Title: Challenges in identifying the knock-on effects of engineering change

Authors: Owolabi O. Ariyo, Claudia M. Eckert, P. John Clarkson

Addresses: Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK. ' Design Group, DDEM, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, UK. ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK

Abstract: Engineering changes can necessitate further changes to other components, which can cause severe delays to schedules and overstretch resources. Predicting the effects of a change effectively can be challenging, depending on the modelling framework and process adopted for interrogating a design. This paper examines the limits of change prediction with existing tools, describes different patterns of change propagation and discusses the challenges in predicting their occurrence. It argues that the effectiveness of predictions can be improved by accounting for effects of organisational aspects of change when predicting propagation paths.

Keywords: engineering change management; change propagation paths; change prediction; engineering changes; engineering design; design engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDE.2009.030821

International Journal of Design Engineering, 2009 Vol.2 No.4, pp.414 - 431

Published online: 07 Jan 2010 *

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