Engineering change orders¶
Use engineering change orders (ECOs) to track, implement, and revert change versions made to products and bills of materials.
Engineering change orders can be created in three ways:
Directly in the ECO type.
Automatically during an update instructions request in Shop Floor
Automatically from feedback submitted to the ECO type’s email alias.
Create ECO¶
Engineers and Shop Floor operators can suggest changes in two ways.
Create ECO in PLM¶
To create a new ECO, begin by navigating to the PLM app. Click the # Engineering Changes button on the ECO type that should be used to track the progress of the change. On the Engineering Change Orders page, click the New button in the top-left corner.
Note
ECO types categorize and organize change orders. Doing so can ensure that employees only view the ECOs related to their responsibilities, whether it involves new product introductions, targeted product line updates, or regulatory compliance fulfillment.
On the ECO form, fill in the following fields accordingly:
Description: Enter a brief summary of the improvement.
Type: Specify the ECO type project for organizing the ECOs.
Apply on: Specify if the ECO changes the version of the Bill of Materials or the Product Only.
Product: Indicate the product being improved.
Bill of Materials: Specify the changed BoM. This field auto-populates if the product in the Product field has an existing BoM. If multiple BoMs exist, select the intended BoM from the drop-down menu.
Important
A Product must be selected before the Bill of Materials options are available.
Company: In multi-company databases, specify if the change applies to products in a specific company, or leave blank if the change applies to all companies.
Note
The Company field is only available when multiple companies are enabled. See Multi-company.
Responsible: Assign a user to be in charge of this ECO. (Optional)
Effective Date: Specify when the ECO becomes live. If nothing is entered in this field, the ECO will go into effect As soon as possible, or as soon as an authorized user applies the changes. Otherwise, specify a date and time.
Tags are assigned to ECOs for prioritization and organization. Create a new tag by typing the name in the field and selecting Create from the drop-down menu. (Optional)
Update Version: Select this checkbox to update the version of the BoM or product when the ECO becomes effective.
After completing the ECO form, click the Start Revision button to begin implementing the changes.
When clicking Start Revision, four actions occur:
The Documents smart button appears, storing the relevant files of the BoM.
A copy of the production BoM is stored in the Revision smart button of the ECO. The next available version number (e.g.,
V2,V3, …) is also assigned to keep track of all BoM versions.The Review Changes button appears, where all changes made to the ECO can be reviewed.
The stages of the ECO Type display at the top of the ECO.
Note
The Revision smart button is available only when the Bill of Materials radio button is selected in the Apply on field and the Start Revision button has been pressed.
Create ECO in Shop Floor¶
ECOs can also be created from the Shop Floor module during the manufacturing process.
Open the module. Open a work order from the Overview or a work center view.
In the work order card, click the (vertical ellipsis) button in the bottom corner. The Options pop-up window opens.
Click the Update Instructions button. Then, select Add/Modify Step. Then, select one of the options from this menu:
Update Instructions: Select a step to update its instructions.
Delete a Step: Select a step to delete.
Add a Step: To add a step, select the step that should come before it.
Complete the form for the suggestion, then click Propose Change. An ECO is created for the suggested change.
Example
An operator suggested adding a quality check step to the Assembly operation for MO WH/MO/00001 (Table) to verify the leg angles post-installation.
Review proposed changes in the PLM app.
Change components¶
To modify the components in a BoM, click the Revision smart button on an ECO to access the new version of the BoM. Odoo distinguishes the non-production version of the BoM from the current version by flagging the test BoM with a large Archived tag.
Example
After clicking the Start Revision button for an ECO for the Table product, make
changes to the product’s BoM by clicking the Revision smart button. Doing so opens
the archived BoM, marked with a large red Archived flag.
On the new BoM, in the Components tab, modify the components list by changing the Quantity of existing components, adding new components using the Add a line link, and removing components with the (Delete row) icon.
Example
In version two of the BoM for a table, the table top component is changed to a Fancy Table
Top, the Bolt components are removed, and 10 Wood Plug components are added.
Change operations¶
To modify the operations in a BoM, click the Revision smart button on an ECO to access the archived, new version of the BoM. Odoo distinguishes the non-production version of the BoM from the current version by flagging the test BoM with a large Archived tag.
