Engineering Change Management Click to edit Master subtitle style Overview and Best Practices

Agenda
Definition of Change Management Process Issues and Goals Industry Standard Change Management Processes Typical Change Management Processes Engineering Change Management (ECM) vs. Production Change Management (PCM) Change Management in SAP Utilizing SAP Workflow Example Implementations

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Definition of Change Management Process

There are different types of change management, including Organizational Change Management

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects. For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities.

What we are focusing on in this presentation is product change management

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Definition of Change Management Process

To start with, a standard definition of change management

The Change Management process in Systems Engineering is the process of requesting, determining attainability, planning, implementing and evaluation of changes to a system. It has two main goals: supporting the processing of changes and enabling traceability of changes, which should be possible through proper execution of a defined process.

Businesses will refer to their change process under a variety of acronyms, including

ECR (Engineering Change Request) ECM (Engineering Change Management) ECN (Engineering Change Notice) ECO (Engineering Change Order) Etc.

Despite the different acronyms, all change management process have the same goal in mind

Controlling and implementing changes in a controlled fashion

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Issues and Goals

While many businesses will have change management processes, they are always striving to improve Current issues with change management processes include

Still working from paper forms Current system does not offer required capabilities Current system not integrated with other areas of organization (ex: Manufacturing) Limited scope (ex: Only control change to drawings) Not appropriately workflow enabled Process is not lean Cycle time is long Extended supply chain not integrated with process No ability to measure KPIs, business metrics, etc. Visibility of change history limited

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Issues and Goals

Implement a new change management process can be difficult, because it requires a good deal of business change management

Everyone is used to the same process and not easily changed

Therefore, business goals and benefits should be identified early in the project and well communicated Common business goals and benefits include

Leaner process Automate process with workflow doing the heavy lifting Simplify the process Reduce cycle time Improve collaboration during change and implementation process Eliminate errors Reduce costs based on miscommunication (ex: Wrong revision built) Better internal/external communication of change Paper-free process

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Industry Standard Change Management Processes

There are a number of groups offering standardized ways of doing change management, including CM II Institute of Configuration Management Continuous improvement in ability to "change faster and document better." CMII evolved into a methodology for accommodating change and keeping (1) requirements clear, concise and valid, and (2) records and data accurate. Wikipedia offers a glimpse of standard process

There are six main activities, which jointly form the change management process. They are: Identify potential change, Analyze change request, Evaluate change, Plan change, Implement change and Review and close change. These activities are executed by four different roles Book: Analysis on Engineering Change Management Based on Information Systems

Engineering Changes (ECs) are inevitable and frequent in manufacturing enterprises. The primary challenge in efficient management of ECs arises because the sources as well as the effects of an EC are spread across different phases of the product lifecycle. With the application of information systems in enterprises, it becomes an urgent problem to run integrated engineering change management
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Industry Standard Change Management Processes

The previously mentioned standards are good if you are starting from scratch or just looking for ideas on how to improve you current change management process Sometimes looking outside the box gives us the best ideas The goal of implementing a change management process should not be to just to shoehorn you existing process into an electronic system Look around and talk with other companies about their experiences

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Typical Change Management Processes

In the end, most companies have similar change management processes with minor deviations Everyone has a way to request change and how to implement a change There are varying degrees of success and complexity Some industries are much more complex and regulated

Ex: Medical device companies must meet validation and FDA requirements when making changes Ex: Auto suppliers use changes as a way of capturing additional profits against a given contract

ECR

ECO

ECN

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ECM Typical Change Management Processes

Business Benefits Customer Supplier/Manufacturer Business Benefits

Customer demands an additional specification of a configurable product Create document for ECM request

Create notification to start the workflow

Expert check / amends Changes (changes / objects will be described in notification text

Manager Approval

Inform the expert to discard or do this change

Workflow processing: The customer requires a new specification of a configurable product. The request will be recorded in a notification. After that , the engineer will receive a mail by workflow automatically and the engineer will start his work to check the feasibility. If the engineer approve it, this request will be sent to manager automatically by workflow.

