Improving Change Management in Large Engineering Projects: A Case Study

Engineering change management is an essential component in the development of products, requiring many resources and time. A usual problem is the lack of standardized activities and the inexistence of activity tracking, usually resulting in increased time to complete and costs. This research aimed to identify and propose improvements in these topics within a manufacturing company. The first proposal consists of a revised standard for the activities in each Engineering Change Request phase, suggesting when each one of the activities should be started, as well as the advisable action for the Project Manager (PM). Then, the second proposal is related to the Engineering Change Request deadlines compliance, with two possible approaches. Approach 1 suggests the dates tracking in an Excel file, while approach 2 suggests using Power BI dashboards. Both proposals are expected to improve the normal flow of activities, resulting in higher compliance with the planned deadlines and ultimately reducing cost and the implementation time of the change.