Objective: To create, review, and approve Change Orders.

Difficulty: Easy

In this article:

Creating a Change Order
Change Order type
- Requirements of a Change Order
Anatomy of a Change Order
Change Order status
Resolution
- Manual vs Auto Closing Change Orders
Frequently asked questions

Change Orders are the heart of revision management. Duro's simplified Change Order workflow allows teams to quickly and efficiently highlight changes, review, and approve them.

Creating a Change Order

Duro provides three different locations where users can create new Change Orders:

From a product or component page
From the Change Order library
From the dashboard Change Order tile

From a product or component page

Navigate to a product or component page, then click on the triangle icon in the upper right* and select Add to change order. This will create a new Change Order and auto-populate the products and components table with the selected product or component. To add more products or components to the Change Order, use the right sidebar to search and select from the master library.

Note: The triangle icon is not visible when a product or component is in Design status since approvals are not required to make changes in this lifecycle stage. This icon will only be visible at higher status values. For more information, please refer to our article on Lifecycle Validations and Updates.

From the Change Order library

Navigate to your Change Order library by clicking on Change Orders in the left navigation. Click on New, located above the Change Order table. Products and components can subsequently be added to the Change Order from the right sidebar.

From the dashboard tile

Navigate to your dashboard and scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the Create Change Orders tile, located in the Quick Access section, to create a new Change Order. Subsequently, products and components can be added to the Change Order from the right sidebar.

To learn more about platform navigation, please refer to Dashboard Navigation.

Change Order type

There are three types of Change Orders available:

Engineering Change Order (ECO): Used for functional changes. They are commonly used to identify form, fit, or functional changes made by an engineering team.

Manufacturing Change Order (MCO): Used to identify manufacturing, assembly, or test process changes.

Documentation Change Order (DCO): Used when simple documentation updates are required. For example, adding missing documents, correcting typos, or adding more context to a description text block. DCOs do not impact the revision value or promote the lifecycle status of the listed products and components.

Requirements of a Change Order

In order to submit a Change Order for approval, it must have a name value, a description, at least one product or component added, an approval type specified, and be free of errors. If no other fields are entered, default values will be selected.

A Change Order can always be saved as a draft regardless of the state of warnings or errors.

Anatomy of a Change Order

The Change Order form comprises the name field, the description field, the products and components tab, the approver list tab, the notification list, and the documents table.

Name

The name field is used for a terse yet descriptive title string for the Change Order. It does not have to be unique, but it should be able to help an approver easily find and understand what the Change Order is for.

Description

This is a more verbose field for entering details about the Change Order. Typical entries include what has changed, what the change is for, what impacts it may have, and any inventory disposition requirements impacted by the change.

The goal is to help an approver quickly understand the Change Order and its impact so that they can efficiently review and approve it.

Products and Components tab

Adding products and components

To add more products and components to the Change Order, use the search box at the top right of the page and select from the list of results in the sidebar below. To select multiple entries at once, use the shift and ctrl keys when clicking the checkboxes.

The checkbox will have one of the following possible states:

This product or component is available and can be added to the Change Order.

This product or component has already been added to an open Change Order.

Include parent assemblies

Some teams require that the entire product assembly tree be included in a Change Order for any modified individual components. This allows all parent assemblies to have their revision values incremented together and for the Change Order to be a single atomic revision.

Duro offers a convenient option to automatically add all direct parent component assemblies and products for the components added to the table.

Include children assemblies

On the other hand, certain teams have a prerequisite for incorporating children assemblies into a Change Order whenever modifications are made to parent assemblies. This approach ensures that all children assemblies have their revision values incremented simultaneously while consolidating the Change Order into a single comprehensive revision.

Duro provides a user-friendly feature that seamlessly includes all immediate children component assemblies and products associated with the components added to the table.

Revision value

The revision column in the products and components table clearly presents the current revision value and the new revision value for each product and component once the Change Order is approved.

When a product or component promotes its status value (e.g., Design -> Prototype or Prototype -> Production), the new revision value will default to the new status value but can be edited to a new desired revision value. If the status value is not changing, the revision value will automatically increment to the next appropriate value.

Status value

For products or components transitioning between status levels for the current Change Order, there is an option to update the target value. A drop-down menu will be available for those rows that are eligible for updating.

Note: After changing the status level of any product or component in the table, the validation rules will be run again to confirm any changes don't cause subsequent issues that need to be resolved before submitting the Change Order for approval.

Validation engine

As Change Orders are a preferred means to share library data with outside suppliers and contract manufacturers, Duro runs a full validation ruleset to help identify any errors or issues that could cause delays or mistakes in a production run. Any issues found will generate a corresponding icon and tooltip in the leftmost column for the product or component. Please refer to Lifecycle Validations and Updates for more information.

Approver list tab

This table allows you to add any users with the appropriate role permissions to review the Change Order and submit a decision to approve or reject it.

Adding approvers

Use the right sidebar to search for and select which users are to be invited to approve the Change Order. Once it has been submitted for approval, each user in the table will be sent an email notification with a summary of the Change Order and a link to view it for review.

Note: The original author of the Change Order will automatically be added to the approval list and cannot be removed.

