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This article provides an end-to-end walkthrough that shows how to work with engineering change management. It goes through each of the most important scenarios:
All the exercises in this article use the standard sample data that is provided for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Additionally, each exercise builds on the previous exercise. Therefore, we recommend that you work through the exercises in order, from beginning to end, especially if you've never used the engineering change management feature before. In this way, you will gain a complete understanding of the feature.
To follow the sample scenario that is provided in this article, you must first prepare the feature by making demo data available and adding a few custom records.
Before you try to do any of the exercises in the rest of this article, follow the instructions in all the following subsections. These subsections also introduce several important settings pages that you will use when you set up engineering change management for your own organization.
Work on a system where the standard demo data is installed. The standard demo data adds data for several demo legal entities (companies and organizations). As you work through the exercises, you will use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar to switch between one company (DEMF) that is set up as an engineering organization and another company (USMF) that is set up as an operational organization.
An engineering organization owns the engineering data, and is responsible for product design and product changes. To set up your engineering organizations, follow these steps.
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Engineering organizations.
Select New to add a row to the grid, and set the following values for it:
Go to Product information management > Setup > Dimensions and variant groups > Product dimension groups.
Select New to create a product dimension group.
Set the Name field to Version.
Select Save to save the new dimension and load values onto the Product dimensions FastTab.
On the Product dimensions FastTab, set Version as an active product dimension.
As an engineering product goes through its lifecycle, it's important that you be able to control which transactions are allowed for each lifecycle state. To set up the product lifecycle states, follow these steps.
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Product lifecycle state.
Select New to add a lifecycle state, and set the following values for it:
Select Save to save the new lifecycle state and load values onto the Enabled business processes FastTab.
On the Enabled business processes FastTab, select the business processes that should be available. For this example, leave the Policy field set to Enabled for all business processes.
Select New to add another lifecycle state, and set the following values for it:
Select Save to save the new lifecycle state and load values onto the Enabled business processes FastTab.
On the Enabled business processes FastTab, select the business processes that should be available. For this example, set the Policy field to Enabled with warning for all business processes.
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Product version number rule.
Select New to add a rule, and set the following values for it:
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Product release policies.
Select New to add a release policy, and set the following values for it:
On the General FastTab, set the following values:
On the All products FastTab, select Add to add a line, and set the following values for it:
Select Add to add another line, and set the following values for it:
Engineering product categories provide the basis for creating engineering products (that is, products that are versioned and controlled through engineering change management). To set up engineering product categories, follow these steps.
Go to Engineering change management > Engineering product category details.
Select New to create a category.
On the Details FastTab, set the following values:
On the Release policy FastTab, set the Product release policy field to Components.
Select Save.
Use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar to switch to the USMF legal entity (company).
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Engineering change management parameters.
On the Release control tab, in the Product acceptance section, set the Product acceptance field to Manual.
An engineering product is a product that is versioned and controlled through engineering change management. In other words, you can control the changes during its life, and the change information will be saved using engineering change orders. To create engineering products, follow these steps.
Make sure that you're in the legal entity of your engineering organization (DEMF for this example). Use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar as required.
Open the Released products page by following one of these steps:
On the Action Pane, on the Product tab, in the New group, select Engineering product.
In the New product dialog box, set the following values:
Note that the Version field is automatically set by using the product version number rule that you set up earlier.
Select OK to create the product and close the dialog box.
The details page for the new product is opened. Notice that values are already filled in for some fields, such as Storage dimension group, Tracking dimension group, and/or Item model group. These fields were automatically set because the product is being released in the DEMF legal entity and uses the Components product release policy, which is associated with the Components engineering product category. Because you previously used item D0006 as a template to set up a line for the DEMF legal entity, the values that were filled in were taken from item D0006.
On the Action Pane, on the Engineer tab, in the Engineering change management group, select Engineering versions to view the versions of the product.
On the Engineering versions page, notice that there is only one version for the product, and it's active.
Select the version to view its details.
On the Engineering version page, on the Bill of material FastTab, select Create BOM.
In the Create BOM dialog box, set the following values:
Select OK to add the BOM and close the dialog box.
On the Bill of materials FastTab, select Bill of material.
On the Bill of materials page, on the Bill of materials lines FastTab, add three lines, one each for item numbers D0001, D0003, andD0006.
Select Save.
Close the page.
On the Engineering version page, on the Bill of material FastTab, select Approve.
In the dialog box that appears, select OK.
On the Engineering version page, on the Bill of material FastTab, select Activate.
Notice that the Active and Approved check boxes are selected for the BOM.
Close the page.
The product has now been designed by the Engineering department. For this example, the product is a prototype that engineering has designed for a customer. Because the customer is a customer of the USMF legal entity, the product must be released to that legal entity.
Keep the legal entity set to DEMF. (Use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar as required.)
Go to Product information management > Products > Released products.
Select product Z0001.
On the Action Pane, on the Product tab, in the Maintain group, select Release product structure to open the Release products wizard.
On the Select engineering products to release page, select the Select check box for product Z0001.
Select Release details.
The Product release details page appears, where you can review the details of the product that will be released, and its product structure. Notice that the Send BOM option is set to Yes. Therefore, both product Z0001 and all its child items from the BOM will be released.
