Change management 101

From Email Chaos to Controlled Change

risk/benefit notes. Crucially, it also collects affected items—the EBOM parts, drawings, requirements, documents, and references that might be touched. Because those items are governed in PLM (not in a file share), the request points to living data with variants and effectivity intact.

An ECO is permission to act. It records the approved solution, the redlines that will become the new truth, and the effectivity (dates/serials/models) that say where and when the change applies. The ECO routes tasks to owners, sends the right notifications, and—once executed—rolls forward the baselines that everyone else depends on.

Between the request and the order sits the capability that saves the most time: impact analysis. This isn’t a static checklist; it’s a live, visual map of relationships. When engineering proposes a new fastener, impact analysis immediately reveals the assemblies that use it, the drawings and documents linked to it, and the downstream structures (MBOM, BOP, electronic work instructions) that will need a nudge. The view is variant-aware, so reviewers can filter to the market/model-year they’re accountable for and avoid approving changes to configurations they don’t own.

Because decision speed depends on access, Teamcenter pairs impact analysis with JT viewing. Quality can inspect PMI, manufacturing can section critical interfaces, and supply chain can measure clearances—without a CAD seat. Comments and markups stay attached to the affected items and to the change itself. That one detail—feedback living with the governed objects—eliminates the “lost in slides” syndrome that slows audits and causes déjà vu on future programs.

The mechanics matter, but so does the feel of the process. Healthy change has three traits: 

Modern capabilities raise the ceiling even further. Occurrence-based substitutes let manufacturing execute a controlled deviation at a specific station or serial range without corrupting the baseline. Change-driven effectivity keeps applicability honest: if the ECO isn’t effective for a region or date window, the system won’t quietly “leak” it across the fleet. And when reality doesn’t fit a neat box, merge/split tools allow you to consolidate related changes or partition a large request so the safe parts can move while the open questions get more analysis.

What does all of that buy you? Faster cycles and fewer “unknown unknowns.” Planners see the deltas early and update MBOM/BOP incrementally rather than re-author from scratch. Quality closes the loop between FMEA, control plans, and inspection steps because the trace links are embedded in the objects, not buried in attachments. Suppliers receive a clean scope and can respond in a secure workspace, reducing negotiation friction and protecting IP. And leadership gets something priceless: a credible forecast, because you’ve replaced anecdote with a visible queue of changes, each with scope, risk, and owner.

A few practical tips to make this stick:

• Start with a one-page ECR template. Keep fields lean: problem, rationale, options, affected items, initial risk. If a field isn’t helping a decision, remove it.
• Standardize impact analysis. Create a five-point checklist for reviewers (variant filter on, redlines open, MBOM/BOP links checked, quality artifacts checked, supplier visibility set).
• Publish SLAs by risk tier. Minor fixes in 48 hours, moderate in a week, major with an executive review gate. The timer lives in the workflow, not a spreadsheet.
• Measure the right things. Track ECO cycle time, percent changes caught before freeze, and number of “rework after release” events. Celebrate the trend, not just the averages.

Planning handoff soon? Pair this article with What is an EBOM and Design→MBOM APIs to make your next reconciliation a confirmation—not a rewrite.

Treat change like the product it touchess: governed, transparent, and built for reuse. When you do, launches feel calm, audits feel boring, and your team has the headspace to focus on innovation rather than firefighting.