Managing engineering changes in the engineer-to-order environment: challenges and research needs

Abstract

Engineering changes (ECs) in companies in the engineer-to-order (ETO) production environment are practically unavoidable. It is important for ETO companies to accommodate ECs throughout the project duration, effectively and efficiently managing them in order to decrease their potential detrimental consequences. A lot of research exists on engineering change management (ECM) in general, but our study reveals a need for further investigation of ECM in the ETO sector. This theoretical study has two main contributions: (i) analysis of research on ECM, outlining general challenges and discussing these in the light of the ETO production environment, and (ii) suggestions for future research.