Engineering Change Management:

Moving away from paper-based engineering change, product development, and documentation processes frees you from the limitations that paper imposes. Cloud-based product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management system (QMS) software solutions are designed for electronic, real-time change management processes.

Create electronic engineering change orders (ECOs). Stop shuffling paper and create automated routings and reviews for internal and external teams.

Capture complete change history with a traceable audit trail. With electronic engineering change management, tracking review cycles and change history is easy. You don’t have to wade through file cabinets, binders, or depend on disconnected silos that are not connected to your parts, assemblies, documents, policies, quality, or training records.

Manage role-based access policies. Set up user permissions that ensure the right people can view and approve ECOs and related product information. When the administrative overhead of managing the engineering change process is handled electronically with PLM and QMS software, your resources are freed to focus on core competencies.

Group changes for multiple parts or assemblies in fewer ECOs. Don’t think part-bypart—think about the whole product being designed or changed. Your reviewers will thank you when they can see the big picture without having to wade through multiple ECOs.

Have changes to parts, assemblies, and documents automatically incorporated into the product record. Don’t rely on manual incorporation processes or reconciliation. You can set up your change and revision processes to ensure your affected product records are ready with updated information upon release.

The more time product teams and individual reviewers spend trying to understand an ECO, the longer the process takes.

Include only the information that is changing in the ECO. If you are asking for approval on a simple sourcing change, there’s no need to put the entire product specification in the ECO. Extraneous unchanging information just slows down the review process.

Attach relevant documentation to the ECO. Consider what information will help the team understand the nature and reason for the change. Do you have customer input? CAPA-driven resolutions? You can share information to give the reviewers the reason and impact for your changes.

Include redlined BOMs. Specifically, a redlined BOM that clearly indicates modified quantities, part numbers, reference designators, and makes it easy to see exactly what is changing. See an example below.

FIX #3: Route Electronic ECOs to All Internal Team Members and Partners

Once your engineering changes are managed online, it’s easier to track, review, and release changes to drive immediate product updates, especially with dispersed teams.

• Notify reviewers automatically. You can configure changes to automatically notify your change control board (CCB) or external reviewers via email with links to the related changes.
• Don’t limit visibility to the CCB. The change control board is not necessarily the only group that needs to know about pending ECOs. Let other people view and subscribe to product lines and related changes so that they are notified whenever ECOs have been submitted, modified, rejected, or approved.
• Create electronic approval traceability. Enable reviewers to approve or reject ECOs immediately, and let others see their decisions.
• Add additional reviewers on the fly. Your change boards likely comprise the same departments and players in most cases. However, you need the flexibility to add other reviewers or participants that may have additional responsibility or insights regarding certain product lines, types of changes, or unique situations. Your change management software should allow for adding ad hoc or additional reviewers as
  needed.

FIX #4: Route Your Changes to the Right People at Specific Stages Throughout the Product Lifecycle