Learning from past changes — Towards a learning-oriented engineering change management

Due to the complex nature of Engineering Change Management (ECM), managing knowledge and supporting an organizational as well as personal learning process is a difficult but important task to support the realization of changes. This paper presents an approach to improve ECM by applying and adapting existing knowledge management methods with the aim of supporting companies in generation, transfer and application of knowledge. The approach is based on a literature review in different research fields like organizational learning and knowledge management. Based on the findings, a framework for managing and cultivating knowledge specifically in the domain of ECM has been developed. The concept incorporates different aspects like knowledge transfer and knowledge generation from available information on an interpersonal and technical level. The developed approach aims at a continuous and eventually self-sustaining process of knowledge generation, sharing and application.