In the electronics industry, managing change is central to creating a successful product and company. Many engineering managers argue that it is not problems in functionality or implementation that keep them from meeting schedules, it is the challenge of keeping all players on new product development teams in sync on the current state of the product definition.

Typically, a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Bill of Material (BOM) constantly changes until the layout is finalized. Multiple BOMs are then sent to the assembly supplier, resulting in inconsistency and confusion- which one is correct, what are the differences from one to the next, why, when and by whom were changes made and approved?

The engineering change management challenge does not stop when the design is in volume production. Suppliers change and have different process requirements, components become obsolete (End Of Life), software is updated, manuals are updated, etc. Managing the engineering change process in Omnify helps manufacturers eliminate these challenges and develop a simplified engineering change process.

Benefits:

• Provides a single place to manage the data that makes up the product definition and provides a flexible and efficient Engineering Change Order (ECO) process.
• Allows multiple change order types and definitions to be setup by the user for their workflow requirements.
• ECOs can be made on any item in the database (BOMs, documents, vendor information, status, attributes, etc.)
• Shortens ECO cycles by providing an electronic signoff process, automatically executing the ECO upon release, and eliminating any errors due to hand-entering change data.
• Revision numbering philosophy is flexible and customized by the user. All data on previous revisions is retained and old revisions can be reinstated at any time.
• Improves ECO productivity by allowing manufacturing and engineering partners to participate in the ECO review and signoff process by logging in remotely through a secure connection.
• Establishes accountability with history tracking. All changes made to any part or assembly are automatically logged in history, whether it was changed by an ECO or directly by a user with the required privileges.

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