ECO Lifecycle

The ECO is processed by moving it through the states in its lifecycle. For example, in the first state, a new ECO is created and connected to the appropriate ECR object. The owner assigns a Responsible Design Engineer and a Responsible Manufacturing Engineer and then promotes the ECO to the Define Components state, where parts and drawing prints are attached to the ECO. The Responsible Design Engineer promotes the ECO to the Design Work state, and so on. Only the owner of a ECO can change its state.

If the ECO is in a route, the route may be set up to prevent the ECO from being promoted until the route is complete.

The following describes the states included in the ECO (Standard) lifecycle:

Create

An ECO's name is automatically generated and it is connected to the appropriate ECRs using the Create ECO Page. The ECO Originator assigns the Responsible Design Engineer and the Responsible Manufacturing Engineer. The ECO Originator then promotes the ECO object to the Define Components state.

Define Components

As the ECO enters the Define ECO Components state, an action fires that automatically routes the ECO to the user who is the Responsible Design Engineer. The Responsible Design Engineer reviews the ECRs that are attached to the ECO and determines which parts and drawing prints need to be attached to the ECO. The Responsible Design Engineer uses the Create Part and Create Drawing pages to create/revise and attach these objects to the ECO using the appropriate relationships. The Responsible Design Engineer fills in the appropriate Disposition Code and Change Description attributes that are on the relationships. The Responsible Design Engineer then promotes the ECO to the Design Work state.

Design Work

As the ECO enters the Design Work state, the permissions change that prevent any relationships from being made or broken. Once in the Design Work state, the Responsible Design Engineer notifies Draftsmen and Design Engineers that they have work to do on this ECO and indicates which parts and drawing prints they are responsible for completing by making them the owner of these objects as required.

These other Design Engineers and Draftsmen perform whatever CAD and Bill of Material work is necessary to ready these objects for review. Once they have performed all the necessary work, they notify the Responsible Design Engineer that s/he can review the package.

If the package is not acceptable, the Responsible Design Engineer notifies the user responsible for making the correction.

If the package is acceptable, the Responsible Design Engineer signs and promotes the drawing prints and parts to the Review state.

When any affected item connected to the ECO is promoted to the Approved state, all other affected items connected to the ECO are checked to see if they also are in the Approved state. If all affected items are in the Approved state, the ECO is automatically promoted to the Review state. If any single affected item connected to the ECO is a state prior to Approved, the ECO is not promoted to the Review state. A configurable trigger prevents the ECO from manually being promoted to the Review state unless all affected items are have been approved. See the Engineering Central Administrator Guide for details.

Review

As the ECO enters the Review ECO state, an action fires that automatically routes the ECO to the user who is the Responsible Manufacturing Engineer. The Responsible Manufacturing Engineer reviews the disposition codes and sets the effectivity dates on the new parts accordingly. S/he may also update other part attributes like Lead Time and Estimated Cost. If the package is not acceptable, s/he demotes the ECO back to the Design Work state, which automatically notifies the Responsible Design Engineer.

If the package is acceptable, the Responsible Manufacturing Engineer promotes the ECO to the Release state. By default, all affected items are also automatically promoted to the Release state. This is configurable. See the Engineering Central Administrator Guide for details.

Release

As the ECO enters the Release state, an action fires that automatically changes the owner of the ECO to be a special user in the system "Corporate." This locks down the ECO so no additional changes can be made and removes the ECO from the engineer's desk.

Implemented

The ECO Implemented state closes the loop of the change process. This state provides verification and visibility that a change, as published by Engineering, has in fact been implemented in the factories. It is a "closure" check to ensure that other processes have worked.