When a technical change affects a product — replacing a component, updating a bill of materials, evolving a definition document — you need to be able to trace it, validate it, and apply it in a structured way. That's exactly what Change Workflows do in Aletiq.
🔄 ECR and ECO: two steps in the change process
Change management revolves around two concepts:
ECR (Engineering Change Request): the change request. It describes the problem identified or the improvement proposed, and justifies why a modification is needed.
ECO (Engineering Change Order): the change order. Once the request is approved, the ECO precisely describes the modifications to be made, their impacts, and the implementation instructions.
In Aletiq, both steps are handled through a dedicated workflow, driven by an automation model of type "Product definitions".
🚀 Creating a Change Workflow
To start a change workflow, select "Product definitions" as the main object type when creating it. You then need to specify:
The product definitions impacted by the change — for example, the sub-assembly containing the component to be replaced.
The root objects (root products) that contain those definitions — they are detected automatically, and their BOM will appear in the impact matrix.
💡 Good to know: the definitions selected at creation are locked in. If new definitions are created outside the workflow afterwards, the starting point of the change remains unchanged.
You can also start a Change Workflow quickly from a pre-built workflow template, making it easier to roll out standardised change processes.
📊 The impact matrix (Changed eBOM)
The impact matrix is the heart of the Change Workflow. It compares the bill of materials before and after the change, and lets you qualify each modification.
For each component in the BOM, you can set:
✏️ Updated: the definition will evolve
➕ Added to the definition
➖ Removed from the definition
🔢 Quantity / comment modified
⬜ Ignored: no action on this item
From the side panel of a definition marked "Updated", you can directly edit its linked parts and documents, change the associated revisions, and add or remove items.
⚠️ The impact matrix only exists within the workflow context — it is not accessible outside of it.
🏭 Impacted manufacturing processes
If your product definitions are linked to manufacturing processes, Aletiq detects them automatically and lets you include them in the scope of the change.
An "Impacted Processes" tab is available in the workflow. It shows:
The manufacturing processes affected by the change
Their manufacturing BOM (mBOM) with comparison statuses
A side panel to inspect each process's properties, operations and files, and edit them directly
You can also approve the definitions linked to manufacturing processes directly from a dedicated approval dialog.
✅ Validating the change
Once modifications are entered in the matrix, validation is the final step. It is irreversible and simultaneously triggers:
The creation and validation of all definitions marked as "Updated"
The update of BOMs (additions, removals, quantity changes)
The validation of all involved drafts
⚠️ If a single validation fails, nothing is applied. Everything works as an all-or-nothing operation to guarantee data consistency.
After validation, the matrix switches to read-only and displays the new definition indexes.
📋 Workflow tasks
The Change Workflow works the same way as other Aletiq workflows: it is made up of tasks assigned to users, which can include forms to fill in to structure the change information (description, justification, classification, etc.).
Tasks progress in parallel with the work on the impact matrix — both move forward independently, and it is up to the user to connect task progress with the state of the matrix.
💡 Users with edit access can now move items between Draft and In Review status without needing approval rights.
🔗 Traceability and tracking
The change workflow is automatically linked to:
The impacted product definitions (visible from their page)
The parts and documents modified as part of the change
The selected root products
This makes it easy to find which workflow produced which modification, and to keep a complete history of your products' technical evolutions.