Difference Between ECM and PCM

In many companies, the change management process is split into to distinct processes

Engineering Change Management (ECM) Production Change Management (PCM)

The ECM process is usually all of the activities from initiation of change up until the release of engineering data to various groups

Requesting the change Doing an analysis of the change Approving it Making updates to drawings, BOMs, specifications, etc. Completing a final review Releasing data from the engineering group

Data is often thrown over the wall to ancillary groups (manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) to implement the change Downside not efficient due to other groups were not involved in the change during the engineering process (surprise!)

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Difference Between ECM and PCM

PCM occurs when the Manufacturing or other groups receives the change and begins implementing

Extending material master views to plants Updating production BOMs Disposition of goods Preparing the manufacturing floor to be able implement change Ordering goods Contacting partners about the change Etc.

You may be doing PCM for multiple plants or different groups

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Difference Between ECM and PCM

Our recommended best practice is to have one change management process that includes both the ECM and PCM process

This means having the groups implementing the change being involved in the change process early on this avoids the throw it over the wall syndrome

A few rules when combining the ECM and PCM process Down stream groups should be involved in the approval process or at least on the distribution list

Visibility of what is coming

Activities that down stream groups need to do are started as soon as possible

Do not just start at release of the change Ex: How soon can production BOMs and other information be updated? Why wait?

Goal: One change record from start to finish that connects ECM and PCM activities

Easy to see where change started and where it ended

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Change Management in SAP

There are three basic options for implementing change management within SAP

Change Masters ECR/ECO Process Notifications with Change Masters

What option you choose depends on the complexity of your process and what you are trying to achieve Before we go into each option, it should be said that what each option is actually doing is controlling changes to SAP objects and recording the history The key SAP objects which are controlled in the change process are

Bills of Materials Documents Materials Variant Configuration Information Task Lists (note: Key objects are listed above there are many others)

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Change Management in SAP

When changing an object in SAP, you always have the option of adding a change number

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Change Management in SAP

History of every change to the associated objects is recorded

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Change Management in SAP

The simple change process

Very few participants in the change process Linear process with not much collaboration Not much workflow Changes can be made immediately and released at a defined date in the future Change definition usually comes from supervisors/managers Change approval usually verbal/ paper based. Change execution most advanced users have authorization to change objects without formal process Change release changes are released based on validity date Use SAP Change Masters as the change record Some use of SAP Workflow

Common steps

Solution

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Change Management in SAP

A view of the SAP Change Master

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Change Management in SAP

A more controlled process SAP ECR/ECO

The SAP ECR/ECO is very similar to the change master Additional controls and system status network is added on top of the change master From SAP help:
If the decision is made that an engineering change is necessary, an Engineering Change Request (ECR) is created on the basis of the change notification and both objects are linked afterwards. Now the affected objects (for example, documents, BOMs) are assigned. This can be done using drag & drop if the integrated product structure browser is used. Now the internal change process for the selected objects is started. In the next optional step, the feasibility and necessity of the change can be checked by responsible agents for all objects affected. If all objects can be changed, the approval process can be started. Now all departments affected by the change can be involved. Viewing and Redlining can be used to view documents and to provide feedback electronically during the process. If everybody has approved the changes, the ECR can be converted into an Engineering Change Order (ECO) for the physical change of the affected objects. Therefore, the objects are sent to the responsible agents who make the changes. The changes do not become effective until the responsible agent in configuration management has released the ECO. With the release, changes are effective for the effectivity parameters, for example, valid-from-dates or serial numbers, which are used in the ECO. The release itself can happen either in one step as a general release or using a so called release key as a phased release, which allows the release for different areas, such as costing or production, step by step. If changes are released for running production orders, the Order Change Management (OCM) process is triggered. In this process, changes can be adopted to running production orders in a controlled process taking into account the current status of the production order.

