The VISIBILITY Change Control system is an optional part of the Engineering module. If implemented, this system controls changes to parts, bills of material, part drawings and bill of material drawings defined in the VISIBILITY Engineering Workbench module. If any changes are required, it should go through this module.
The extensive recording of text with the change control facility lets you document, for example, why specific parts were revised, who was involved, and the length of time for the revision. ECRs and ECNs provide an overview of parts and assemblies under review to help you time their production or purchase.
The Change Control system consists of two subsystems:
Engineering Change Request (ECR) and
Engineering Change Notice (ECN)
To make changes to actual data, an ECR record is created and then it is processed to create the ECN record. Once the ECN record is approved, the changes can be applied to the actual data using the Apply ECN process. It is not necessary to create an ECR record to generate the ECN; ECN records can be generated without an ECR record.
The Change Control system has the following features and functions:
Full ECR and ECN capability for parts, part drawings, bills of material, bill of material drawings.
Authorization tracking
User declared fields under revision control
Batch ECN capability
Processing based on the last revision of a particular part
ECR/ECN control is in effect if the Eng Change Control Enabled field on the MC Option Value for Engineering form in Master Control is set to True. Refer to the VISIBILITY Master Control User Guide for more information.
The ECR subsystem allows the entry of Engineering Change Requests. A request can be made to change parts, bills of material, part drawings or bill of material drawings. Each request records the originator of the request, the status of the ECR, the reason for the proposed change, the request date, a disposition date and a disposition code.
Each ECR has an associated list of parts. Each one of these ECR detail records has a disposition date, a disposition code, the transaction type (add, change, delete, replace) and an authorization code. ECR details will not be required since the specifics of the proposed change may not be known at the time of entry.
For each ECR detail record, the following associated tables are available to hold all the fields that exist on the bills of material tables:
ECR_PARTMASTER,
ECR_PART_DRAWING,
ECR_BOM,
ECR_BOM_DRAWING,
These tables also contain a type and status field. As with the ECR detail record, entry is optional.
A DOCUMENT_CROSS_REFERENCE table is also available in the ECR Part Drawing and BOM Drawing subsystem. This table contains a file path name to a document outside of the VISIBILITY system. Only the path name is ECR controlled.
The ECN subsystem interfaces with the ECR system and is used to create the formal Engineering Change Notice. ECRs designate a Request for change; ECNs designate the Notice of an approved engineering change.
ECN tables mirror ECR tables with some slight variances. There is an ECN_ECR_CROSS_REFERENCE table that tracks all the ECRs being addressed by the ECN. However, an ECN can be created without a corresponding ECR.
Data must be made directly by the user to the ECN_DETAIL table or automatically by the system using the Load ECN from ECR process before the ECN can be completed.
Two new sets of information are stored, allowing the user to declare which fields of the PARTMASTER and BOMS tables are under revision control.
The global component replacement capability of the change control system allows an ECR or ECN bill of material component to be replaced with a different component on every ECR/ECN and engineering bill of material that the component resides in.