Understanding ECO Features

An engineering department needs to efficiently manage and document required assembly and component changes. PeopleSoft Engineering answers this need with its engineering change order (ECO) functionality. You can use ECOs to manage the various activities that are required to implement multiple types of engineering changes.

By defining your own ECO types, you can group and classify ECOs that serve different purposes. For example, you might define one ECO type to manage complex bill of material configuration changes and supporting processes. Another you might use to define simple documentation changes that perhaps require a minimal number of steps. We designed engineering ECOs to help you define the scenarios that make sense in your environment.

ECO functionality includes:

  • The ability to document the addition of new assembly items and item revisions.

  • Coordinating, scheduling, and releasing changes to PeopleSoft Manufacturing.

  • Automatic generation of ECO numbers.

    Multiple numbering prefixes for various ECO types.

  • ECO text, priority, responsible department, and engineer/user.

  • Details on assemblies and revisions requiring change, type of change required, and association of any supporting documentation with the ECO at the header and item levels.

    Inclusion of reference ECOs.

  • Unlimited user-defined reasons and action/impact codes for the ECO that can, for example, describe inventory dispositions.

  • (Optional) User-defined ECO approval types.

    ECO approval types are predefined by you and are comprised of an optional list of activities that represent the phases or milestones through which the ECO can be promoted. In addition, ECO approval types enable you to define and associate user-defined workflow approval processing for different types of ECOs.

  • Submission of the ECO into workflow for user-defined approval processing.

    As ECOs pass through various approval points, you can, optionally, promote the ECO activity for a particular ECO. This provides ECO visibility and enables you to determine where it is within its life cycle.

  • Making mass EBOM or MBOM changes by specifying single or multiple mass maintenance codes on an ECO.

  • Optionally automatic creation of revision numbers for items on the ECO.

  • Optionally transferring EBOMs and ERTGs to production using ECOs.

    Within an ECO, you can define a list of BOMs and/or routings that can be transferred from manufacturing to engineering, modified with the ECO/Engineering process, and then released (transferred) back to manufacturing in a controlled manner.