Eng. Change Orders
The Eng. Change Order is used to combine several changes. If an Eng. Change Notice is created, it can have several effects. Several departments can be affected. This means that production triggers an Eng. Change Notice and transmits it to the product data manager, who in turn creates a change order and then anchors all further necessary steps.
Tasks can be assigned to responsible users, activated automatically based on predecessor relationships, and trigger external business events for workflow automation.
General FastTab
In some change scenarios, the available reference at this stage is the drawing rather than an item. In these cases, an Eng. Change Order can be maintained with a drawing reference, subject to the release validation rules described below.
The fields on the General FastTab are described in the following table.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Change Reason Code | Specifies the reason for the change order. |
| Change Reason Description | Basic description that defaults from the Change Reason Code, for example a drawing change. |
| Item No. | Number of the BOM item affected by the change. For status Released, this field is required when the Drawing No. field is blank. If a Drawing No. is set, the Item No. field can remain blank. If the Eng. Change Notice No. is linked and an Item No. is entered, the value must match the linked Eng. Change Notice item when that item is set. |
| Item Description | Description of the relevant item in the BOM. |
| Drawing Release Blocked | Indicates whether the changed drawings can be released before all tasks of the change order have been completed. |
| Drawing No. / Drawing Type Code | Used together to specify the drawing for the Drawing Search and Drawing Where-Used actions. |
| Eng. Change Notice No. | Indicates the number of the related Eng. Change Notice, which can be opened via the drop-down arrow. To open the source document that was used to create the Eng. Change Notice and subsequent Eng. Change Order, choose the Open ECN Source Document action. |
| No. of Documents to Change | Number of documents that need to be changed. The documents to be changed are defined by choosing the Documents action on the Process menu. |
| All Tasks Completed | Indicates whether the change orders to be completed have been processed. The options are: - Yes: The status in all change order lines on the Tasks FastTab is Finished. - No: Not all change order lines have the status Finished. |
| Status | Status of Eng. Change Orders. The options are Open, Released, and Finished. When changing to Released, a Change Reason Code is required. An Item No. is required if the Drawing No. field is blank. |
| Creation Date | Date on which the Eng. Change Order was created. |
| Created By | User who has created the change order. |
| Change Description Format | Determines if the change description uses plain text or rich text (HTML) formatting. Defaults from the Eng. Change Text Format setting in Product Data Management Setup. For more information, see Rich Text Editing. |
| Change Description | User-defined field where a summary of the necessary changes can be entered if the Change Description Format field is set to Plain Text. For more information, see Rich Text Editing. |
Change Description FastTab
The Change Description FastTab is displayed when the Change Description Format field is set to Rich text (HTML). It provides a rich text editor for entering a formatted summary of the necessary changes.
For more information, see Rich Text Editing.
Tasks FastTab
The tasks that are carried out at the end of the change are stored in the Tasks FastTab. Tasks can be created manually or by applying a task template using the Apply Task Template action.
Tasks are activated automatically based on their predecessor relationships:
- When the Eng. Change Order status changes to Released, tasks with no open predecessors are activated.
- When a task is completed, its successor tasks are activated once all their predecessors are finished.
The fields on this FastTab are described in the following table.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Task No. | Optional task number for this line, to be referenced by the Previous Task No. field. |
| Previous Task No. | Optional task number, a pipe-separated list of task numbers, or a range of task numbers (for example, 10..20) that must be completed before the current task can be started or completed. Used with the Task No. field. |
| Work Center Group Code | Code of the production work center group. Use this field for standard task lines. If a value is entered in the Sub Eng. Change Order No. field, this field must be empty. For more information, see Hierarchical Planning with Sub Orders. |
| Work Center Group Code | Code of work center group from production. |
| Work Center Group Name | Name of the work center group from production. |
| Sub Eng. Change Order No. | Number of a linked sub engineering change order that is processed as part of this task line. On the task lines subpage, choose the AssistEdit button when this field is empty to create a new sub order and open it directly. For more information, see Hierarchical Planning with Sub Orders. |
| Task Description | Description of the task to be performed. You can include #ITEMNO# and #ITEMDESCRIPTION# placeholders. When the Duplicate action is used, these placeholders are replaced with the item number and item description of each selected item. |
| Due Date | Date on which the task should be completed. |
| Status | Current status of the task line processing. The options are Not Started, In Progress, and Completed. |
| Assigned to | Responsible person for the task. Pre-filled from the Eng. Task Template when applied, but can be edited manually. |
| Processed By | User who processed the task. This field is automatically set to the current user when the status changes to In Progress. When the status changes to Completed , it is set to the current user only if it is currently empty. You can also edit it manually to document substitutions. For more information, see Update Processed By Field. |
| Completed on | Date when the task was completed. This field is automatically set to the working date when the status changes to Completed. |
Notification and Automation
An external business event is triggered when tasks are activated (on Eng. Change Order release or when predecessors are completed). You can use this event to build workflows and notifications using Power Automate or other automation tools.
