Change orders are managed using an approval workflow. As a change order progresses through the workflow, it stops at various states. At each state, team members can perform different workflow actions depending on their assigned role on the change order. The process of performing actions and moving the change order through the workflow continues until the change order has been completed or cancelled.

Workflow roles

There are three roles that can act on a change order:

• Owner: the creator of the change order. Optionally, other team members can be assigned the role of additional owner, allowing them to act on behalf of the original owner.
• Approver: a team member identified on the change order as having the authority to validate and approve the change order requirements have been met. There can be more than one approver, but only one approver is needed to move the change order through the workflow.
• Reviewer: an optional team member who can provide feedback on the change order. A reviewer cannot approve a change order. There can be more than one reviewer.

If the approval workflow requires you to perform an action, your Outstanding Work dashboard shows an item for the action and you receive an email notification. You perform a workflow action by opening the change order.

Open

The approval workflow for a change order begins when you release a Fusion design or drawing with a change order using the Manage extension. The change order starts in the Open workflow state. By default, the person who creates the change order is the owner. Additional owners can be assigned to a change order. Only owners can re-open a change order or cancel a change order.

Work

Once the owner of the change order moves it to Work, the requested changes can begin. An owner can decide to withdraw the change order or move it forward to be reviewed. An approver can decide to by-pass the Review state to approve and close the change order immediately.

Review

When you move a change order into the Review state, its affected items are locked. This makes sure that the correct information is sent to the reviewers; if any changes are made to items after the change order is in Review, the changes are not reflected in the change order.

Those tasked with providing feedback and approving the work decide if the change order requirements are met.

If the change order requirements are met, the approver can approve and close the change order. This means the change order is done.

If the approver decides that the change order requirements are not met, the approver adds a comment and returns it to open. It is now up to the owner to re-open the change order where it can either be sent through the workflow again or cancelled.

If reviewers have been identified for the change order, they supply their optional feedback in the form of a review. The feedback is collected in the workflow history and serve to inform the approver.

Approved (Closed)

The change order is completed and closed. It can no longer be re-opened and the items affected by the change order can now be associated with another change order.

Cancelled

The owner of the change order has decided to discard the change order. It can no longer be re-opened and the items affected by the change order can now be associated with another change order.

Change orders are managed using an approval workflow. As a change order progresses through the workflow, it stops at various states. At each state, team members can perform different workflow actions depending on their assigned role on the change order. The process of performing actions and moving the change order through the workflow continues until the change order has been completed or cancelled.

Workflow roles

There are three roles that can act on a change order:

• Owner: the creator of the change order. Optionally, other team members can be assigned the role of additional owner, allowing them to act on behalf of the original owner.
• Approver: a team member identified on the change order as having the authority to validate and approve the change order requirements have been met. There can be more than one approver, but only one approver is needed to move the change order through the workflow.
• Reviewer: an optional team member who can provide feedback on the change order. A reviewer cannot approve a change order. There can be more than one reviewer.

If the approval workflow requires you to perform an action, your Outstanding Work dashboard shows an item for the action and you receive an email notification. You perform a workflow action by opening the change order.

Preparation

The change order starts in the Preparation workflow state. By default, the person who creates the change order is the owner. Additional owners can be assigned to a change order. Only owners can re-open a change order or cancel a change order. Fast track to submission to CCB is only possible if there are no tasks. You can use the Task Planning tab to define the required activities for the change order. This tab may already include entries from the selected change approval template. Like with change requests, the change coordinator may define, modify, remove, or add activities to ensure successful completion of the change. You can extend or adjust any entries provided by the template.

Each row in the Task Planning tab defines an activity. You must enter an alphanumeric ID, an Assignee, and a Target Completion Date for each activity. Optionally, you can specify dependencies using the Depends On column to determine the order in which activities should be completed.

You can also use the Reference Items or Items To Change columns to select relevant items. The system subsequently copies these items to the generated change tasks when you move the change order workflow to the Perform Change state. You can add items after creating the tasks; use the Update Tasks workflow action to update the tasks.

If you select a reviewer for a task, the resulting change task will require review before it can be completed. You can also specify planned effort for each task, which helps compare planned versus actual effort and aligns with effort estimates from the Change Request (see the Effort Tracking chapter for details).

Perform change

Once the owner of the change order moves it to Initiate tasks, the assigned tasks can begin. An owner can decide to withdraw the change order or move it forward to be reviewed. An approver can decide to by-pass the Review state to approve and close the change order immediately.

