CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Efficient implementation of innovations through holistic change management
Change management will continue to gain importance in the future!
“System is technically poorly implemented (not intuitive, poor integration of production)”.
“A very complex process, which is slow and too inflexible for small, fast changes.”
“Documentation and tracking are insufficiently supported.”
“No company-wide policy (each location has its own processes)”.
“Lack of communication and transparency.”
Koch, J.; Brandl, F.; Hofer, A.; Reinhart, G. (2015) Studie: Änderungsmanagement in der Produktion. Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Betriebswissenschaften (iwb), TUM, München
Innovation means Change! How to manage changes successfully?
Innovations of all disciplines – product development, manufacturing, … – lead to substantial changes in a companies system. Due to the high interdependence between product and manufacturing system, a separate management of changes contains the risk of undetected impacts on the other domain. Consequences of late detection of change effects include project delays and subsequently increasing change cost. Thus, an optimal solution and change plan depends on the early detection of interdisciplinary impacts and subsequently, a collaborative change management process. Furthermore, besides studying the organization’s technical systems, change management must consider the socio-technical success factors.
When should I switch to a new technology?
The selection of suitable production technologies is crucial for market-oriented and sustainable production. The recognition of suitable technologies as well as a comprehensive, prospective planning of procurements and changes require the prediction of several uncertain variables. Both the establishment of production requirements and the estimation of trends and alternatives pose challenges for the company.
In the SFB768 methods for the suitability analysis of production technologies based on cycle models and fuzzy quantities for the determination of suitable periods for changes in production were developed. Cycle models can help to predict the required quantities and reduce complexity by dividing cycles into clearly defined phases. Fuzzy quantities can also be used to take fuzzy production requirements into account. The methods are thus part of proactive change management.
How to integrate manufacturing and product development in change situations?
The aim of the systemic approach to dealing with changes in a manufacturing company is the best possible coordination of individual projects and interests. This company-wide optimum can only be achieved through high transparency and central change management. As the service provider of the individual departments, this unit should document and coordinate the current state of knowledge regarding change projects.
This requires a uniform understanding throughout the entire company. The context model of change management is a simple possibility to classify the structures that exist in the company and to complete them if necessary.
The model provides information on which subsystems are necessary for a holistic approach and how the subsystems interact.
How can I cross interdisciplinary barriers in change management?
With the rapid changes caused by innovation cycles, technology life cycles and product life cycles, manufacturing companies are often forced to make changes to their product and production system. Due to the high interaction of products and production systems, isolated change management involves the risk of undetected effects on the other domain. It is therefore necessary to define a collaborative, holistic approach that encompasses both engineering and manufacturing change management and takes their interrelationships into account. The developed collaborative process comprises four phases for change management with relevant process steps for each domain and the collaborative steps between engineering and manufacturing change management. The developed process aims at a more efficient holistic management of changes. The introduction of the process makes it possible to gain an overview of the change projects and their effects on other areas, while at the same time minimizing the communication effort as far as possible with the help of selected collaborative steps.
How to estimate the impact of a change?
The goal of change impact analysis is interdisciplinary modeling as well as semantic networking of information and automation of information exchange in heterogeneous engineering tools. To this end, the general meanings of the models (metamodels) in the various tools must first be linked and the inputs and outputs of the tool interfaces must be recorded. After the semantic mapping of the metamodels, the input and output of the information can be automated to a neutral data exchange format via the programming interfaces. In addition, the systems engineering method SysML4Mechatronics supports interdisciplinary modeling in the early design phases of mechatronic products and production systems. This strengthens the dependency analysis between different trades and disciplines and enables traceability from textual requirements to finished components in the product lifecycle management system.
How to evaluate the implemented process?
The aim of the “Business Process Evaluation Scale” is an objective and holistic evaluation of new or changed business processes. The process description, clarity of responsibilities, tool support, competence requirements, process efficiency, process flexibility, management support, employee acceptance and process usage are evaluated on the basis of a standardized questionnaire. Recommendations for further process improvement are then derived from the results.
http://innovations.sfb768.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Use-Case-CM-Fragebogen-A8_SFB_v4.pdf
- Engineering Change Management
- Manufacturing Change Management
- Socio-technical Success Factors
- Interdisciplinary Change Management
Innovation means Change!
Innovations of all disciplines – product development, manufacturing,… – lead to substantial changes in a companies system. Due to the high interdependence between product and manufacturing system, a separate management of changes contains the risk of undetected impacts on the other domain. Consequences of late detection of change effects include project delays and subsequently increasing change cost. Thus, an optimal solution and change plan depends on the early detection of interdisciplinary impacts and subsequently, a collaborative change management process. Furthermore, besides studying the organization’s technical systems, research on change management must consider the socio-technical success factors of change management.
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How does a structured and holistic change management improve your innovation cycle?
Faster and more efficient implementation of changes!
Minimization of planning risks!
Maximization of interdisciplinary cooperation for the development of holistic solutions!
