System dynamics modeling of engineering change management in a collaborative environment

Abstract

Engineering changes to products aim to correct design faults, exploit new market opportunities, improve overall product performance, or reduce production costs. These changes are thus considered as opportunities to stay competitive in the market place and companies strive to implement them in their products at the lowest possible costs. Such engineering changes in a collaborative environment require the original equipment manufacturer to work together with suppliers for designing, manufacturing, and marketing a product profitably. Simulation of an engineering change management process provides an understanding of important factors affecting the engineering change management process and helps in identifying any critical components of the entire process. In this research, system dynamics models have been developed to study the complex interrelationships among various members in a collaborative supply chain to achieve effective and efficient engineering change management processes. To address the complexity of the models, several standard templates have been developed and used.