Study on Engineering Change Management in the Supply Chain of Aerospace Valves Realization Steny Ann Sabu M.Tech Industrial Engg. & Mgmt Student Dept. of Mechanical Engineering RIT – Govt. Engineering College Kottayam, 686 501 Arunprakash N V S Project External Guide, Scientist Control Systems & Components Entity Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO,Trivandrum, 695 547 Dr. Ciby Thomas Project Internal Guide, Professor Dept. of Mechanical Engineering RIT – Govt. Engineering College Kottayam, 686 501 Abstract—Realization of aerospace valves involves various process viz. conceptualization, design, manufacturing, inspection, procurement, assembly & testing. Aerospace valves are configured with static and dynamic parts. Each part consists of many configuration items. Changes required, in any of the Configuration Items (CI) viz. Drawing, Process, Procedure, Specification & Material needs to be assessed in real time for maintaining a healthy supply chain, as processes are carried out both internally & externally. Engineering change affects the production efficiency and the stability of a production system. Managing the configuration items throughout the valves life cycle vide paper based is highly complex. To overcome the cited difficulties, software based engineering change management methodology was conceived. This includes a feature for identifying the impact of engineering change on the product life cycle. To identify the dependencies among CI’s, a framework with unified CI code for drawings was conceived. Survey was conducted among various stakeholders to finalize the overall scope of framework & relevance. The stakeholder responsibilities were depicted in a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RACI). The dependencies among part drawing and assembly drawings CIs were linked with Valve drawing CIs vide Design Structure Matrix (DSM). This helped in integrating the existing inventory management software, which is already in operation and the proposed configuration management software. This is an indigenous effort. Keywords—Engineering Change Management; Configuration Management; DSM; Product Data Management; Aerospace Industry I. INTRODUCTION Engineering Changes are highly indispensable for any supply chain, which is appropriate for aerospace valves realization. Addition, removal or modification on any of the bill of materials, specifications, documents, materials and drawings can be generally termed as an engineering change. Industries are facing more difficulties due to the engineering change that shall occur in any of the supply chain processes like design, production, assembly & testing and so on. Each change has subsequent functional as well as technical impact on other realization processes, which further impacts the cost, schedule and quality. Hence, it is highly relevant to carry out an impact analysis in real time as this can maintain the production efficiency to a greater extent. Engineering Change Management (ECM) plays a pertinent role in this aspect, as it shall effectively manages the changes in a well defined systematic approach. The valves are realized using fabricated parts as well as standard parts, through well defined processes and procedures. Fabricated parts are realized through external industries and standard parts are procured from the qualified sources. Both parts consist of various configuration items (CI). Changes in these configuration items must be efficiently managed by an Engineering Change Management for maintaining a healthy supply chain. During the study, it was observed that, the Engineering Change Management processes are handled manually, which consumes lot of paper work and found to be more tedious. Henceforth, an effectively functioning fully automated ECM is a necessity for sustaining a stabilized manufacturing system. SWOT Analysis and the Questionnaire survey among various stakeholders of ECM further strengthened the scope and relevance of this study. In this scenario, a software framework with unified CI code for drawings was developed. Well defined Responsibility Assignment Matrix supporting the framework, identifying the roles and responsibilities for every stakeholder was generated. Categorization of change and its dependencies with each CI was conceptualized through Design Structure Matrix. The current study focused only with the framework development of drawing CI and automated ECM. In future course of action, activities pertaining to other CIs can be attained. II. ENGINEERING CHANGE MANAGEMENT Engineering Change Management is the process of managing all the changes related to activities like change request, change verification, change approval, change release and so on. As the study entity currently handles ECM manually, it consumes lengthy cycle time and more paper works involved; hence, an ECM framework through software was developed. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 http://www.ijert.org IJERTV9IS070152 (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.) Published by : www.ijert.org Vol. 9 Issue 07, July-2020 296