Research Context
Find out more about the CRC 768 subprojects that resulted in this Use Case:
Cycle-oriented Evaluation of Production Technologies: Extending the Model of the Production Cycle
Expand Abstract
Permanently evaluating and adopting suitable production technologies due to the dynamic environment is a major challenge for producing companies. However, influencing factors that show cyclic behavior can be anticipated and are predictable to a certain extent. Thus, lifecycle models facilitate the forecast of predictable factors and assist in deriving recommendations for action timely. The developed cycle-oriented planning and evaluation approach provides a cycle stage specific technology requirements profile. The conceptual framework ascertains the suitability of established production technologies using fuzzy sets to meet the vagueness inherent in soft requirements. The presented extension of the production cycle model provides a holistic framework to identify deficits concerning properties of established production technologies proactively. This enables a continuous technology evaluation approach resulting in the timely identification of technological need for action.Autor: Christian Dengler, Alexander Schönmann, Boris Lohmann, Gunther Reinhart
Context Model Design for a Process-oriented Manufacturing Change Management
Expand Abstract
New production technologies, measures to increase productivity or continuous improvements - manufacturing has always been subject to a variety of changes. Concepts for continuous factory planning as well as first applications of engineering change management in manufacturing help to cope with such changes, but still lack a systemic and contextual view on the management of change in manufacturing. This paper presents a context model for a process-oriented Manufacturing Change Management (MCM), designed to support the understanding of the concept of MCM in academia and industry as well as to create a sound basis for a subsequent, more detailed design of the different MCM-related elements (e.g. MCM process). The context model comprises not only tangible elements (e.g. factory, product), but also intangible elements (e.g. change causes, MCM process) and their relations. Accompanying the context model design, requirements for a detailed design of MCM-related elements are formulated, while the element “change cause” as the starting point of any change in manufacturing is already further detailed and described. Concerning the context model design and the formulation of MCM requirements, both consider not only findings from a broad literature review, but also from different expert interviews and workshops.Autor: Jonas Koch, Nicolas Michels, Gunther Reinhart
A Categorization and Visualization Scheme to Determine Engineering Change Effects in Companies
Expand Abstract
Engineering Changes (EC) are very important for companies’ competiveness - they are used to improve and adapt products. But each EC also involves resources and effort for the implementation and may lead to consequences within the company. Therefor a systematically acquisition and comprehension of effects of ECs is essential to decide on ECs. Within this work a categorization was developed based on a literature review and discussions with an industrial working group. The categorization sketches a possible “solution space” of effects and was then visualized in a scheme. Hereby possible effects can be captured at one glance.Autor: Jonas Wickel, Martina Carolina, Langer Stefan, Chucholowski Nepomuk, Lindemann Udo
Comparison of Seven Company-Specific Engineering Change Processes
Expand Abstract
The management of engineering changes is an ongoing topic in academia and practice. To define the ideal engineering change process is still a challenge due to the opacity for necessary activities and the lack of efficacious supporting methods and tools. The comparison of seven company-specific engineering change processes gives insights into a detailed activity level of engineering changes in practice. By comparing the processes based on a reference process, commonalities and differences are derived. Coincidental, a generic engineering change reference process was developed, which describes an ideal process with all possible activities and process steps when dealing with engineering changes.Autor: M. Wickel, N. Chucholowski, F. Behncke, U. Lindemann
Approach for model-based change impact analysis in factory systems
Expand Abstract
Due to shortened product innovation cycles, high variant products, demand fluctuation, equipment life cycles, and technology life cycles, regular changes in manufacturing systems are necessary. As elements of a factory are connected via a complex network of relations and flows, single changes can have an impact on the entire manufacturing system. In order to enable a successful change management, companies need to understand and consider all possible change impacts. For this purpose, this paper presents a method for change impact analysis in factory systems. By combination of manufacturing system modeling and a network of manufacturing metrics, change impacts on arbitrary metrics can be estimated. The definition of constraints between factory element properties improves the certainty of the analysis' results. Consecutive required changes are applied directly to the model and are equally considered in the change impact analysis. In an exemplary scenario, the applicability in principle of the approach is demonstrated, but also, current limitations and further research activities are identified.Autor: Harald Bauer, Alexander Schoonmann, Gunther Reinhart
Process design for the management of changes in manufacturing: Toward a Manufacturing Change Management process
Expand Abstract
The efficient and effective management of changes in manufacturing constitutes a key success factor for industrial enterprises in a highly dynamic world. Despite its undoubted importance, the management of manufacturing changes as a dedicated field of research has rarely been a focus of engineering science. However, other fields of research, such as Engineering Change Management (ECM) or continuous factory planning, investigate similar topics (ECM) in a different domain (Product Development) or possess the same object of observation (manufacturing/factories) focusing on different approaches (factory planning). Based on the broad basis of literature available in these fields, a dedicated process for the management of changes in manufacturing – an MCM process – is designed. Guided by the Design Research Methodology (DRM), a total of 42 processes and related process requirements have been comparatively analyzed for the MCM process design. In addition to further detailed analyses of process stages, the article elaborates on the validation approach and results as well as the derived need for further research in the field of Manufacturing Change Management (MCM).Autor: J.Koch, A.Gritsch, G.Reinhart
Find out more in this video:
Contact
Harald Bauer, M.Eng.
