Engineering Change Management

This Business Scenario Map is designed for all industries. It shows how engineers and a central configuration management work together in an internal engineering change process. It also shows that external partners, for example, customers can trigger and track the process. The folder illustrates the benefits of Engineering Change Management (ECM) as part of SAP PLM. External partners or internal colleagues who want to report an issue, can easily create a change notification on the Web. The notification is routed by workflow to the responsible agent in configuration management. After the decision has been made that a change is necessary, an Engineering Change Request (ECR) is created, and the affected objects are assigned. Afterwards, the internal change process is executed quickly using workflow. All agents involved are determined and notified automatically. After the final release of the change, the production orders affected are adapted, if necessary, to deliver products according to last minute changes. The result is an efficient management of engineering changes for the extended enterprise, which provides significant value potential especially in the areas of reduced cycle times and increased customer satisfaction.

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Value Potentials	Business Benefits
Up to 10% increased customer satisfaction*	External partners, e.g. customers send required changes quickly and easily via the web as change notifications
Up to 50% reduction in change cycle time*	Change notifications are checked quickly to trigger the appropriate follow-up activities, e.g. creation of Engineering Change Request (ECR)
	Workflow support throughout the entire change process: responsible agents are automatically determined and notified
	Data consumers can be involved in the approval process

Customer

Configuration Management

Engineering

Receive product according to required change

Track status

Send required change as change notification

Process OCM if necessary

Release ECO for subsequent areas

Approve ECR and convert into ECO

Check, create ECR and assign objects to be changed

Change affected objects with ECO

Check feasibility of changes for affected objects

Source:
* Discussions with Customers

The value potentials shown in this table have been reported by selected SAP customers or independent third parties as referenced herein. However, there is no guarantee that such value potentials can be realized in any particular customer-specific business processes, and SAP does not make any representations and disclaims any liability as to the appropriateness of the referenced value potentials for any specific customer situation.
©SAP AG 2008

Business Benefits	Value Potentials
Secure and reproducible change process for package of all objects affected by the change	Up to 20% improved data accuracy*
Phased release of the Engineering Change Order (ECO) to subsequent areas, e.g. Costing, Planning and Production	Up to 30% reduced time to volume*
Seamless, rule-based transfer of product structure changes to operative production order via Order Change Management (OCM)	Up to 50% reduced rework on orders*
Easy control and monitoring
Viewing and redlining used to provide feedback
Increased customer satisfaction by delivering products to customers, even with last minute changes
Optional use of change packages allow parallel change and release processes even for complex changes


Engineering Change Management Engineering Change Management (ECM) was found to be one of the key processes in the PLM area for several reasons: The history of objects, such as documents or BOMs has to be stored Changes should only be effective under defined conditions (effectivity parameters) The change process has to be documented The consistency of products can only be guaranteed if we use a formal and controlled change process All people affected (including data consumers) have to involved into the change process Thats why a comprehensive, flexible and workflow driven ECM is a centerpiece of the SAP PLM solution. First of all, different meta-objects are needed, which are used for the management and control of the change process. On the first optional level you need an object that is used to report all kinds of issues which might lead to an engineering change. This object, the change notification, is designed for external or occasional users who need an easy way to report issues on the web. The change notification is then routed by workflow to the responsible agent in configuration management, who uses the change notification to check the issue and to decide on appropriate follow-up activities. If the decision is made that an engineering change is necessary, an Engineering Change Request (ECR) is created on the basis of the change notification and both objects are linked afterwards. Now the affected objects (for example, documents, BOMs) are assigned. This can be done using drag & drop if the integrated product structure browser is used. Now the internal change process for the selected objects is started. In the next optional step, the feasibility and necessity of the change can be checked by responsible agents for all objects affected. If all objects can be changed, the approval process can be started. Now all departments affected by the change can be involved. Viewing and Redlining can be used to view documents and to provide feedback electronically during the process. If everybody has approved the changes, the ECR can be converted into an Engineering Change Order (ECO) for the physical change of the affected objects. Therefore, the objects are sent to the responsible agents who make the changes. The changes do not become effective until the responsible agent in configuration management has released the ECO. With the release, changes are effective for the effectivity parameters, for example, valid-from-dates or serialnumbers, which are used in the ECO. The release itself can happen either in one step as a general release or using a so called release key as a phased release, which allows the release for different areas, such as costing or production, step by step. If changes are released for running production orders, the Order Change Management (OCM) process is triggered. In this process, changes can be adopted to running production orders in a controlled process taking into account the current status of the production order. Effectively, ECM provides everything needed to set up fast, effective and secure change processes, which ensure data accuracy and consistency. Changes can be transferred seamlessly to subsequent areas such as costing and production and this leads to reduced efforts and rework in these areas and finally to increased customer satisfaction.