Which tools deliver truly effective enterprise integration? Let's take a closer look.
In many companies, even simple engineering updates can turn into weeks of delays. The reasons vary: maybe a change request gets stuck in someone’s inbox, approvals are buried in Excel sheets, or technical documents don’t get updated until it’s too late — if they’re updated at all.
In large-scale manufacturing or product development, these delays aren’t just annoying. They cost time, slow down production, and increase the risk of compliance issues.
In this article, we’ll walk through how engineering change management works in SAP, why traditional approaches often hold teams back, and how the IPS Workflow Tool from LeverX helps solve these problems with a more structured, transparent, and efficient process.
Engineering Change Management (ECM) is a key part of product lifecycle management (PLM). It ensures that any modifications to product data — such as designs, materials, or manufacturing instructions — are handled in a controllable and traceable way. This process is critical to avoid production errors, quality issues, or compliance violations.
For instance, if a component design changes, ECM ensures that every dependent object — like production orders or BOMs — reflects the correct version at the right moment. Nothing moves forward until all required checks, approvals, and updates are complete.
SAP supports ECM through built-in tools like change masters, versioning, and effectivity dates. Still, many companies manage change processes manually or through scattered channels — email chains, spreadsheets, or informal approvals — which brings us to the real issue: inefficiency.
Even with SAP in place, engineering changes often hit the same roadblocks. Here are some of the most common problems.
A typical change process involves multiple departments: engineering, quality, planning, procurement, and sometimes suppliers. But when communication happens through disconnected channels, tracking down approvals becomes a guessing game. Delays pile up, and there’s often no clear audit trail for who approved what — or when.
Without a central system to manage steps and responsibilities, change requests bounce around without real accountability. Even a simple update can wait in limbo if no one follows up. Lack of visibility means missed deadlines, duplicated efforts, or worse — unapproved changes slipping through.
It’s not always obvious where a change request stands. Has it been reviewed? Rejected? Is someone on vacation holding up the process? Without real-time status updates, teams waste hours trying to get answers or chasing people across departments.
While SAP offers powerful workflow tools, customizing them often means ABAP development, technical setup, and long implementation times. Adjusting a process to match real-life business needs shouldn’t be this hard — but in practice, it often is.
An engineering change is more than a checklist. It usually involves drawings, specs, and documents that also need updates. But if those aren’t tied into the same workflow, things get missed. In regulated industries, that’s a compliance problem. In any other industry, it’s a productivity issue.
Engineering changes must be quick, traceable, and reliable. But most generic tools weren’t built with SAP users in mind. That’s where LeverX IPS comes in.
LeverX IPS (Integrated Process Solution) is a flexible workflow tool that helps SAP users build, manage, and monitor complex business processes — including ECM. It works within your SAP environment, giving teams a more intuitive and powerful way to manage tasks, approvals, and documentation from start to finish.
Unlike rigid systems or spreadsheet-based tracking, IPS supports real collaboration across engineering and manufacturing teams — with a focus on speed, clarity, and compliance.
It’s not only used for ECM, but also for related processes like Quality Issue Management and Manufacturing Change — giving you one platform for many needs.
Here’s what you can do with it.
Drive workflows with decision-based logic, including serial, parallel, and conditional steps. IPS selects the right agents and actions based on key attributes, ensuring each change request moves along the right path. Digital signature support is included — helpful for compliance-heavy processes, including 21 CFR Part 11.
Build complex workflows with a drag-and-drop interface, no coding needed. Users can rework or roll back steps if changes are required mid-process. SAP actions are handled in the background, reducing manual work and keeping the process smooth.
IPS lives inside SAP and speaks its language. You can bring multiple SAP objects into one workflow, execute steps directly from emails, and clearly see where things stand using a graphical interface.
Get full transparency into the progress of engineering changes. Escalation emails help keep things on track, and all comments and decisions are saved and easy to access. Notifications are flexible and can include automatically generated PDFs with process summaries.
IPS adapts to real-life changes. Add ad hoc tasks, shift responsibilities, or reassign approvals if someone is out of office. It also supports full integration with SAP’s native workflow engine — so standard inboxes and tasks continue to work as expected.
IPS is built for simplicity, speed, and scale. Here’s how it helps you improve process handling in SAP.
Sometimes the best way to understand a solution is to see it in action. One of our customers — a global manufacturing company — faced all the classic ECM challenges: slow approval cycles, manual coordination, and a growing number of change requests that couldn’t be tracked efficiently.
Their SAP environment was complex. They were already using Engineering Change Masters, Document Management System (DMS), and Change Records, but these tools weren’t connected by a clear, manageable workflow. As a result, approvals got stuck, technical documents were updated late, and teams had little visibility into the process.
Here’s how LeverX’s IPS improved the situation:
Thanks to our tool, the customer achieved the following results: faster turnaround times, fewer errors, and a more consistent change process — all without custom development or disruptive changes to the SAP system.
This real-world case proves a key point: even in a highly customized SAP setup, IPS helps bring structure, clarity, and speed to engineering change management.
Engineering Change Management isn’t just a checkbox — it’s a way to reduce risk, maintain consistency, and improve delivery across product lines. But the best-designed change process will fall short if it's slow, manual, or difficult to follow.
That’s why choosing the right workflow tool matters. Solutions like LeverX IPS help teams avoid delays, reduce effort, and improve oversight — all within the familiar SAP environment.
Get in touch to explore how IPS can support your processes without overcomplicating them.