Manufacturing
Engineering changes that get approved, recorded and reach production.
We automate ECR and ECO processes on the Microsoft Power Platform, so every change is captured once, approved by the right people, and pushed to the systems and teams that need it.
The short answer
What is the difference between an ECR and an ECO?
An engineering change request (ECR) proposes a change and asks whether it should happen. An engineering change order (ECO) is the approved instruction to make it, listing the affected parts, drawings and documents. Automating the process links the two, so an approved request becomes an order with owners, dates and system updates, not another email.
Where it breaks
Where this usually goes wrong.
Changes start in email
Requests arrive by email, in conversation or as a marked-up drawing, so there is no single list of what is open.
Approvals are informal
Without enforced approval steps, people approve their own changes, or approvals happen verbally with no record.
Production builds the old revision
An approved change does not reach purchasing or the floor in time, and old stock or old drawings get used.
No view of change load
Nobody can say how many changes are open, how long they take, or where they stall.
How it works
How it works on the Microsoft Power Platform.
01
Capture the request
A short Power Apps form captures the reason, affected parts, drawings and urgency, and creates a numbered ECR.
02
Assess the impact
The request is routed to engineering to assess the impact on parts, stock on hand, open orders and work in progress.
03
Approve with rules
Approvals run in Microsoft Teams. Approvers are set by role and change type, and the requester cannot approve their own change.
04
Release the ECO
On approval, an ECO is issued with a task for each owner: update drawings, update the ERP, notify purchasing and production.
05
Update the systems
Where APIs allow, ERP items, BOMs and document links are updated automatically. Otherwise the task holds the exact change to make.
06
Report on change
A Power BI view shows open changes, time spent at each stage and where changes are waiting.
Where we start
What a first release looks like.
Digital ECR capture, rule-based approvals in Teams, ECO task tracking and a simple change register. ERP and PDM updates follow once the process is stable.
- One request form and numbered change register
- Role-based approvals with no self-approval
- ECO tasks assigned to named owners
- A Power BI view of open changes
From our delivery work
Where we have done this.
Client names are withheld for live engagements unless a case study has been published.
Mining engineering fabricator
Engineering change requests run on Power Automate workflows we support, now being hardened with locked-down approvals and reporting on change performance.
Mining equipment OEM
Engineers spend around two weeks reviewing customer scope documents to find superseded and replaced parts. We are scoping AI support that flags affected parts so engineers can focus their review.
Questions we get asked
Frequently asked questions.
What should an engineering change process include?
At minimum: one way to raise a change, an impact assessment, approval by named roles, an instruction listing every affected part and document, and a record that each task was done. Everything else is refinement.
Can Power Automate run an engineering change process?
Yes. Power Automate handles the routing, approvals and notifications, Power Apps provides the request form, and SharePoint or Dataverse holds the change register. It all runs inside your Microsoft 365 environment.
How do you stop people approving their own changes?
Approvers are assigned by role and change type, and the workflow excludes the requester from the approval step. Permissions on the change register are locked, so approvals cannot be edited directly.
Do we need a PLM system for engineering change management?
No. A PLM has change management built in, but many manufacturers run on a PDM vault, SharePoint and an ERP. A governed workflow over those gives you most of the control without a PLM project. If you do run a PLM, we connect to its change records instead.
Can AI help with engineering change?
It can help with the reading. AI can scan a customer scope or change document, flag parts that look affected or superseded, and draft the impact list. An engineer still makes the decision.
Related
Where this usually connects.
CAD and PLM to ERP integration
We connect CAD and PLM systems such as SolidWorks, Inventor, Windchill and Creo to your ERP, so released BOMs, part numbers and drawings reach purchasing and production automatically.
Shop-floor and document capture
We replace paper job cards, delivery dockets, inspection sheets and supplier paperwork with scanning, barcodes and simple Power Apps, so the office sees what the floor did without retyping it.
Production, inventory and job-cost reporting
We bring ERP, scheduling, CRM and spreadsheet data together in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric, so leaders see true job cost, margin, WIP and stock without waiting for month-end.
Walk us through your last engineering change.
In a 30-minute discovery call we'll trace where it was raised, who approved it and how it reached production, and show what a governed version would look like.