Change and customisation in complex engineering domains

Based on a detailed case study on change and customisation to existing products in the aerospace industry, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the problems and processes associated with product change. It looks at the potential causes and effects of changes, and analyses the formal and informal processes that are used to handle change. Change processes become problematic when change to one system propagates to other systems, because the tolerance margins of individual parameters are exceeded. The paper concludes with suggestions for handling change.