The objective of this recommendation is to provide support for ECM processes with respect to the communication of change data between customers and suppliers. Use of the recommendation allows more efficient integration of all the partners involved in a proposed change as a result of:

• a reduction in the variety of communications methods used in the partner network
• a reduction in the throughput time for a proposed change
• improvements in the quality and reliability of the process
• improvement with respect to the transparency of changes for all those involved
• the reusability of process agreements, interfaces and tools

The recommendation is subdivided into individual parts reflecting the ECM Reference SubProcess involved during the course of a change; this subdivision is subject to change as a result of further developments

Part 1: ECR – Specification and Decision on Change

Part 1 offers recommendations with respect to communicating Engineering Change Request (ECR) data to support the specification of proposed changes and the associated decisions. It describes the ECR Reference Process which permits synchronization of the different internal procedures of the partners involved using ECR Messages. It offers recommendations for permitted sequences of ECR Messages to provide support for business-typical ECR Interaction Scenarios (IS) within the scope of bilateral communication between the cooperation partners and recommendations with respect to the minimum requirements applicable to communication and message content. The change data contained in the individual communication steps is described in the ECR Data Model.