Heeding engineering change requests (ECRs) best practices means the development of the prototype will continue as it should. However, chaos will reign if the change requests best practices aren’t observed. When choosing a PCB contract manufacturer to build your prototype circuit boards, finding one with a well-documented change request system in place is essential. Let’s explore these best practices and what they are not, and find out how your CM should manage your change requests.
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What Are PCB Engineering Change Request Best Practices?
Without a clear avenue of communication, a change request system will break down. Design questions and change requests could fall through the cracks and not reach their intended recipient. Delays can happen if one of the parties is waiting for a response from the other. Communication is vital, and a CM must have a system to ensure clear and open lines of communication with their customers.
Another best practice the CM should have is a system where everything related to building the PCBA is logged and recorded. The days of hastily jotted comments on sticky notes or napkins are long gone, and each question, request, and authorization requires archival into a customer database. In the event of industry audits for certification, the CM will have a reliable record of everything that has happened with your board. Additionally, the customer change request database should record communication and all observations, errors, and customer responses to ensure an extensive record of every job.
What Happens With Poor Change Request Tracking?
Imagine if a change request gets lost or the CM discovers an error but doesn’t communicate this to the customer:
- Incorrect part purchase/assembly due to missed change requests.
- Bad builds due to data errors not being corrected.
- Failed ISO audits due to missing documentation.
- The CM misunderstands your requirements or specifications.
The CM can avoid these problems by establishing a transparent change request system. It is similarly essential that a CM document changes designers don’t want in their designs. In some prototype scenarios, you may request that a needed change not be made for specific testing or a faster build. In these cases, the change request system must also retain the “as-built” condition documentation.
How a Contract Manufacturer Best Manages Engineering Changes
A CM should share every engineering change request in a shared and accessible database. At VSE, we call each communication recorded in this database a “clarification request.” The database is one of the most utilized tools in our company. Any questions about a customer’s job, whether we need something clarified, report a problem we’ve found, or request that something be changed, are logged into the database. Once logged, the question or communication is sent to you, the customer, in electronic documentation that summarizes all of the details under the specific part name and number of the job.
This process is our official course of action per our ISO standards, and we only accept responses from the customer in an electronic approval form that enters the database. When an auditor seeks justification for changes, the answer will always be, “Because we sent the customer a clarification request, and they answered with our standard approval form.” Our communication with you, especially our change requests, is documented within our proprietary clarification request process. With this level of information management, we can reduce errors from miscommunication and deliver the quality you should expect in your PCBA.