The system uses the information in the Task Planning tab to create matching change tasks when you move the change order to the Perform Change status using the Initiate Tasks workflow action. When you initiate tasks, the system does the following:

• Calculates Target Start Dates based on the Target Completion Date and any dependencies in the Depends On column. This also determines the Target Duration and Days Remaining.
• Creates change tasks for each entry in the Task Planning tab and places them in the Change Tasks workspace.
• Includes links to these tasks in the Task column at the far right of the Task Planning tab.
• Adds tasks to the Schedule tab according to their Target Start and Completion Dates.

Results review

When change tasks are generated, the system assigns only tasks without dependencies to their assignees, who receive email notifications and see the tasks in their My Outstanding Work list. The system initiates dependent tasks only after their prerequisite tasks are complete. The change order overall will not proceed until all change tasks are complete.

Once all tasks are complete, the change order automatically transitions to the Results Review status, enabling the coordinator to review task outcomes. If further actions are needed, the coordinator can add more entries to the Task Planning tab and initiate them using the Initiate Additional Tasks workflow action. The coordinator can also use the Update Tasks transition to update existing tasks or add new ones to the schedule.

The Task Planning tab always lists tasks that are still due. When you complete a change task, the system removes its entry from the Task Planning tab, making it easy to track change implementation. Note that you cannot use the Submit to CCB (Fast Track) option if you have defined tasks in the Task Planning tab. The system prevents this and displays an error message. You must either let the tasks proceed or clear the Task Planning table if the change has already been performed and should be approved quickly.

Send to CCB

Once you complete all required changes and there are no pending change tasks, move the change order to the Change Control Board (CCB) Review state. You can do this directly from the Planning status if you have not defined any entries in the Task Planning tab, or from the Results Review status once you complete all related change tasks.

Before transitioning to the Change Control Board Review status, you must select a valid lifecycle change for all items in the Affected Items tab. You must also define CCB reviewers in the Approvals & Confirmation section (at least one required or additional approver) on the main Change Order tab. If you do not meet these conditions, the system will prevent the transition and show an error message.

The Change Control Board Review state locks the process — no further changes are allowed from this point. Only by returning the process to Results Review can you make modifications again. Both approvers and the change order coordinator can return the process to this state if needed.

Use the Approvals & Confirmation section to review and manage required approvals for the change order. If the selected Change Template contains predefined approvers, the system lists them in the Required column. The coordinator can also add additional approvers from the list of users. When the change order reaches the Change Control Board Review status, the system copies all required and additional approvers to the Remaining Approvers list. Each user must approve the change by performing the workflow action, which moves them from the Remaining Approvers list to the Approved By list. This process makes it easy to track outstanding approvals. (Users listed in the Implementation row of this section will be involved only after the CCB review is successful.)

The system notifies all remaining approvers by email and adds the change order to their My Outstanding Work list while their approval is pending.

If any remaining approver rejects the change and returns the process to review status, the system clears the Remaining Approvers list. All selected approvers must approve again the next time the change order reaches the Change Control Board Review status. You can repeat the Change Control Board Review multiple times. The system tracks each repetition in the KPIs section, along with information about whether the Perform Tasks step was skipped (Fast Track).

Get an external review

The Stakeholders section holds information about external stakeholders impacted by the change (such as suppliers and customers). The system copies this information from the originating Change Request, but you can adjust it at the Change Order level. If you set Customer Approval Required to Yes, this will affect the Change Order approval flow. If customer approval is required, the change order transitions to the External Review status after the last change control board (CCB) approval. This status does not involve the customer directly. The change order coordinator is responsible for managing and documenting this review. Once the coordinator completes the review and receives customer feedback, they can perform the appropriate workflow action. If the customer rejects the change, the process returns to the Planning status so you can plan further tasks. If the customer approves the change, the system releases it.

Confirm a change order for release

After the Change Control Board (CCB) approves the change and, if required, external stakeholders provide approval, additional stakeholders (such as purchasing, manufacturing engineers, or suppliers) may need to confirm the change. The system manages this step through the Released status and the Confirm transitions.

Use the Approvals & Confirmation section to manage and track confirmations. The system manages confirmations the same way as CCB approvals: the selected change template sets required confirmations, and the coordinator can add additional confirmations. As users perform the Confirm workflow action, the system moves their names from the Remaining column to the Completed By column.

The system notifies users by email and lists the change order in their My Outstanding Work until they perform the Confirm action. Once the last person confirms, the change order transitions to the Implemented status.

The confirmation step is optional. If you do not define any required or additional confirmations, the change order transitions to Implemented automatically after CCB or external approval. When the change order reaches Implemented status, the system also transitions related change requests and their problem reports to the Completed status.