Documentation: Engineering Change Order (ECO)

The ECO (Engineering Change Order) is an important piece of documentation to track and explain what every change was, why it was made, what it may affect and how it affects it. Implementing the use of this document in conjunction with the CCB process will help you control your design efforts better as well as provide detailed visibility into the ‘nitty gritty’ of your changes.

As an example, a part needs to be deleted from an assembly while another is added as the replacement. The change is being done because it results in superior performance to the product. The section ‘reason for change’ would state that the unit has superior performance with the new part. The ‘changes’ section would show the additions and deletions or also known as the ‘was/is’ changes. There are several other sections to the form such as:

• Disposition of Parts

• Effectivity of Change

• Will Affect other documents, approvals or certifications

• Comments/Suggestions

• Signature blocks for signoff

The important thing here to consider is to get this process going along with CCB (Change Control Board) as they go hand in hand. This actually forces people to think why they are making the change as opposed to just making a change and not thinking twice about it (because there is no control point).

A lot of what is being discussed in this documentation section is usually directly linked and a part of MRP/ERP systems of today so that most of it is completed and routed electronically. Most startups typically don’t have these systems in place at the beginning so you may need to perform the steps manually as necessary.

Here is a sample ECO format. View ECO Form Return to Documentation