How is everyone handling the approval of document be released to production? 1

[James7443]

I currently have a system in place in which drawings are controlled either at an engineering level or at a production approved level.

When drawings are still in the engineering phase they can be update whenever needed without a formal approval signoff process. These drawings have an X# revision and are not available for production or purchasing use.

Production level drawings have gone thru a formal ECO system, to change their status from engineering to production approved, and have been given letter revision levels. The letter revision and the ECO number listed in the approval column of the revision table indicate that it is a production level print. This ECO system requires signature approvals from QA, Production, and Purchasing in addition to Engineering and Engineering Manager.

I am now getting some push in which some people in engineering don't like the ECO system to release prints to production. Instead they want to change the drawings from engineering level to production approved by eliminating the ECO, and the approval signatures from any department outside of design engineering. Approval would be done by two signatures in the title block and a signature in the revision table. This would eliminate Purchasing, QA, Production, and any other areas that currently review new drawings for production.

I am not sure what the exact driving for force is for this push to change. First it was time frame required for approval. After I proved that wrong, it was that other departments don’t provide any additional value on first release’s to production. When I provided a series of rejections by departments outside of engineering for errors or missing information, the reason changed again.

It should also be noted that if the system changes there will be two different way in which the revision table displays information indicating production approved drawings.

Sorry for the long message. Just wondering what other are doing and their thoughts.

 

[Tunalover]

The release process you describe is robust and sufficient. The release process that Engineering is proposing is insufficient IMO. Sounds like the issue needs to be flagged to the executive level for resolution. You can't lose the important reviews by those you mentioned.


Tunalover

 

[ctopher]

Seems like the lazies are taking over.
You need the different disciplines to approve. Leaving it up to production, with no ECO tracking, could cause problems later.

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion

 

[looslib]

Use a data management system to control your documents, including release and the problem goes away.

Other problems may arise in managing and implementing a system, but that is a different story.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[drawoh]

Ron7443,

Where I am, the ECRs are not possible until the drawing reaches production. ECRs, as opposed to ECOs are, among other things, a means of reporting problems, possibly quite serious.

As far as I am concerned, engineering should control all the drawings at all times. It should be possible to apply ECRs to production drawings, preliminary engineering drawings, and to figments of people's imaginations. For production, you need a stricter sign-off process, as you described, above. This is just a matter of changing the status in your PDM system.

--
JHG

 

[Tunalover]

drawoh-I haven't seen an ECR defined differently from an ECO (or ECN). How is your ECR different from your ECO? Does each one make changes to the drawiwng?



Tunalover

 

[James7443]

Thanks for the comments so far. I have fended off this push a couple of times. Justification gets a little weaker each time.

 

[drawoh]

tunalover,

In the past, we ran everything from our Engineering Change Requests. We now have a more elaborate system with ECRs, and Engineering Change Orders. The documents do not have to be interchangeable. The ECR says "please fix this problem". The ECO says "drill two holes here".

--
JHG

 

[KENAT]

Ron7443 my current commercial employer does similar to what you currently do and releases new drawings through the ECO process more or less the same as for changes to released parts with approval from all relevant departments. It's fundamentally a reasonable system from my experience.

At a previous employer in the defense field, where most drawings were technically owned by the govt things were a bit different. The drawing pack was essentially separate from our own production facilities. So engineering and when appropriate customer were the only approvals on drawings.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[MadMango]

QA, Production, and Purchasing in addition to Engineering and Engineering Manager.

These departments need to be on the same page prior to releasing drawings. They all need to know that new parts, and potentially new processes, are heading downstream to them. They need the fore warning to formulate their game plan.

We use a system here that entails a Design Container Release. Using with our PML software (Arena), when parts are "in prototype stages" we are free to change as required. Before the drawings (usually as part of a complete product package) are released, there is a large meeting, and a sign-off/check list. Everyone and their brother is on the sign-off. This process allows are drawings to be released with high confidence they are correct and error free. If a released drawing needs a change, the typical ECR/ECO process (as the OP described) is used.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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