Change Management Process:
The methodology to manage the changes in the product
configurations during its lifecycle process
Ensuring:
· Standard process
· Controllability,
Traceability
· Completeness
· Validity
· Approval
Managing change is critical to controlling product evolution
and product configurations
We need changes to fix things & to improve things &
for many other reasons as well Configurations management is the framework in
which changes
takes place
Changes come from internal as well external sources
Change Management begins at the start of product lifecycle
and continuous throughout lifecycle
Changes need to be managed & tracked from start to
finish
Key change Concepts:
Encourage change
Keep changes small and simple to minimize required approvals and
time lags
3 steps – change request, change order, change notification
Consider adding problem report, in the beginning to allow anyone
relevant, including customers and suppliers to submit issues
Lead the process with the documentation – What the change is intended to accomplish, why, how, cost
Why Change Management Process?
•
Changes pushed out without proper authorization
•
Not all changes are being followed
•
Starting point not established or not being updated
•
The right people are not involved in the change process
•
Full impact of change unknown first time around
•
Through change evaluation not being done
•
Controllability is weak
•
Change process takes too long
•
Metrics not being tracked or reported
•
Personal working on wrong information
Change process failure:
Change is too tight controlled during WIP
Data is left vulnerable, outside control of the PDM vault
People workaround processes
All the changes are traced equally
Process is delayed due to over complicated
Different level of changes should receive different levels of control and sign off – more complicated or costly – more
control
The process is not closed Loop:
The person who requested needs to know it was resolved
Other people need to be notified as well
Changes are not always tracked against all of the data they impact, such as labeling, artwork, and packing
Change is incomplete
Change process is complicated when external partners have to be involved in decision making
Fail to gain complete understanding of change impact
Companies do not provide external partners enough access
Determining the cost of a change is often difficult – many times people lack access to cost data
Changes delayed due to fear of costly mistake
Changes undertaken without understanding the lifecycle cost
Key control Points;
•
The review and disposition (approval or disapproval) of each enterprise change
request (ECR)
•
Planning and implementation of approved ECRs
•
Validation of new and revised information to be released
•
Work authorization allows the use of changed data
Best Practices:
• Change is managed proactively within the product development environment Multiple changes are encouraged early in the product lifecycle where they are
very inexpensive
Changes are managed so that the true impact of change is
always well understood (implies access to product data include cost, inventory)
• Incomplete but accurate product design data is valuable to supply chain
processes
Productive work can be done on product and process
definition information that are accurate but not complete
Retaining definition information until the design is
complete reduces the enterprise agility (restricted access)
• Owners of data are identified as responsible for changes to that data
All product and process definition information has owners who are responsible for understanding the impact of change
on the data elements they own
Owners must understand how their data elements are related to other product
definition information
• Users or owners of the item being changes should approve, not a manager
• More than 3 or 4 approves are typically not necessary
Typically,
once key approvers sign off, everyone else follows along
anyway
If people
feel the need to know what is happening, use notifications
• Product changes must be communicated throughout enterprise and to extend
enterprise participants as required
Proposed and approved changes are communicated at the right time, to the right people, where they are located
• Take holistic approach to change management – allowing you to better understand
the impact of change in all forms
Implement a PLM solution that manages the BOM at its core
Provide access to external information (eg: cost) via PLM interface
• View change management as part of comprehensive configuration management
activity Supporting technologies are not good if they are not used within the proper process
environment
PLM for change Management
•
PLM provides one master Bill of information – BOI
A physical information structure with the multiple logical
views such as as-designed, as-planned, as-assembled,
as-delivered, as-maintained
•
This master BOI is managed by one system and it feeds product configuration
info to all other systems
It is the system record
•
It is the source for information critical to assessing change impact
•
PLM can proactively warn of problems & delays in change processes
Provide metric to gauge success
•
PLM workflows control & assure process adherence
Can support both fast track and normal track versions of workflows
Streamline change processes and sign offs
•
PLM provides visibility to product process change info so that it can be
managed strategically during all the phases of the lifecycles, thereby reducing
the total costs of change
•
PLM supports visual collaboration during the product change, with visualization
and virtual meeting technology
•
PLM provide tractability
The goal is to achieve end item traceability on all the
changes without compromising the rules of interchangeability and to do so cost
effectivity
•
PLM integrated with ERP and pother systems to provide access to other data
(cost, inventory...)
Concluding Remarks:
- Embrace
& encourage change – changes help make better products
- Learn
about PLM – understand how it can support change processes
- Understand
your change process and business rules when implementing PLM
- Use
PLM workflows to drive consistence change processes
- Track
change problems & other metrics via PLM
Reference:
CIMData session and hands on experience
Thanks,
Anil