The notification email is derived in the following order:
- User Setup email
- User Contact email
- Work Center Group email
For more information, see the API documentation.
Hierarchical Planning with Sub Orders
Sub orders are used when an engineering change requires work across multiple areas or teams that each need their own separate order, tasks, and lifecycle. Instead of managing all tasks in a single flat list, you can structure the change as a parent order with linked sub orders. This allows each sub order to be planned, released, and completed independently while the parent order tracks the overall progress automatically.
A task line can use either Work Center Group Code or Sub Eng. Change Order No., but not both at the same time.
When a parent order is released, linked sub orders are included in the release process. Open sub orders are automatically set to Released.
The Eng. Change Orders list and Eng. Change Order Tasks list show linked records in a tree structure with indentation based on hierarchy level and position.
Parent and child task statuses are synchronized automatically. When a task in a linked sub order is set to In Progress, the parent task is set to In Progress if it was Not Started. When all tasks in a linked sub order are completed, the parent task is set to Completed.
Warning
Deleting a task line that contains a value in Sub Eng. Change Order No. also deletes the linked sub order and all its tasks. This action cannot be undone.
Linking an order in a way that would create a circular reference is blocked by validation.
Actions
The actions on the Eng. Change Order page are described in the following table.
| Menu | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Drawings | Opens a list of the drawings related to the item in the engineering change order. |
| Duplicate | Duplicates the selected task line for one or more items. Opens the Duplicate Eng. Change Order Task report to configure the duplication. For more information, see Duplicate Tasks. | |
| Documents | Opens a list of the unfinished/outstanding quantities in production order or purchase lines to which the resulting new drawing revision should be manually assigned. To indicate which documents should be changed, select the To Change checkbox. These documents will be reflected in the No. of Documents to Change field in the General FastTab. |
|
| Apply Task Template | Applies a task template to the engineering change order. | |
| Open ECN Source Document | Opens the source document (e.g., item, production order line) that was used to create the engineering change notice and subsequent engineering change order. | |
| Item | Open Item | Opens the Item Card for the item in the engineering change order. |
| Production BOM | Opens the production BOM attached to the item in the engineering change order. | |
| Drawing | Drawing Search | Finds drawings attached to records and can be used to replace them. The Drawing Search page will be pre-populated with the last valid drawing revision. For more information, see Drawing Search. |
| Drawing Where-Used | Displays where the drawing defined in the Drawing No. and Drawing Type Code fields is used in production BOMs. | |
| Copy Document | Copies the engineering change order to another engineering change order. For more information, see Copy Eng. Change Order. | |
| Report | Eng. Change Order | Generates a printable Engineering Change Order report summarizing the ECO header, tasks, affected documents, and (optionally) image attachments (see Eng. Change Order Report). For task lines with a value in the Sub Eng. Change Order No. field, the linked sub order number is shown in the task section. |
Duplicate Tasks
When one activity must be assigned to multiple items, create a generic task line as a template, select the affected items, and then choose the Duplicate action. The behavior depends on the Replace Task setting:
- If Replace Task is not selected, each selected item creates a new task line and the source task remains unchanged.
- If Replace Task is selected (and at least one item is selected), the source task line is reused for the first selected item and additional selected items create new task lines. This means the original template-style line is no longer kept as a separate generic line.
To duplicate a task:
- Open the Eng. Change Order and go to the Tasks FastTab.
- Select the task line you want to use as the template.
- Choose the Duplicate action.
- In the Duplicate Eng. Change Order Task report, configure:
- Item Filter: Select None to show all items, or Drawing No./Drawing Type to filter items by the drawing number and drawing type code of the source ECO.
- Item: Use the assist button to open the item list and select one or more items. The field shows the number of selected items.
- Replace Task: If selected, the source task is reused for the first selected item. Additional selected items create new task lines.
- Task No. Increment: Value added to the task number for each successive duplicate.
- Choose OK to run the duplication.
If Task Description contains #ITEMNO# or #ITEMDESCRIPTION#, these placeholders are replaced with the item number and item description of each selected item during duplication.
If the source task references a sub-ECO, a new sub-ECO is created for each duplicated task. The linked sub-ECO structure is copied (header, description, links, drawings, documents, and tasks), and the selected item is assigned to each copied sub-ECO.
Item Drawing Set FactBox
The Item Drawing Set FactBox displays the drawing set for the item in the engineering change order.
