An engineering change to a product should not take effect just because someone made it. It should take effect because it was deliberately approved. This piece is about approvals and sign-off for engineering changes in Odoo.
Why approval matters
An engineering change alters a product's definition, and that has consequences across planning, purchasing, production, and costing. A change that is wrong, or whose consequences were not considered, can cause real problems once it takes effect. Approval is the gate that prevents that: it ensures a change takes effect only when someone with the authority and the knowledge to judge it has deliberately decided it should. Approval turns a change from something that happens because it was made into something that happens because it was authorised.
Approval is part of the ECO workflow
In Odoo's PLM capability, approval is built into the engineering change order workflow. An engineering change is raised as an ECO, worked, reviewed, and then approved, and only after approval is the change applied to become the production definition. The approval is a deliberate step in the workflow, a point at which the change is consciously authorised before it takes effect. So a manufacturer using PLM gets approval and sign-off as a designed part of how engineering change is handled, not as an extra it has to bolt on.
What approval should mean
For approval to be worth having, it has to be a genuine decision, not a formality. Approval should mean that whoever approves has genuinely considered the change, has the review's findings in front of them, understands what the change is and what it touches, and makes a real judgement that it should go ahead. Approval done as a rubber stamp, signed off without genuine consideration, provides the form of control without the substance. The manufacturer should ensure that the approval step is taken seriously, that the approver genuinely engages with the change, so that the gate is a real gate.
The right approver
Part of meaningful approval is the right person approving. The approver should be someone with the authority to make the decision and the knowledge to judge the change, someone who can genuinely assess whether the change is sound and its consequences acceptable. Approval by someone without that authority or knowledge is approval in name only. A manufacturer setting up its engineering change process should be clear about who approves changes, and ensure that the approval responsibility sits with people genuinely able to exercise it.
Sign-off creates a record
Approval and sign-off do not only gate a change; they create a record. When an engineering change is approved through the ECO workflow, the approval is part of the recorded history of that change: this change was approved, by whom. That record matters. It means the manufacturer has, for every product change, a record that it was deliberately authorised and by whom, which is part of the controlled, traceable history of product change that PLM provides. For a manufacturer in a regulated industry, that record of approval is often a requirement; for any manufacturer, it is part of genuine control.
The takeaway
Approvals and sign-off for engineering changes in Odoo ensure a product change takes effect only by a deliberate, authorised decision, not just because it was made. Approval is built into the ECO workflow as a step before the change is applied. For it to be worth having, approval must be a genuine decision by the right person, with real consideration, not a rubber stamp. Sign-off also creates a record that the change was authorised and by whom, part of the controlled history of product change. For how we approach Odoo for manufacturers, see our manufacturing work.