The application of quality costing to engineering changes

This paper reports the findings of a quality costing exercise undertaken on the engineering change procedure of an organisation involved in the manufacture of telecommunications equipment. It was established that the average administration cost per change note was £1000, and that the yearly non–conformance costs of the engineering change procedure were estimated to be between £168,000 and £210,000. A number of actions have been taken to reduce the costs involved with engineering changes, including the introduction of a new change–note awareness programme for engineers, and the use and application of both design and process failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).