Abstract:
The purpose of this research project is to develop a framework for engineering
change management (ECM) in an aircraft manufacturing company.
ECM is vital for manufacturers to manage changes efficiently and effectively. As
an effective change control technique, ECM has been widely practiced in
different industrial sectors. However, adopting an ECM process does not always
guarantee the agility of the manufacturing process of the manufacturer. The
performance of ECM could be affected by the actual practice followed by the
ECM practitioner.
The research was conducted in four phases. In the first phase an extensive
literature review was carried out to understand the critical success factors
related to the ECM and Configuration Management (CM) activities.
The second phase was to model the current ECM practice in the aircraft
manufacturing company by using IDEF0 approach. The actual ECM practice
was understood and some gaps were identified in this part.
In the third phase, a survey was carried out to identify the best practices in
aerospace and automobile companies. A list of best practices that could
promote the performance of the ECM was identified by analysing the result of
the survey.
In the last phase of the research, a framework was developed from the model of
current ECM process in the company. The best ECM practices identified in the
third part of the research were integrated into the model to refine the current
ECM process. The framework was validated by experts in the aircraft
manufacturing company.
The outcome of this research shows the correlation between the performance of
the ECM process and the actual ECM practices. And the framework developed
in this thesis can provide benefits for the further improvement of the current
ECM process in the aircraft company. The framework also offers a
benchmarking reference for other companies with a similar background to
examine their own ECM process and initiate improvement.