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Change Management in SAP ECR/ECO process (general flow)

Prepare Request Forms Create ECR with all associated objects; attach accompanyi ng docs Yes Prepare all Red Line Markup s With Pkg Get Signatu res

Identify Change Required

Reje ct ECR

N o

App rov e ECR Create/ap ? prove new Doc Versions

Process BOM And Rtg changes Verify Objec t Chan ges

Clos e ECO

Rele ase ECO

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Change Management in SAP

When the ECR/ECO process is used

The ECR/ECO process is used when a more controlled process for making change is required Major difference objects are add to the change and then approved Change do not happen to the objects until change are approved Validity date is not required up front only when ready to implement vs. change master immediately requires a suggested validity date for the change As with the change master, you can use SAP Workflow for routing of the change Digital signature used to control change status changes Disadvantage: System status network is not changeable and process must be followed as defined by SAP

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Change Management in SAP

More complex, utilizing notifications and change master or ECR/ECO together

Most collaborative and controlled process Process is designed to be extremely lean and system driven Workflow is used to do most of the heavy lifting Used by industries which are tightly regulated and change processes are often critical and lengthy (e.g. Pharmaceutical, aerospace etc) Common Steps:

Change identification can be anyone in the organization Change definition change is defined using SAP notification objects which serve as base for collaboration and documentation Pre-change review manual or using SAP reports (std./custom.) Change approval formal, digital using SAP workflow Change execution modular, driven by workflow Change release automated release and notifications using predefined business rules Note, the SAP Change Master or ECR/ECO is still used but is tied to the Notification

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Change Management in SAP

A view of the a change notification

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Change Management in SAP

One of the major advantages to the notification is the use of tasks Allow for adhoc capability All changes do not %100 follow the same path

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Change Management in SAP

More complex, utilizing notifications and change master or ECR/ECO together (example flow)
No Requestor creates request notification Assign ECR constructor, create change notification and ECR. Copy all information from request notification to change notification Use workflow tasks to collaborate with SMEs

Identify Change Required

Sponsor reviews request notification

Yes

Needs changes Not Ok

Send back to Doc Control

Ok

Approver reviews package

Start approval workflow

Ok

Doc Ctrl checks package

Send entire package to Document Control dept

Doc Ctrl implements the changes

Production change management workflow is trigered

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Change Management in SAP

Advantages and disadvantages of each approach

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Change Management in SAP

Our recommended approach is to have a balanced process depending on business requirements and industry If process requires, our best practice is to utilizing notifications with a Change Master or ECR/ECO

This offers the most functionality and has been successfully implemented by LeverX and SAP at a number of customers Variety of industries, including automotive and medical devices

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Utilizing SAP Workflow

What is SAP Workflow?

SAP Business Workflow can be used to define business processes that are not yet mapped in the R/3 System. These may be simple release or approval procedures, or more complex business processes such as creating a material master and the associated coordination of the departments involved. SAP Business Workflow is particularly suitable for situations in which work processes have to be run through repeatedly, or situations in which the business process requires the involvement of a large number of agents in a specific sequence.

Very powerful is used correctly

Issue companies attempt to overcomplicate the workflows, adding to many bells and whistles, causing future support issues

The role of workflow is two-fold

Inform users of activities they need to perform as the change moves along its lifecycle Send updates about the status changes and events to interested users

Escalation rules and task forwarding can be easily setup to enhance process Adds slight maintenance overhead which must be taken into account during implementation

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Utilizing SAP Workflow

Can be used to drive the entire change process from change request creation to approval to change implementation to change notification

Ex: A requestor input a change that involves product XYZ once saved, based on the changing product correct notification is sent to the manager in charge of identified product

Yes, the workflow supports the following

Workflow notifications sent to Outlook inbox Deadlines for tasks Ability to do adhoc workflows from different SAP objects Maintaining substitutes when on vacation or out of the office Escalation of tasks based on rules

As an implementation consideration, it suggested that staff be built up for long term support and update of workflows

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Example Implementations High Tech

Via ECR/ECO process controlled updates to documents, material masters, and BOMs ECR/ECO process worked for them because of the strict system status network Utilized SAP Workflow based on status changes

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Example Implementations Automotive Supplier

Due to complexity of process, used notifications with change masters to control updates to documents, BOMs, and material masters Full recording of change from initial identification of problem to release of correction Used workflow for routing and approvals Able generate key business metrics based on status changes to see where improvements could be made

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Example Implementations

Very similar to previous example, used notifications with ECR/ECO to control updates to documents, BOMs, and material masters More elaborate use of digital signatures to control release of items. Approvers automatically determined via business route Additional reports developed for checks and balances
w

Ex: If changing object A, you must change object B

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Open Discussion

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