SAP Engineering Change Management

Introduction:
Engineering Change Management is a central logistics function that can be
used to change various aspects of production basic data (for example,
BOMs, task lists, materials, and documents) with history (with date
effectivity) or depending on specific conditions (with parameter effectivity).
This blog aims at providing an overview of the following ECM terminologies:

Notification
Engineering Change Order (ECO)

Engineering Objects

Tasks

Notification Type :
A key that determines the origin, content, and other features of service, maintenance, design and
quality notifications. The notification type 54 is being considered for demonstration.
Notification:
A data record with which a user informs the Engineering, Plant Maintenance,
Quality Management, or Customer Service department etc about an occurrence.

Transaction: IQS2
Change Catalogue: Specify the nature of the problem / notification / issue
Assign the Change Coordinator who is responsible to process the notification
Attach documents, if required
View the open notifications (Notifications to be processed by me) in the transaction IQS8.

The requested change to be approved by the change coordinator. The Change Coordinator
approves the notification (IQS22).
Process the Notification:
Enter the additional details of the notification the respective tabs (IQS2)
Subject: Brief about the nature of the notifications & impacted objects. Set the priority of the
notification.

Choose the cause of the notification

Enter the cost estimate to resolve the issue

Task Creation:
Create the relevant tasks for further follow ups with other departments under notification. In
thisexample the task for procurement department has been created & responsible person has been
assigned for the task. The responsible person can view the open pending tasks for him using the
transaction IQS9.
After creating all the relevant tasks, the Change Control Board (CCB) approves the notification
for further processing. The status APFC Approved for CCB is user status. By setting this user
status the system status will be updated automatically.

The responsible person of the task can view the task details in the transaction IQS9.
Complete the tasks assigned by the respective partners / users.

After obtaining the approval from CCB, the change coordinator provides his approval based on
task completion.
Lead Change Master (LCM):
A data record that groups several change packages for a complex change process and controls
the conditions under which the change is effective such as on a valid-from date.
Engineering Change Order (ECO):
Change that impacts a product already in a productive environment.

The initial status of the ECO is 30 (ECR- Immediate Change Start)

The LCM number & the notification number are identical.
By creating the LCM with respect to ECO, the relevant tasks also will be created automatically
by the system. The task to be completed by the responsible task owner as detailed already.
Processing ECO and LCM:
Set the status of the ECO to 57- ECO- In Validation at Engineering Department (Transaction
CC02).
Set the status of the LCM also to 57 In Validation at Engineering Department in transaction
CCO2.

Adding Engineering Objects in ECO:

Click on Object Types Icon. Select the relevant objects for change like material master, BOM
etc. In this example the material master object has been considered for demonstration.

After the changes have been made in the material master (Eg: Material Number 123) using this
change number, the indicator Usage will be automatically set by the system. Now set the status
of the ECO & LCM to 60 (Engineering Completed).
Technical Release of the ECO:
Once the indicator Technical Release is set, we can not withdraw.

The indicator Technical Release is set for the ECO. Now the ECO process is completed
technically but the changes have been not moved to production environment.
Release LCM:
Set the status of LCM as 80 (Completed) and release key as 01- Global Release for the LCM.
This can not withdrawn. Without global release the changes are not included in the production
environment.

Once the release key is set to 01 in the LCM, the ECO changes will be implemented into
theproduction environment. The indicator Technical Release also will be set automatically in
the LCM.
Close the notification in IQS2:
The notification will be closed with reference to the date.

How to create an ECN - Engineering Change Number and change

material using it
Introduction:

This article will describe in detail how to create an ECN and change material using it. Most of the time we
use material master transaction code MM02 and make changes to the material. Sometimes we use the
change number (ECN) and sometimes not. Sometimes for testing purpose we need create material but
we don't know the process to create an ECN. This document will describe step-by-step process on how to
create the ECN and change the material using it.

NOTE: Before following this document, one should have a basic knowledge of Material Master and
Change Management.

Steps to be followed:

Step1: Create an ECN using tcode CC01

Following is the simple process to create an ECN.

Go to the Transaction code CC01.

In this Create Change Master: Initial screen Choose Settings Default Values from the SAP menu as shown
below
After that Enter Change type, Profile and details in order to save the default values which can be used later
and press Copy (Enter).

This will fill the initial screen with the default values selected in above step.
Press Enter and it will open the below screen
After that click on 'Object Types' and it will open the following screen. In this case, we are activating only
Materials for this ECN. Hence, only materials changed using this ECN will later come under objects. (We
will verify this in step 3 after changing the material)

(Tip: We can activate multiple fields and then change those fields using the ECN.)

Click on SAVE. It will generate the ECN. Copy the ECN number so that we can use it for changing the
material.

Step2: Change the material using an ECN

Go to the transaction code MM02.

Enter the material and the ECN number created in step 1 and select the views as shown in below
screenshot.
Now change some fields based on your requirement. In this case, we will change the fields Material
Group and then click on SAVE.
The following message will come up after the saving the material.

Step2: Verify the changes using Tcode MM03 & CC03

First verify the changes made using ECN via transaction code MM03.

Enter the material and click on the Environment Display Changes. It will show the list of all changes
made to that material. Following screenshot shows the changes made to the Material MSA-3106.
Double click on the line and it will show the more details.

At the same time, we can check and found that the material would get added to the ECN under objects
and material tab.
In this case, we can see only one material. However, if we use the same ETN to change multiple
materials we can see all those materials under Objects button using tcode CC03.