Managing Engineering Change Orders and Delegation Limits in Manufacturing
Delegating engineering change authority by financial limit and technical classification eliminates plant line stoppages while preserving configuration control.
Class One Change
Meaning
Modifications to an established product baseline that affect form, fit, function, safety or weight fall under this category. A class one change requires formal customer or regulatory approval before implementation.
Configuration Impact
Physical or logical adjustments to a design that disrupt interchangeability necessitate this formal classification. Engineering teams designate a class one change when a modification prevents a new part from being used as a replacement for the older version. These adjustments often force a revision to the top level drawing or the performance specification itself.
Approval Protocol
Contractual obligations dictate that external stakeholders must review and sign off on these revisions before the production line adjusts. Failure to secure an audit trail for a class one change results in non-compliant hardware that cannot be sold or certified. The process involves a formal engineering change proposal and a configuration control board review.
Production Threshold
Transitioning from a prototype to a full production run requires that all high level modifications are resolved early to avoid expensive scrap. Implementing a class one change during the mass manufacturing phase causes extensive disruption to the supply chain and may require a total stop to the assembly line. Demonstrating a stable design reduces the risk of these costly interventions later in the product life cycle.