Implementing Engineering Change Order (ECO)

Implementing Engineering Change Order (ECO)

Responsibility = Manufacturing and Distribution Manager1.Navigate to the Engineering Change Orders window. (N) Engineering > ECOs> ECOs2.Use F11 to start a query.3.Enter the following data:- ECO Number = "enter the ECO number you wish to query"4.Use Ctrl F11 to run the query.5.(M) Tools > Implement (B) Yes6.Ensure that the request is completed. (M) View > RequestsView the components on the primary Bill of Material7.Navigate to the Bills of Material window. (N) Bills of Materials > Bills > Bills8.Use F11 to start a query9.Enter the following data:- Item = "(XX 1000-User Defined Item Number)"10.Use Ctrl F11 to run the query.

11. Select the ECO tab to view the change order.12.Close the window.

Oracle ECO Approval process and shortcomings

With the environment of a company becoming more and more dynamic, the pressure on engineering processes to accommodate for changes is ever increasing. For such changes to yield engineering efficiencies, an arrangement can be formulized whereby they cannot become effective until a responsible agent releases an Engineering Change Order (ECO). Being an essential component of Engineering Change Management, an ECO is a written document authorizing to incorporate changes in the scope of the engineering process. An ECO specifies changes to one or more items that are logically related to each other, such as a new product introduction, changes to BOM structure of an assembly item, component item revision changes and so on. In oracle EBS system, each ECO specifies changes for one or more revised items and each revised item change can be associated with one or more of its corresponding revised component changes. Depending on the ECO type, an ECO can be enabled to revise/update only manufacturing items and bills, or be enabled to revise/update both manufacturing and engineering items and bills. An ECO can update prototype and/or production routings too.

Every ECO needs to be approved before it can be implemented in real-time. Standard functionalities of the Oracle EBS support manual maintenance of static approval lists for this purpose. The Engineering change order processes involve workflow based and non-workflow based approval methods. When the ECO is submitted for approval through a standard EBS workflow, the approvers specified in the static approval list receive workflow notifications or email that the corresponding ECO is awaiting their approval. The static approval list comprises of a set of active employees (recommended to be apps users) in the system designated as Approvers, represented by an approval list name. The lists name is the identifier referenced on every ECO while the approvers of that list are the identified stakeholders for approval of that document. Depending on the ECO type and priority, one of the seeded approval workflow processes is chosen on the ECO based on the application module setups. Depending on the logic of the workflow process being selected, the analysis of approval is performed based on the responses provided by the approvers of the static list. Upon completion of this vote analysis process, the ECO is considered Approved or Rejected and its status changes accordingly. Only an approved ECO can be implemented.

The advantages of this standard EBS methodology are the ease of control and reduction in system complexity. Also, the number of approvers in each approval list is unconfined. However, the downside to this approach is that even a minor change of adding a new approver to the approval list requires creation of a new approval list because, any change to the original approval list would affect all ECOs referencing the same-which may not always be necessary. Also, the addition and/or removal of approvers from/to an existing approval list is a manual task involving a lot of intra-organizational communication and involves considerable time and effort in this decision making. In essence, the revised items and revised components on the ECO and their nature determine the approvers for that Engineering change. An automated approach of maintaining a system generated ECO specific approval list is dealt in my whitepaper.

Approvers of an ECO are the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly affected across the supply-chain due to the proposed changes for the respective items being revised by that document. These stakeholders normally include Buyers for purchased components, Industrial Engineers, Planners, Quality Engineers, Customer Sales representatives and other stakeholders of the management committee. Though not all items being revised on the ECO directly affect all of the above mentioned types (groups) of stakeholders, the changes proposed for these items can trigger the alteration of the nature of other related items of the supply chain that eventually require action from their respective stakeholders. For Example, when a raw component item undergoes revision change, it can affect the finished assemblies (which uses the component item) being manufactured by the organization and/or may mandate quality compliance testing to adhere to the industry standards and/or may require advanced planning of all other raw materials along with the revised item in order to cater to the upcoming customer demands and/or to manage customer expectations based on the ultimate results/effects of the ECO.

In the EBS system, the identification of approvers for every ECO depends on the Bills of Material (BOM) of every ECO revised item or the revised component. Every item being revised may either be Make or a Buy item depending on whether it is the assembly or the component of the Bills of Material respectively. For every ECO revised item, there is a need to identify its full product exposure at all BOM levels to identify all other affected items relating to the revised item. For each of these identified items, the responsible stakeholders or approvers as described above are to be identified manually and added to a new approval list. For instance, even in an ECO comprising of just 2 revised purchased items P1 and P2 which are raw components of a single level BOM, the minimum number of affected items would be P1 and P2 and the parent assemblies of these two. This totals to minimum of 4 affected items, each of which may determine at least 1 stakeholder each, directly or indirectly affected due to the revision changes on that ECO. In such a case, each of these individual stakeholders is to be added to the static approval list on the ECO. This is a time consuming process and redundantly increases the cycle time of implementation of the Engineering change. Moreover, the number of such static lists grows by time due to the volume of ECOs being implemented in the organization, thus eventually increasing scope for errors and chances of delays.

According to an automotive manufacturer organization in Michigan, USA, the Engineering change coordinators spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours for every ECO in identifying all required approvers who need to be included in the approval cycle depending on the ECO complexity.

The focus of my white paper is to automate this task of stakeholder identification within the EBS R12 environment and reduce this effort to mere mouse clicks.

Please let me know if anyone would be interested to learn more about my approach and access my white paper and source-code in relation to accomplishing the same.

Oracle Engineering - Setup steps

Step 1: Set Profile Options (Must)Set the Engineering profile options for a) ENG: Change Order Autonumbering System Administrator Accessb) ENG: ECO Departmentc) ENG: ECO Revision Warningd) ENG: Engineering Item Change Order Accesse) ENG: Mandatory ECO Departmentsf) ENG: Model Item Change Order Accessg) ENG: Planning Item Change Order Access

Step 2: Enter Employee (Must)Define employees for your organization. ECO requestors and approvers must be defined as employees

Step 3: Define Change Order Types (Optional)You can assign a change order type to your ECOs, either using the ECO change order type that Oracle Engineering provides or choosing a change order type from any number of types you define using your own terminology, such as Design Revision, Manufacturing Change etc

Step 4: Define ECO Departments (Optional)You can group users that use the engineering change order (ECO) system through ECO departments, creating multiple ECO departments within your Inventory organization.

Step 5: Define Autonumbering (Optional)You can define customized autonumbering (for a user, organization, or site) for new ECOs or mass change orders

Step 6: Define Approval Lists (Optional)You can define lists of approvers required to approve an ECO before itcan be released

Step 7: Define Material Dispositions (Optional)You can define your own customized material dispositions, and then assign them to revised items when defining ECOs

Step 8: Define Material Dispositions (Optional)You can define your own customized material dispositions, and then assign them to revised items when defining ECOs

Step 9: Define Priorities (Optional)You can define scheduling priorities for engineering changes to describe the urgency of your ECO

Step 10: Start AutoImplement Manager (Optional)If you automatically implement ECOs, you must specify the frequency that you want the AutoImplement manager to run

Click on revised items to enter revised items, BOM and routing information.

http://oracleappscommunity.com/oracle/blog/1941/engineering-change-order/

Click ECO Revision.

Click revised items.

Manual implementation

Automatic Implementation

This program implements all scheduled ECOs. Item status should be scheduled and specify an effective date.

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