Change Management

Customers often demand modifications during the order management process. This is especially the case when it comes to complex and customized products, in particular investment goods such as machinery and equipment. The technical changes made to products also invariably involve changes in process sequences as well as in the production process. Depending on the type, point in time and scope of these changes, this may cause major upheavals in order management: long reaction times, time-consuming agreements or uncertainties about resulting costs or delivery deadlines.

Having the right business processes in change management make it easier to react to customer changes flexibly and efficiently without causing unnecessary upheavals in order flows. Fraunhofer IPA helps companies obtain more transparency about the various types and effects of change and deal with them in a targeted and methodical way. The first step towards handling customer changes efficiently is to analyze the severity, quantity and point in time of the changes. In a second step, the various changes are then classified on the basis of the analysis results, thus enabling specific recommendations for action to be derived. Consequently, a rapid overview of the extent of impact of a change can be obtained and the costs (effects) involved ascertained.

Services

• Analysis and classification of changes according to their cause and effect on costs and deadlines

• Definition of modular processes, milestones and change gates: from identifying a change right through to its full implementation

• Change management: determination of responsibilities and rules of the game

• Implementation of change management with related organizational and operational structures

• Implementation of a suitable IT system coupled to production planning and control to support change management.