Purpose

• To outline the use of a management cross-functional team in the Change Request Process.
• To reject problems and ideas which the team believes: 1. Engineering does not have the manpower to work on it in the next four months, 2. Lack payback according to the company payback policy, 3. Are improvements to products for which the market doesn’t demand improvement. (The company should develop a list of products to be/not to be improved.)

Applicability

• To all requests being processed by this CM function.

Policy/Practice

• The Request Team shall consist of a VP of Design Engineering, Operations, and Supply Chain. In case of inability to attend, each VP shall appoint a director as an alternate.
• CM may reject frivolous requests and other requests designated by the team without team review.
• CM may bypass the team on document only changes, interchangeable dimensional changes, changes to meet spec during the Pilot Phase and other categories designated by the team.
• CM and/or the cognizant engineer will present the applicable requests to the team. CM will chair the team meeting and keep a Request Report online, updated and reissued the same day as the team meeting.
• The Request Team meeting will be held frequently and briefly — at least three times a week.
• The team shall reject cost reductions/labor savings that do not meet the cost payback polity as estimated by the team. The team may ask for calculation of the cost of the requested change (what if change is made?) based on tentative solution, tentative effectivity, tentative disposition of old design parts, and tentative effect on the field (see Costing Design Changes Standard).
• After a request is accepted by the Request Team, the request must be presented to the next Change Team meeting. If the Change Team believes that the request should have been rejected, the cognizant engineer/CM will return the request to the Request Team via CM with the reasoning involved.
• After a change is accepted or rejected CM will notify the Requester.
• The management Request Team may ask the Change Team for their input regarding; members experience on similar problems, manufacture-ability, test-ability, inspect-ability, and service-ability, etc.

Procedure

• None required.

Primary Responsibility

• CM is responsible for keeping this standard current.

Authorization