In the new BoM version, open the Operations tab to view and edit BoM operations. To make changes, select each operation, which opens an Open: Operations pop-up window.
Note
The Operations tab is not available by default. To enable it, navigate to , and select the Work Orders checkbox.
Modify any of the fields in the Open: Operations pop-up window. Create new operations by clicking the Add a line button. Remove operations by clicking the (Delete row) icon.
When changes are complete, click Save.
Compare changes and costs¶
Changes and tests are encapsulated in the revised BoM, and do not affect the BoM currently used in production until the changes are applied.
To compare a revised BoM to the previous version, navigate to the ECO for that BoM in either of these ways:
From the revised BoM, click the ECO name (for example,
ECO0005: Improve...) in the breadcrumbs located in the top-left corner. Then, click the Review Changes smart button.From the PLM Overview, click the # Engineering Changes button on the BOM Updates Kanban card. Click the Kanban card for the appropriate ECO to open it, then click the Review Changes smart button at the top of the ECO form.
Clicking the Review Changes smart button on the ECO form opens the ECO Changes Summary report. On this page, all changes are displayed. The changes are color-coded:
Green text indicates the component or operation was added to the BoM.
Red text indicates the component or operation was removed from the BoM.
Blue text indicates that the component or operation was modified.
The change type (Add, Remove, or Update) appears next to the change.
This report also lists the costs associated with changes to the BoM. Costs are pulled from the Cost field on the product form and the Costing Information on the work center form. Costs are listed in the BoM Cost field for each change.
The list of component changes appears first in the report:
Component: Lists the name of the component.
Description: Displays a description of the product if one is included on the product form.
Quantity: Displays the quantity and unit of measure being changed.
The list of Operations changes appears after the component changes. The name of the operation is listed for every operation change. If instructions are updated as part of the change, its name and type is included on its own line. The Duration change is also listed.
Finally, the total cost change appears at the bottom of the report. If total cost change is less than the previous BoM, the cost change appears in green. If the total cost change is more than the previous BoM, the cost change appears in red.
Example
View the summary of the differences between the current and revised keyboard BoMs in the ECO Changes Summary report of the ECO.
Apply changes¶
After verifying the changes, move the ECO to a verification stage, which are stages that require approval before the revised changes can be applied to the production BoM.
Approvers can Approve or Reject the changes.
After the approvers approve the changes, the Apply Changes button becomes available.
Note
The Apply Changes button may be in a different stage than the approval stage.
Click Apply Changes to automatically move the ECO to a closing stage. The changes are applied, which archives the original production BoM, and the revised BoM becomes the new production BoM.
Verify changes¶
To ensure the changes are live, from the ECO where the Apply Changes button was pressed, return to the revised BoM by clicking the Revision smart button.
On the revised BoM, the large red Archived flag is removed.
To further verify the changes, check the production BoM by going to and opening the bill of materials.
In the Miscellaneous tab of the BoM, the Version field is updated to match the version number shown on the Revision smart button of the latest ECO.
Example
After applying the changes of the ECO for the table, view the version of the current table BoM in the
Miscellaneous tab. Here, the Version number has been updated to 2,
matching the V2 that appears in the Revision smart button of the ECO.
View changes¶
To review proposed changes, navigate to the . In the ECO type card, the # Engineering Changes button represents the number of operational changes created.
Click on the # Engineering Changes button to open the Kanban view of the ECO type. To
view the suggestion, select an ECO in the New stage.
On the ECO, view a summary of the proposed changes in two ways:
From the Revision smart button
From the Review Changes smart button
Example
An operator suggested verifying the angle of the table legs after they had been installed by
adding a step while performing the Assembly operation for the MO
WH/MO/00001 for the product, Table.
Then, this created ECO can be viewed by navigating to the BOM Changes ECO type found in
.
The Responsible field is assigned to the operator who made the suggestion, allowing the employee revising the BoM to seek further clarification from the person who proposed the changes.
On the revised BoM, switch to the Operations tab and select the operation. Doing so
opens a list of Steps to perform the operation, with the newest instruction titled New
Step Suggestion:, followed by the user-entered title. Click the line item to view the suggested
changes.
