Engineering Change

The life cycle of an engineering change notice (ECN) would typically include its creation, possibly as a copy of an existing one. Details could then be altered and the first modification number for the ECN could be defined. The various times and costs associated with the change notice may then be added. These times are utilised in the calculation of various dates. The costs are used in the cost profile enquiries. Narrative and instructions pertaining to the ECN can be entered via screen formats provided.

At some point, the design stage will be completed and a format is provided to change the ECN’s status to “designed”. The notice would then be given authorisation to be implemented as planned and it would then be instigated. If at any time there is a need to halt the engineering change, its status may be changed to "Frozen".

A list of parts under change as a result of the ECN may be enquired upon. Also a list of parent structures affected by the change can be generated and then deleted. The status can be updated or reversed by batch routines and the calculation of the various dates is provided in the form of a batch routine. Those component parts replaced in bills of material as a result of engineering change modifications can be reported upon through a batch routine.

An engineering change may have a number of modifications, which affect different facets of the part under change. There are eight modification types:

• Process - enables processes to be added, changed or deleted for parts affected by the modification
• BOM - allows changes in the structure of bills of material by replacing existing parts or combinations of parts and usages by new parts and usages: for example every time 1 of A, 2 of B and 3 of C are found in the bill of material, they are replaced by 2 of E and 1 of D
• Part Status - provides a mechanism to change the current status of a part
• Part Obsolescence - renders a part obsolete from a particular date
• Narrative - alters the associated narrative of a part
• Detail BOM Link - to add, change or delete details of a BOM link e.g. usage
• Detail Model/Component Group BOM Link - to add, change and delete a model/component group BOM
• Detail Configured BOM Link - to add, change and delete a configured BOM.

When an Engineering Change reaches the status of Design Complete, the members of an Approval List will be informed that they have outstanding Engineering Changes to action. If an Approved Engineering Change has its status returned to “Design Complete” or “Entered”, members of the Approval List will once again be informed that they have outstanding Engineering Change details to action. Rejection of the Engineering Change by a member of an Approval List will result in the freezing of the approval sequence until the objection has been resolved.

Finally, once the engineering change has been implemented and completed, it will be deleted. In manufacturing organisations where the requirement is to concurrently build two or more revisions of an end-product utilising the same manufacturing facilities, the Engineering Change Control application will support the control and management of such a product configuration.