Approval type

Duro makes routing of Change Orders simple and efficient, so teams can focus on what they do best: designing great products, not wasting time administering data. To streamline the Change Order routing process, Duro offers three simple approval types:

First-In: the first user in the approval table to submit their decision (approve or reject) will set the final resolution for the Change Order. This is useful for minor changes that simply need a clear demarcation and accountability in its revision history.
Majority: The first majority of users in the approval table to consistently decide (approve or reject) will set the final resolution for the Change Order. This is useful when a change needs more visibility across teams and to limit the risk of an important change being approved unilaterally.
Unanimous: all users listed in the table must have the same decision (approve or reject) to set a final resolution.

Note: The default Approval type is First-In. Customers can change this to default to another type. Contact info@durolabs.co to learn more.

Notification list tab

Once the change order is closed, all users on the approval list will automatically receive an email notification with the final resolution.

In addition to these users, anyone who does not need to review the Change Order or doesn't have sufficient access permissions can be added to just be notified of the final resolution. This is most commonly used for third-party suppliers who need to be notified about the Change Order but do not necessarily have to be included in the initial review and approval process.

On the right side panel, existing Duro account users can be added in the same way as done for the approver list table.

To add third-party users, simply enter their email address(es) in the text box on the bottom right side.

Change Order status

Each Change Order progresses through a series of status values:

This Change Order has been created but not submitted for approval yet. It can still be edited in this state.

This Change Order has been submitted and is currently open for review by the approvers. No changes can be made to it until it is closed.

This Change Order has been resolved. Either a final resolution was reached (approved or rejected), or an administrator closed the Change Order before the resolution was made.

Draft status

While a Change Order is in draft status, users can make any necessary changes to it. This includes adding or removing products and components, approvers, notifiers, and documents. The name and description fields can also be edited as needed.

Furthermore, any products or components associated with a Change Order in draft status can still be edited directly. A warning banner is displayed on the product and components indicating that changes could impact the intent of the Change Order, but there are no restrictions on edits.

The available actions in draft status are as follows:

Save draft: save the current Change Order as is. Note: A value is required in the name field before a Change Order can be saved
Submit for approval: send an email notification to all listed approvers for the new Change Order. This will transition the Change Order from draft to open status.
- Note: the submit for approval button will not become active until the following criteria are met:
  - There is a value for the name field.
  - At least one product or component has been added.
  - All errors have been cleared.
Edit: users with appropriate permissions can further edit a Change Order while it is in draft status
Delete: users with appropriate permissions can delete a Change Order and remove it completely from the library. This action can not be undone.

Open status

Once a Change Order has been submitted for approval, it will enter the open status workflow state. At this point all products and components included in the Change Order will become locked and no longer editable. A warning banner on each included product and component's page will indicate this and include a link to the open Change Order window.

While the Change Order is open, the listed approvers can select their decision to approve or reject the Change Order. The Change Order will remain open until the criteria listed in the approval type is met.

The available actions in open status are:

Approve: each listed approver can submit their decision to approve the Change Order.
Reject: each listed approver can submit their decision to reject the Change Order.
Close: the original author or an account administrator can choose to manually close the Change Order before the criteria listed in the approval type is met.

Closed status

When a Change Order is closed, no further actions are available. It can not be edited or resubmitted for approval. However, the final resolution value for the Change Order will depend on the workflow path it took to reach a closed status.

Manually closed: when a user selects to close an open Change Order manually, the Change Order is closed with a resolution of NONE.
Approved closed: If you have been approved to make a design change, the engineer(s) must implement it and finally close the Change Order once the design change has been completed.

Rejected closed: if the Change Order was rejected according to the approval type requirements and a user selects to close it, then the Change Order is closed with a resolution of REJECTED.

Resolution

Each Change Order has one of four possible resolution values:

The Change Order has been closed and approved by the approvers. The status will remain open with the option to close once the changes have been implemented.

The Change Order has been rejected by the approvers. The status will remain open with the option to close with a note of why the Change Order has been rejected.

The Change Order is still open and awaiting a resolution by the approvers.

The Change Order is still in draft status or has been closed prior to a final decision being made.

Manual vs Auto Closing Change Orders

By default, Duro's Change Orders automatically close upon approval, aiming to optimize the user experience and efficiently distribute data to all team members. However, this setting can be reconfigured to allow users to manually close Change Orders themselves at the time of their choosing, thus keeping Change Orders open until the approved modifications are fully integrated into a component, product, or assembly. By opting for a manual close setting, engineers can initiate design changes prior to the official finalization of the Change Order process.

Note: This feature is only available for Duro Pro and Enterprise accounts.

In order to ensure the manual closing of a Change Order, follow the below directions:

Navigate to the Change Order in question.
Click on Approve.
Optional: Enter a note with a custom approval notice.
Click on Approve.

You will see that the Change Order is now marked as open but presents you with the option to close. If you navigate back to your Change Order library, you can see at a high level that the Change Order is now both open and approved.

To manually close the Change Order, follow the below directions:

Navigate back to the Change Order in question.
Click on Close.
Optional: Enter a note with a custom closing notice.
Click on Close.

Frequently asked questions

For more information, please see our FAQ on Change Orders.