What is an ECR?
An Engineering Change Request (ECR) is the formal starting point for any change. It captures the reason, scope, and urgency of a proposed change before any engineering work begins.
When to create an ECR
Section titled “When to create an ECR”Create an ECR when:
- A supplier notifies you of a part discontinuation or revision
- An engineer identifies a design improvement or correction
- A customer requirement changes the specification
- A field failure requires a component swap
- A regulatory update mandates a material or process change
What an ECR contains
Section titled “What an ECR contains”| Field | Required | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Yes | Short description of the change |
| Description | Yes | Detailed explanation of what and why |
| Trigger source | Yes | What initiated this change (supplier notification, engineering finding, customer requirement, field failure, regulatory, other) |
| Classification | Yes | Emergency, major, or minor — determines review path |
| Severity | Yes | Critical, high, medium, or low — indicates business impact |
| Safety flag | No | Toggle on if safety-critical |
| Change type | No | Hardware, software, mechanical, electrical, documentation, or process |
| Affected items | No | Parts or assemblies impacted by the change |
| Attachments | No | Supporting documents (PDF, Word, Excel, images — max 25 MB each, up to 10 files) |
ECR status workflow
Section titled “ECR status workflow”An ECR moves through these states:
1
Draft
Created but not yet submitted. All fields are editable. Add affected items and attachments here.
2
Submitted
Awaiting initial review by the coordinator.
3
Under review
Coordinator is screening the request. They can approve directly (minor changes) or escalate to the CCB.
4
CCB review
The Change Control Board evaluates the request and records a formal decision.
5
Decision
Approved (creates an Engineering Change automatically), rejected (with rationale — can be resubmitted), or on hold (pending conditions).
Duplicate detection
Section titled “Duplicate detection”Before submitting, use the Check for duplicates button. Redline uses AI to compare your title, description, and affected items against recent ECRs. If a similar request already exists, you will see a match with a one-sentence explanation of why it was flagged.
This prevents duplicate work — especially when multiple engineers independently discover the same issue.
What happens when an ECR is approved
Section titled “What happens when an ECR is approved”When the CCB or coordinator approves an ECR:
- An Engineering Change (EC) is automatically created in draft status
- The EC inherits the ECR title, description, trigger source, severity, classification, and change type
- Affected items and preliminary actions are carried over
- The coordinator assigned during approval becomes the EC owner
From here, the coordinator uploads a BOM and continues with the ECO workflow.