open,
- where they are in the process,
- who is responsible,
- what risks exist, and
- what impact they will have on costs or delivery dates,
decisions become faster and significantly better informed.
A digitally supported engineering change process therefore not only increases efficiency but also reduces risk and improves traceability for customers, auditors, and regulatory authorities.
Three questions to assess your current process
A simple self-assessment often reveals how effective your engineering change process really is.
- How long does it typically take to approve a change request?
- At what point do cost or delivery impacts become visible?
- Can you identify all open change requests, their current status, and the responsible owners within a few minutes?
If these questions are difficult to answer, it may be time to take a closer look at your existing process.
White paper: Digitalizing change management in manufacturing
Do you want to learn how manufacturers digitalize engineering change processes end-to-end while eliminating disconnected workflows? Download our free white paper and discover how digital workflows improve transparency, shorten cycle times, and accelerate decision-making.
This article builds on the key ideas from “The Problem Isn’t the Change Request. It’s the Path It Takes” by our digital transformation expert Dr. Hanspeter Seiler, while complementing them with our own experience from digital transformation projects in manufacturing.
