This position paper describes a research programme that has the objective of mapping the business processes used in engineering change. The paper shows that most engineers identify engineering change as a problem to be avoided wherever possible. The consequences are seen to include changes to tooling, outdated stock and disruption to production. Hence previous research ignores the positive and vitally necessary aspect of engineering change, which is to update products so that they retain or improve their marketability against competition. The authors found an absence of good quality research into the process that business organisations apply when modifying, improving or otherwise changing an existing product. This is because related research over the past decade has concentrated on new product design. A new EPSRC programme is described which seeks to undertake the first intensive research into the engineering change processes, methods and tools for incremental product design improvements. In addition to arguing the research need, the authors also justify their research methodology which includes the use of structured and semi-structured interviews in companies across several sectors, and large-scale surveys.
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