Space Orbiter Engineering Change Control in Context of Systems Engineering

In this research, an engineered process with a new approach to change control is presented and implemented on a complex space product. This approach involves using design constraint levels in a combination of two design structure matrix (DSM) structures and a systematic process for controlling changes. The system process includes the use of the system change evaluation code, how to create the transfer model, and the management evaluation of the requested change. While using similar existing methods in the literature, this paper provides a systematic approach to apply the knowledge of the designers of a space project to guide change control of large engineering projects, including managerial change control decisions and how to identify the best path for the change control process. Finally, a space orbiter has been selected for a brief implementation of a case study. The comparative results show the benefit of the proposed approach.