PURPOSE

• To outline methods and policies for determining the effective date of each change.
• Will be used for planning/recording the effective Serial Number, Order Number, or Lot Number, or Date Code, etc. (edit according to your process).

Applicability

• All Releases and Changes done by the change form for this CM function.

Policy/Practice

• Each change (one problem, one fix, one change order) will also require one effectivity point on the change form (see Effectivity Standard).
• Each change will require one effective date on the change form (one problem, one fix, one effective date) for each product affected.
• If required by a customer, the effectivity of the change will be planned by SN, Order Number, Lot Number, Date Code, etc. (edit accordingly).
• Several interchangeable changes to one part may be made on the same change form providing they can be effective together.
• Upon receipt of the change, each impacted department has the responsibility for notifying Production Control of their lead time to change. Each impacted department must notify Production Control immediately upon recognizing that their lead time is changing. Notification will be done (online or by telephone or in the Team Meeting — pick your method).
• Production Control has the overall responsibility for this management task as well as the responsibility to track all affected material. They will track all the parts and assemblies affected by the change to assure that the change occurs as planned or that the plan is revised (re-planned) as necessary.
• Production Control will notify CM by email as to the original plan, any re-plans and the actual effectivity (date or SN, etc.). (If your system allows, consider PC entry of the plan directly.)
• Document only changes do not have an effective date. NA will be entered on the change form by CM. Several “document only” changes can be made to one document by one change form.
• Parts list changes will normally have an effective point at the issue date from the warehouse, the date being the issue of the new items. (Some ERP systems use the date as the last issue of the old design items — correct as necessary.)
• Customer requirements that are stated in the change form by Engineering will be followed unless Production Control negotiates revised requirements.
• Production Control must balance the cognizant engineer’s preferences, lowest cost and material availability in setting the effective date.
• Production Control will plan the initial effective date, re-plan, track the change as necessary and enter the actual effectivity as follows:
  1. Interchangeable changes with the actual date the change occurred at the specified point in the production process.
  2. Non-interchangeable changes with the actual serial number(s) that contain the change – Example: SNs 682, 685, 686, 689 & up. (If you trace by date code, order number, lot number, etc., modify this statement as required.)
• If you are trying to set an effective date by line item affected (not recommended), at least the following conditions are possible:
  1. You may be trying to put more than “one problem / one fix” into one change (not recommended).
  2. You may be trying to do Production Control detail planning on the change form. If you wish to do this, use page two of the Change Form to do this or do that detail planning offline.
• The materials planning is an extremely dynamic situation and therefore requires Production Control to revisit every open change for each product affected at least weekly to determine if the date(s) need to be re-planned and to notify CM if the planned date(s) changes.

Procedure

• See change flow diagram.

Primary Responsibility

• Production Control is responsible for keeping this standard current.
• Production Control can take exception to this standard with the concurrence of the CM manager and stating in the change form why such exception was taken.

Authorization