Infrastructure for Engineering Change Intelligence

How data is organized into queryable, relational formats

• The engineering change object model must formally define change types, affected object classes (drawing, BOM line, specification), and downstream dependency link types before impact analysis can be automated

Whether operational knowledge is systematically recorded

• Change request documentation must be captured in a structured format with mandatory fields for originating issue, affected components, disposition decision, and approver identity

How explicitly business rules and processes are documented

• Engineering change routing and approval workflows must be formally specified so that impact predictions can be mapped to specific decision gates and responsible roles

Whether systems share data bidirectionally

• PLM system must expose the product structure graph via API so that change impact traversal can be performed programmatically without manual BOM queries

Whether systems expose data through programmatic interfaces

• Impact analysis outputs must be presented to change board members and affected engineering leads through defined notification channels, not only stored in the PLM system

How frequently and reliably information is kept current

• Change history including predicted versus actual impact scope must be retained to enable rule validation and detection of systematic analysis gaps