Update Processed By Field
The Processed By field in Eng. Change Order Tasks tracks which user processed the task. This field supports both automatic and manual entry.
Automatic Assignment
When the task Status changes, the following automatic behavior occurs:
- In Progress: The Processed By field is automatically set to the current user.
- Completed: The Completed on field is automatically set to the current working date. The Processed By field is set to the current user only if it is currently empty.
Manual Assignment
You can manually edit the Processed By field to document substitutions or corrections. For example, if a task was completed by a different user than the one who triggered the status change, you can update the field to reflect the actual person who performed the work.
To manually set the Processed By field:
- Open the Eng. Change Order and navigate to the Tasks FastTab.
- Select the task line you want to update.
- In the Processed By field, use the lookup to select a valid user or type the username directly.
Note
- Manual changes to the Processed By field do not affect the task Status or Completed on fields.
- Only users with editing permissions on the task can modify the Processed By field.
- If an invalid username is entered, an error message is displayed.
- The Completed on field stores the working date (no time component).
Rich Text Editing
The Change Description field supports HTML-formatting when the Change Description Format field is set to Rich text (HTML). In this mode, the page uses a rich content field to preserve formatting and line breaks.
The text format is controlled by the setting in the Eng. Change Text Format field in the Product Data Management Setup page. The options are:
- Plain Text: Enter a simple multi-line description.
- Rich text (HTML): Enter rich text with preserved line breaks and HTML encoding.
New Eng. Change Orders default to the format specified in Product Data Management Setup. You can convert an existing Plain Text description to HTML; converting from HTML to Plain Text is not supported and, after confirmation, may clear the content.
The Change Description is displayed differently depending on the page and format setting:
- Eng. Change Order Card: Uses the Plain Text area (field on General FastTab) when format = Plain Text, and an HTML area (FastTab) when format = Rich text (HTML).
- Eng. Change Order Tasks: Shows the description as part of the Eng. Change Order Details FactBox when format = Plain Text, shows an HTML Change Description FactBox when format = Rich text (HTML).
- Eng. Change Orders List: Includes a Documents FactBox (attachments); no HTML Change Description FactBox is added.
Note
Images embedded in rich text are not supported for printing. To include images in reports, upload them as attachments in the Documents FactBox.
Copy Eng. Change Order
The Copy Document action opens the Copy Eng. Change Order report, which copies the content of one engineering change order into another. You select which parts of the source order are transferred using the options on the report request page.
Note
The target engineering change order must already exist before running the copy. The action pre-fills the To Eng. Change Order No. field with the current order, so you can copy from another order into the one you are working on.
To copy an engineering change order:
Open the target engineering change order.
On the Home menu, choose the Copy Document action.
In the Copy From section, specify the From Eng. Change Order No. to select the source order.
Verify the To Eng. Change Order No. field, which is pre-filled with the current order.
In the Copy Options section, select the content to copy:
Option Description Include Header Copies the Item No., Change Reason Code, Drawing No., and Drawing Type Code fields from the source order to the target order. Include Description Copies the Change Description content. This option is only available when Include Header is enabled. Include Links Copies the record links attached to the source order. Include Drawings Copies the drawings listed on the source order. Existing drawings on the target order are replaced. Include Documents Copies the documents listed on the source order. Existing documents on the target order are replaced. Include Tasks Copies the task lines from the source order, including Task No., Previous Task No., Work Center Group Code, Task Description, Due Date, and Assigned to. Task lines that reference a sub engineering change order are only copied when Include Sub Eng. Change Orders is also enabled. Include Sub Eng. Change Orders Creates new sub engineering change orders for task lines that reference a sub-ECO, including any further nested sub-ECOs. This option is only available when Include Tasks is enabled. Due Date When a date is specified, all task due dates are shifted so that the latest task due date from the source aligns with the entered date. The same offset is applied to all other task due dates. Leave empty to copy due dates without shifting. Choose the OK button to run the copy.
Eng. Change Order Report
The Eng. Change Order report provides a printable summary of the Eng. Change Order header, tasks, affected documents, and image attachments. You can access this report from the Report menu on the Eng. Change Order Card and Eng. Change Orders list page.
- Open an Engineering Change Order or select one in the list.
- On the Report menu, choose Eng. Change Order.
- In the request window, optionally:
- Enable Suppress Tasks to hide the tasks section.
- Enable Include Image Documents to include available image attachments (png, jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp, tif, tiff).
- Preview, print, or export to PDF.
Note
To include images in reports, which were uploaded to the Documents FactBox, turn on the Include Image Documents toggle in the report request page.
For more information about document attachments, see Drawing Management: Documents.
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