MECO Lifecycle

An MECO can be created by any user with the Senior Design Engineer or Senior Manufacturing Engineer role within the organization assigned as the design responsibility for the MECO. The creator of the MECO becomes the owner of the MECO. The owner of the MECO assigns the Responsible Design Engineer and Responsible Manufacturing Engineer to the MECO.

There are two ways to create an MECO:


  • Use the "Create MECO" command from the global toolbar.
  • Select the "Move to MECO" command from the MECO's Affected Items page.

Each time the MECO is promoted or demoted, a PDF report is generated and checked in to the MECO. In any state before Release, the owner has the option to cancel the ECO.

The MECO lifecycle includes these states:

Create

An MECO's name is automatically generated. The MECO creator selects an organization to have design responsibility for the MECO. The originator can create an MECO for the selected responsible design organization only if a member of that organization and has an Engineering role within that organization.

From the Create MECO page, individual plants can be selected to bypass the subsequent MCO creation from the MECO. The RME can assign a reviewer list to handle the creation of the reviewer route and an approval list to handle the creation of the approval route. The reviewer list cannot be updated after the approval route is created from the selected approval list. As soon as route requirements are approved, the MCO (Standard) is promoted to the next state.

In the Create state, the RME reviews the attached parts and ensures that all parts are in the Release state.

Review

As the MECO enters the Review state, a route is created and started using the template from the approval list. The route is created between the Review and Release states and all tasks must be completed before the MECO can be promoted to the Release state. If the MECO is not ready for release, the MECO is demoted to the Create state and the RME receives notification about the demotion.

If the distribution list is assigned and all route tasks have been approved and the approval route is complete, then the MECO can be promoted to the Release state. If the MECO is not ready for release, the MECO is demoted to the Create state and reassigned to the RME, who is sent notification indicating that the MECO has been reassigned and needs attention. The approval list cannot be updated after the approval route was created from the selected approval list before the demotion.

Release

The Release state indicates that the MECO has been released and all affected changes have been made. A notification is sent to the owner and members of the distribution list about the release of the MECO. A trigger creates MCOs for the affected plants. All BOMs corresponding to the changes released by the MECO are activated for the affected plants

Implemented

A trigger promotes the MECO to the Implemented state when all MCOs have been released or changes released by those MCOs have occurred. If necessary, the RME can manually promote the MECO to the Implemented state.

When the MECO is promoted to the Implemented state, the system automatically disconnects any distribution list or approval list from the MECO.