Electrical engineering and design change process map

What is in this map

15 steps across 4 swimlanes and 5 phases, with 2 decision points.

Swimlanes (who does the work)

Customer, Engineering, Design and Project Manager

Phases (left to right)

Requirement & Assessment, System Design & Drawings, Engineering Review, Customer Approval and Handoff & As-Built Closeout

Why map this process

Two decisions look similar and are not. Engineering review checks the design against class or flag rules, ATEX zoning and the load calculations behind the equipment selection — a technical pass/fail a customer usually can't evaluate themselves. Customer approval is a business and scope decision made afterward, on a design that has already cleared the technical bar. The map's own comment on the review row is specific about the failure mode this order prevents: a design that reads as finished but rests on the wrong load assumptions, caught before it ever reaches the customer rather than after they've signed off on it.

The as-built loop at the end is what keeps this map honest past handoff. The compile-as-built row's comment says the package folds in whatever deviations the field crew logged during installation, not a clean copy of the original design — because documentation that matches what was drawn instead of what was built is worse than no documentation, since it looks authoritative and isn't.

Every step in the map

This is the spreadsheet behind the diagram. The numbers in “Goes to” are row numbers, which is exactly what the editor’s “Line to” column holds — so you can read the flow here and retype any part of it.

The decision points

Every branch in the map, with the label on each outgoing line. These are the questions the process has to be able to answer.

• 5. Design **passes engineering review**?

  Owned by Engineering · Engineering Review

  • Yes → step 7
  • Needs revision → step 6

• 8. Customer **approves design package**?

  Owned by Customer · Customer Approval

  • Approved → step 10
  • Revision requested → step 9

Notes on specific steps

These notes travel with the map. In the editor they live in the Notes column and appear when you open a box.

1. Customer requirement received

Requirement arrives as an email, RFQ or a marked-up existing schematic, whatever system change the customer wants: a new switchboard, added consumers, a rewire. Everything downstream is scoped from what gets logged here.

2. Technical assessment: *site survey* and existing system review

Site survey records existing switchboard condition, cable routes, load list and available deck or compartment space. The load calculations in system design are built on this visit, not on the customer's own description of the system.

5. Design **passes engineering review**?

Review checks the design against class/flag rules, ATEX zoning where relevant, load calculations and equipment selection, not just drawing completeness. A design that reads as finished but rests on the wrong load assumptions is caught here, before it ever reaches the customer.

10. Hand off **approved design package** to installation and commissioning

Handoff carries the approved drawings, schematics, wiring plans and equipment specifications into the Marine Electrical Installation SOP and, where the change requires it, the Electrical System Commissioning SOP. This chart does not repeat their installation or test steps.

13. Compile as-built documentation and equipment specifications

As-built package folds in any deviations the field crew logged during installation, not just a clean copy of the approved design, so the documentation matches what was actually built rather than what was originally drawn.

Making it yours

Phases (Requirement & Assessment, System Design & Drawings, Engineering Review, Customer Approval, Handoff & As-Built Closeout) run Horizontal lane; the four roles, including Design as separate from Engineering, run Vertical lane. When you adapt the handoff row, name the specific downstream SOP(s) in its Notes — this chart hands to Marine Electrical Installation and, where the change needs it, Electrical System Commissioning — so a reader can trace a design all the way to an energized system across your own template set.

What to watch out for

• Don't run the site survey after the design starts. The assessment row's comment is explicit that load calculations in system design are built on the survey record, not on the customer's own description of the system — reversing that order means designing against an assumption instead of a measurement.
• Keep engineering review and customer approval as two separate decisions even under schedule pressure. Merging them into one 'design approved' step removes the row where a technical problem (a wrong load assumption, a zoning conflict) gets caught before, rather than after, the customer has signed off.
• Don't treat the as-built update as optional paperwork. It's what makes the NEXT design-change request on the same system start from what's actually installed rather than from an original drawing that stopped being accurate the first time a field crew improvised a routing change.

Frequently asked questions