Product configuration for engineering change decision

There is nothing permanent except change. The only constant is change. Many engineering changes must be communicated to a broad range of stakeholders. The process is often labor intensive, paper laden, and error prone. Product data management (PDM) system and configuration management theory are the most popular system and theory for handling engineering changes today. In practice, when utilizing a product data management system, a planned effectivity must be filled in each engineering change request (ECR) during analyzing and evaluating phase of an engineering change. A change effectivity decision may be required to identify all of the required actions, the responsibility, and the timing from detail design phase to production phase in the life cycle of the product. This paper presents a specific product configuration, which is called engineering change decision bill of materials (ECD-BOM). The procedure for generating such a product configuration from product data management system is also provided. Import states of such product configuration into an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) system, planned effectivity of approved changed configuration items are then computed.