Several surveys, reviews, and case studies have been conducted to estimate the costs of ECs (e.g., GEMMERICH 1995, p. 105, HUANG& MAK 1999, WILDEMANN2014, p. 9). The authors indicate minimal costs for processing an EC to range between e1,000 ande2,000, while actual costs of an EC may reach up to several million EUR (e.g., CONRAT 1997, pp. 165-167). In product development about 25% and up to 65% of employees’ capacities are used for ECs, in manufacturing about 15 to 40% (cf.
DEUBZERet al. 2005, p. 5, LANGER et al. 2012, p. 7). Overall, these figures indicate a significant potential to reduce costs of change by improving ECM.
Up to date, mainly qualitative information are available on challenges in ECM and hence expected benefits of an improved ECM. Among others, an applicable and adaptable ECM process design and an early change identification and evaluation are agreed upon (e.g., CONRAT 1997, pp. 170-243, DEUBZER et al. 2005, pp. 7-11, LANGER et al. 2012, p. 22; cf. also section 1.4). Despite the authors’ general
agreement on the benefits of ECM and its application, quantitative evaluations of
the ECM approaches are barely provided: DEUBZER et al. (2005) and LANGER
et al. (2012) indicate about 20 to 30% of ECs to be preventable; WILDEMANN (2014, pp. 242-246) state the application of ECM to reduce costs for ECs by about 25%
and decrease the number of approved EC requests by about 75%.18 However, further details on specific effects and benefits are not provided.
For MCM, the survey by KOCH et al. (2015b) revealed an increasing relevance of MCM in industrial practice (cf. also section 1.1). About 40% of the companies indicated to deal with at least 500 and up to several thousand MCs per year (cf. also section 4.2). As detailed information about costs of MCs is hardly available in literature, average costs per MC have been estimated by companies’ experts during the three case studies conducted for this research (cf. section 4.2).19 Ranging betweene1,000 and e1,600, these are similar to the costs for processing an EC and also indicate significant potential to reduce costs of MCs by applying and improving MCM.
The few MCM approaches available have been tested in case studies regarding their applicability – and the authors agree on the fundamental benefit of MCM (similar to ECM; cf., e.g., RÖSSING 2007, MALAK2013, PROSTEP IVIPE.V. 2015). However, a detailed evaluation of benefits (qualitative or quantitative) of MCM or an estimation of potential cost reductions due to an application of MCM could not be found.
3.7 Conclusion
Based upon the scope of research (cf. section 1.3.4) and the four research questions (Q1 to Q4, cf. section 1.3.1), relevant publications have been identified, reviewed, and evaluated against the MCM requirements (cf. section 1.4). In order to provide a broad and thorough perspective on the state of the art, the publications selected for this research cover about 35 years of research on MCM, ECM, and related topics.
Up to date, the development of a company-independent, system-oriented concept for MCM (cf. research question Q1) has not been accomplished. Although a few system and context models for MCM and ECM have been described, detailed system
18These results are based on one exemplary case study.
19These costs account for processing an MC, but do not include material costs, engineering hours, etc.
architectures enabling a detailed design of MCM (e.g., MC model, MCM process) are not available. Also, available models neglect certain aspects (e.g., process architecture, roles, interfaces) considered relevant for a holistic perspective on MCM.
In order to describe MCs, only one basic MC model has been proposed – a detailed MC model supporting MCM is not available (cf. research question Q2). In contrast, several EC models and numerous attributes describing ECs are available. Despite any given evidence, most publications do not further substantiate the respective change model (e.g., via case studies). Nevertheless, the available change models provide a sound literature basis for the development of a dedicated MC model.
The process-based management of MCs has rarely been addressed in literature, only few basic MCM processes have been suggested. A detailed process to efficiently and effectively manage MCs is not available (cf. research question Q3). For ECM, factory planning, and continuous factory planning numerous processes have been developed.
Most approaches remain rather general providing few information regarding the de-tailed process design and architecture. Also, evidence for a process design based on detailed case studies and an analysis of related processes in literature can rarely be found. Despite these shortcomings, the available publications represent an extensive literature basis for the design of an MCM process.
Furthermore, there is hardly any literature on dedicated roles for MCM, methods and tools to be used, or approaches for a change-specific adaptation of an MCM process. However, for other processes (e.g., ECM, product development) first adapta-tion approaches have been discussed by different authors providing guidance for the development of an MCM process adaptation.
A detailed evaluation of benefits (qualitative and quantitative) of an MCM approach could not be found in literature (cf. research question Q4). Available surveys, reviews, and case studies on ECM and MCM correspond regarding a general benefit of change management activities, costs of ECs, and bound capacities due to changes. These indicate a significant potential of reducing costs of changes by ECM (and correspond-ingly MCM for manufacturing). However, available publications on MCM procedures address their applicability only.
Overall, the state of the art does not provide a process-based approach for the manage-ment of MCs fulfilling the MCM requiremanage-ments and hence supporting practitioners in
managing MCs effectively and efficiently (cf. section 1.2). Nevertheless, it creates a broad data basis to be utilized for the development of the desired MCM approach.
In order to create a profound data base to develop the MCM approach and build theory on MCM, three in-depth case studies have been conducted in addition to the literature review (cf. section 3), a web-based survey (KOCH et al. 2015b), and several expert interviews with practitioners (cf. section 1.4). Within this chapter, first the approach for the three case studies is outlined, followed by the description of the current practice of MCM in industry regarding the overall MCM set-up, utilized MC models, and MCM processes. Then, the findings from a cross-case analysis are discussed based on the MCM requirements and mirrored to the four research questions.