You can select any child item in the left pane to review its details. If any child item has a BOM, you can also select to release the BOM of that child item.
Close the page to return to the Release products wizard.
Select Next to open the Select products to release page. If you had selected any standard (non-engineering) products, they would appear on this page. Note that when you release a standard product by selecting Release product structure, its BOM and route are also released.
Select Next to open the Select product variants to release page. For this example, there aren't any variants.
Select Next to open the Select companies page.
Select the companies that the product should be released to. For this example, select the check box for USMF.
Select Next to open the Confirm selection page.
Select Finish.
The Engineering department has now released the information to the local companies where the product will be used. For this example, the local company is USMF.
Because you set the Product acceptance field to Manual on the Engineering change management parameters page for the USMF company, products must be manually accepted before they are released to that company. In other words, they must be reviewed and accepted before they become released products.
To review the product and release it in the USMF company, follow these steps.
Set the legal entity to USMF. (Use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar.)
Go to Engineering change management > Common > Product releases > Open product releases.
The Open product releases page shows product Z0001, which has a status of Pending acceptance.
Select the value in the Product number column to open the Product release details page. Notice the following details:
When you've finished reviewing the information, you're ready to accept the product and, in this way, release it in the USMF company. On the Action Pane, select Actions > Accept.
The product is now released in the USMF company. Go to Product information management >Products > Released products. You should see item Z0001.
The master data manager for the USMF company wants to make sure that the product is in a Prototype state, to ensure that users will be warned if they accidentally add it to processes that they are working on.
Go to Product information management > Products > Released products.
Select product Z0001 to open its details page. (You can use the filter to find the product.)
On the Action Pane, on the Engineer tab, in the Engineering change management group, select Engineering versions.
On the Engineering versions page, select version number V-01 to open its details page.
On the Action Pane, on the Product tab, in the Lifecycle state group, select Change lifecycle state.
In the Change lifecycle state drop-down dialog box, set the State field to Prototype, and then select OK.
The product can now be sold to a customer. To add the product to a sales order, follow these steps.
Go to Sales and marketing > Sales orders > All sales orders.
On the Action Pane, select New.
In the Create sales order dialog box, set the Customer account field to US-0002, and then select OK.
The new sales order is opened. On the Sales order lines FastTab, add a row, and set the Item number field to Z000 for it.
On the Action Pane, select Save.
You receive a warning message that informs you that the item has a status of Prototype. However, because the message is just a warning, the sales order was still created.
The product was sent to a customer, but the customer wasn't completely satisfied and provides feedback that includes suggestions for improvement. While the customer is speaking with a sales clerk on the phone, the sales clerk can request the changes that the customer is describing.
Go to Sales and marketing > Sales orders > All sales orders.
Find and open the sales order that you created in the previous exercise.
On the Sales order lines FastTab, select Engineering change management > New engineering change request.
Fill in the engineering change request, based on the customer's feedback. For this example, set the following values:
On the Information FastTab, select New > Note to add a note to the grid.
In the Description field for the new note, indicate that item D0003 should be deleted from the BOM. If you must add more information for the note, you can enter text in the Notes field.
On the Action Pane, select Save.
Notice that the item has automatically been added on the Products FastTab, and that the source of the engineering change request (the sales order) has been added on the Source FastTab.
The sales clerk knows that the product is important and was designed especially for the customer. Therefore, the sales clerk calls an engineer in the DEMF company to notify them about the change request. In this way, the engineer can speed up the process.
The engineer now reviews the request from the customer and creates a change order for the product.
Because the engineer works in the DEMF company, set the legal entity to DEMF. (Use the company picker on the right side of the navigation bar.)
Go to Engineering change management > Common > Engineering change requests.
Open change request 555.
Review the information, and then approve the change. On the Action Pane, on the Change request tab, in the Change status group, select Approve.
Go to Engineering change management > Common > Engineering change orders.
On the Action Pane, select New to create a change order, and set the following values for it:
On the Impacted products FastTab, select New > Add existing product to add a row to the grid, and set the following values for it:
Notice that, because you set the Impact field to New version, the New version field on the Details tab of the Product details FastTab shows what the new version number will be (V-02 for this example).
On the Action Pane, select Save.
On the Product details FastTab, on the Bill of material tab, select Lines to open the BOM for version V-01 of product Z0001.
Select the line for item number D0003, and then, on the Action Pane, select Delete. The value of the Change type field for this line changes to Deleted.
On the Action Pane, select Save.
Close the BOM line page to return to the Engineering change order page.
On the Product details FastTab, on the Bill of material tab, notice that the value of the Change type field for BOM Z0001 is now Changed.
The order must now be approved before the changes can be processed. When the changes are processed, the products are updated with the changes that are included in the engineering change order. For this example, the person who creates the engineering change order has been specified as the approver.
On the Action Pane, on the Change order tab, in the Change status group, select Approve.
Select Process to update the product's information.
The product can now be released again to the USMF company and then sent to the customer. To release the product directly from the engineering change order, follow these steps.
To mark the change order as completed, which indicates that no further actions remain, select Complete on the Action Pane.
Events
Mar 31, 11 PM - Apr 2, 11 PM
The ultimate Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SQL, and AI community-led event. March 31 to April 2, 2025.
Register today