A change management system designed to track changes made to production standards (routing and bill of material). Also called Engineering Change Requests (ECR) and Engineering Change Notifications (ECN) or Engineering Change Management (ECM). ECO systems typically affect material planning, inventory, purchasing and other departments within an organization.
an alteration made to an AVL or BOM, such as the replacement of one component by a substitute component. Any changes should be prepared, approved and incorporated promptly and correctly to minimize problems. Changes often vary in complexity and urgency, but can have a ripple effect. Any ECO should be documented on a blank form or template that contains key information, such as a description of change, a reason for the change, the type of change and the implementation date (e.g., immediate action or implement when possible).