High-performance polymer composites are mainly used in applications where the benefits of high strength and low weight justify the high material and manufacturing costs. Many of these applications are found today in the aerospace, space and defense industries. Most of today’s commonly used manufacturing methods within this area are highly labor intensive. Furthermore, the quality requirements from the customers require a high level of process control. The purpose of this paper is to explore how changes that are introduced in order to improve productivity in a manufacturing system are managed, particularly with regard to who takes the decision to implement a change and how a change is validated. The study is based on qualitative interviews performed at several companies that manufacture composite components for the aerospace, space and defense sectors. The findings show that the responsibility for deciding to implement a change and the need for validating it are based on many diverse and interconnected factors. Therefore, it is difficult to construct guidelines for early assessment of the scope and cost of a proposed change. Hence each individual change request must be evaluated on its own. The study also shows that the validation process can be adapted to a level that is based on the type of change. In addition, it highlights that control over process parameters in manufacturing is essential.