Technical University of Munich
Harald.Bauer@iwb.mw.tum.de
Tel.: +49 89 289 16587
Find out more about the CRC 768 subprojects that resulted in this Use Case:
Expand Abstract
Permanently evaluating and adopting suitable production technologies due to the dynamic environment is a major challenge for producing companies. However, influencing factors that show cyclic behavior can be anticipated and are predictable to a certain extent. Thus, lifecycle models facilitate the forecast of predictable factors and assist in deriving recommendations for action timely. The developed cycle-oriented planning and evaluation approach provides a cycle stage specific technology requirements profile. The conceptual framework ascertains the suitability of established production technologies using fuzzy sets to meet the vagueness inherent in soft requirements. The presented extension of the production cycle model provides a holistic framework to identify deficits concerning properties of established production technologies proactively. This enables a continuous technology evaluation approach resulting in the timely identification of technological need for action.Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Expand Abstract
New production technologies, measures to increase productivity or continuous improvements - manufacturing has always been subject to a variety of changes. Concepts for continuous factory planning as well as first applications of engineering change management in manufacturing help to cope with such changes, but still lack a systemic and contextual view on the management of change in manufacturing. This paper presents a context model for a process-oriented Manufacturing Change Management (MCM), designed to support the understanding of the concept of MCM in academia and industry as well as to create a sound basis for a subsequent, more detailed design of the different MCM-related elements (e.g. MCM process). The context model comprises not only tangible elements (e.g. factory, product), but also intangible elements (e.g. change causes, MCM process) and their relations. Accompanying the context model design, requirements for a detailed design of MCM-related elements are formulated, while the element “change cause” as the starting point of any change in manufacturing is already further detailed and described. Concerning the context model design and the formulation of MCM requirements, both consider not only findings from a broad literature review, but also from different expert interviews and workshops.Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Expand Abstract
Engineering Changes (EC) are very important for companies’ competiveness - they are used to improve and adapt products. But each EC also involves resources and effort for the implementation and may lead to consequences within the company. Therefor a systematically acquisition and comprehension of effects of ECs is essential to decide on ECs. Within this work a categorization was developed based on a literature review and discussions with an industrial working group. The categorization sketches a possible “solution space” of effects and was then visualized in a scheme. Hereby possible effects can be captured at one glance.Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Expand Abstract
The management of engineering changes is an ongoing topic in academia and practice. To define the ideal engineering change process is still a challenge due to the opacity for necessary activities and the lack of efficacious supporting methods and tools. The comparison of seven company-specific engineering change processes gives insights into a detailed activity level of engineering changes in practice. By comparing the processes based on a reference process, commonalities and differences are derived. Coincidental, a generic engineering change reference process was developed, which describes an ideal process with all possible activities and process steps when dealing with engineering changes.Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Expand Abstract
Due to shortened product innovation cycles, high variant products, demand fluctuation, equipment life cycles, and technology life cycles, regular changes in manufacturing systems are necessary. As elements of a factory are connected via a complex network of relations and flows, single changes can have an impact on the entire manufacturing system. In order to enable a successful change management, companies need to understand and consider all possible change impacts. For this purpose, this paper presents a method for change impact analysis in factory systems. By combination of manufacturing system modeling and a network of manufacturing metrics, change impacts on arbitrary metrics can be estimated. The definition of constraints between factory element properties improves the certainty of the analysis' results. Consecutive required changes are applied directly to the model and are equally considered in the change impact analysis. In an exemplary scenario, the applicability in principle of the approach is demonstrated, but also, current limitations and further research activities are identified.Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Expand Abstract
The efficient and effective management of changes in manufacturing constitutes a key success factor for industrial enterprises in a highly dynamic world. Despite its undoubted importance, the management of manufacturing changes as a dedicated field of research has rarely been a focus of engineering science. However, other fields of research, such as Engineering Change Management (ECM) or continuous factory planning, investigate similar topics (ECM) in a different domain (Product Development) or possess the same object of observation (manufacturing/factories) focusing on different approaches (factory planning). Based on the broad basis of literature available in these fields, a dedicated process for the management of changes in manufacturing – an MCM process – is designed. Guided by the Design Research Methodology (DRM), a total of 42 processes and related process requirements have been comparatively analyzed for the MCM process design. In addition to further detailed analyses of process stages, the article elaborates on the validation approach and results as well as the derived need for further research in the field of Manufacturing Change Management (MCM).Autor: Hollauer, Christoph; Lang, Christopher; Wilberg, Julian; Weking, Jörg; Dengler, Christian; Böhm, Markus; Krcmar, Helmut; Lohmann, Boris; Omer, Mayada
Dokumententyp: Konferenzbeitrag
Find out more in this video:
Contact
Harald Bauer, M.Eng.
Technical University of Munich
Harald.Bauer@iwb.mw.tum.de
Tel.: +49 89 289 16587