ECR Lifecycle

The ECR lifecycle is a route-based process that provides dynamic route-based reviews. ECRs cannot be created in this release but you can complete the lifecycle of any ECR that was created in an earlier release.

To conduct the reviews, change responsibility was assigned to a specific organization when the ECR was created. This change organization manages all predefined information and determines the ECR Coordinator and ECR Chairman for the ECR. Within the organization, there are members with these roles, as well as one "lead" person assigned to these roles. There are also route templates to manage tasks, a distribution list to manage notifications, and reviewer lists (the list of people that must sign or approve the ECR before it is promoted to a specified state).

The ECR is processed by moving it through the states in its lifecycle. The ECR owner connects supporting documents and promotes the ECR to the Submit state, where the ECR Coordinator assigns a Responsible Design Engineer and promotes the ECR to the Evaluate state. Only the owner of an ECR can change its state.

Each time the ECR is promoted or demoted, a PDF report is generated and checked into the ECR. In any state before Plan ECO, the owner can cancel the ECR.

Information on the deprecated ECR (Standard) policy is no longer included in this guide. For details on the ECR (Standard) policy, consult the AEF guide for version V6R2009x or earlier.

The ECR lifecycle includes these states:

This page discusses:

Create

ECRs cannot be created in this release but legacy ECRs may still be in the Create state. When the ECR was created, the creator assigned an organization to have change responsibility to manage all predefined information.

The ECR originator can attach parts and specifications that this change affects. After building the ECR, the originator promotes it to the Submit state. A system ensures that the change responsibility has been defined and that there is an ECR Coordinator defined within that organization.

Submit

As the ECR enters the Submit state, the owner changes, and the ECR is routed to the ECR Coordinator who is the responsible change organization defined in the lead role (if there is more than one) as ECR Coordinator. The ECR type must be classified as either an ECR or a Deviation Change Request (DCR). The ECR Coordinator can determine the classification by selecting TRUE or FALSE from the Deviation Process list on the Editing ECR Details page. If TRUE is selected, when the ECR is promoted to the Evaluate state, the ECR type changes from ECR to DCR and the ECR policy from ECR to DCR.

In the Submit state, the ECR Coordinator decides whether the change is required and if it is explained in sufficient detail. If clarification is required, the ECR Coordinator demotes the ECR to the Create state and it is reassigned to the originator to make required changes.

If the ECR is acceptable, the ECR Coordinator assigns a Responsible Design Engineer and one or more additional assignees who have the same access as the owner of the ECR. The Responsible Design Engineer is the lead engineer for evaluating the change and can reassign assignee resources as required. The Responsible Design Engineer can be any user with the Design Engineer or Manufacturing Engineer role who is a member of the organization that is assigned change responsibility or design responsibility.

The ECR Coordinator, the ECR Evaluator, and any assignees can add proposed changes and become assigned to the proposed change. Their names will appear on the ECR Assignees page.

The ECR Coordinator chooses a reviewer list route template to create the standard route for the ECR.

The ECR Coordinator promotes the ECR to the Evaluate state. All assignees and the Responsible Engineer receive notifications.

Evaluate

As the ECR enters the Evaluate state, the owner is automatically changed to the specified ECR Evaluator / Responsible Design Engineer, who is the assignee of all proposed changes added by the ECR Coordinator and the Responsible Design Engineer. The ECR is routed to that person and to all assignees for other proposed changes.

In the Evaluate state, the Responsible Design Engineer and assignees review the change description, any supporting documentation, and the parts and specifications attached, and check that all part dispositions are set correctly. The Responsible Design Engineer can also attach additional parts and drawings or even change some of the existing connections based on specific knowledge of how the change is actually likely to be done. The Responsible Design Engineer also assigns users to the reviewer list for use in the Review state.

If clarification is required, the Responsible Design Engineer demotes the ECR back to the Submit state and it is automatically reassigned back to the ECR Coordinator.

When the Responsible Design Engineer or an assignee adds proposed changes to the ECR, that person becomes the assignee of that proposed change. Also, if they create a markup (BOM or Item) for a proposed change, the proposed change assignee becomes the owner of the markup and has the authority to approve it for implementation or reject it. Before the ECR can be promoted, all attached markups (BOM or Item) must be approved or rejected by the owning assignee.

If the ECR is acceptable, the Responsible Design Engineer promotes it to the Review state. The system check ensures that the change responsibility has been defined, that there is an ECR Chairman defined within that organization, and a reviewer list has been assigned.

On promotion to the Review state, a route is created and started using the template from the reviewer list with a Route Base Purpose set to "Standard" and a Route Completion Action set to "Promote Connected Objects." All tasks must be completed before the ECR can be promoted from Review to Plan ECO. The owner of the route is the current ECR owner, usually the Responsible Design Engineer. When all tasks are complete, the route owner is notified and can then promote the ECR. If a route already exists, which may happen on demote and subsequent promote, then a new route is not created but a message is sent to the route owner (Responsible Design Engineer) to restart the route.

Review

As the ECR enters the Review state, the owner is automatically changed to the ECR Chairman and the ECR is routed to that person.

In this state, the ECR Chairman and the people assigned to the reviewer list review the ECR, all supporting documentation, and the BOM and Item Markups. They either approve or reject the ECR by approving or rejecting their assigned route tasks.

If one or more route tasks are rejected, the ECR cannot be promoted. In this case, the ECR Chairman needs to evaluate the rejected comments. If the ECR Chairman feels the ECR needs more work, then he rejects his task and demotes the ECR back to the Evaluate state where the ECR approvers and assignees are able to add the proposed changes that need additional work. The Responsible Design Engineer must then promote the ECR again when it is ready for review.

The ECR Chairman can also cancel the ECR, as long as there are no applied markups attached to the ECR.

When the last signature (the ECR Chairman) is approved, the ECR auto-promotes to the Plan ECO state.

Plan ECO

As the ECR enters the Plan ECO state, the owner is automatically changed to the Responsible Design Engineer and the ECR is routed to that person.

The Responsible Design Engineer assigns the proposed changes to a new or existing ECO for implementation. This is done through the Assign to ECO menu command on the ECR Proposed Changes page. This menu is active only when the ECR is in the Plan ECO state. The engineer selects one or more items to add to the ECO.

Complete

As the ECR enters the Complete state, the owner is automatically changed to a special user in the system named "Corporate." This has the effect of locking down the ECR so no additional changes can be made and it removes the ECR from the engineer's desk.

The ECR can be promoted to this state manually from Plan ECO or when any ECO attached to this ECR reaches the Released state.

Canceled

In any state before Plan ECO, the ECR can be canceled by the ECR owner or any ECR Chairman in the organization that has change responsibility for the ECR. This halts the ECR's lifecycle and ends the change management process for its proposed changes.

When an ECR is canceled, the following actions are performed:

  • All proposed changes connected to the ECR are disconnected.
  • All routes connected to the ECR are disconnected. The route owner receives notification that the route has been canceled. If the ECR is the only content of the route, the route is stopped.
  • Route templates connected to ECR are disconnected.
  • All assignees, distribution list, and reviewer list members, as well as the ECR originator are notified that the ECR has been canceled.
  • The ECR is promoted to the Canceled state.