EC Lifecycle and Rules
EC Lifecycle and Rules 
Validation Required (Yes or No) is a required field, with no default setting, that determines EC Lifecycle:
Yes -- EC2 proceeds to Implement, Validate, and Formal Approval states on the way to Complete (use when a pilot/control run or other validation is required).
Same as current EC Lifecycle.
No -- EC2 skips Implement, Validate, and Formal Approval states and goes directly to Complete (use for NPI, or when validation or pilot/control run not required).
This is a new shortened lifecycle to improve efficiency for teams not using the implementation and validation steps.
Affected Items can only be added or removed in EC Submit state.
EC promotion from Evaluate to Review requires all Affected Items in to be in Review state.
A project EC route (EC Reviewer List) is required between Review and Approved state and performs this promotion.
Manual promotion of EC from Review to Approved is not allowed.
EC promotion to Approved (performed by the Review route) automatically promotes all Affected Items to Approved state.
In the short EC lifecycle, when Validation Required = No, the EC immediately proceeds from Approved to Complete and promotes the parts immediately from Approved to Release.
In the long EC lifecycle, when Validation Required = Yes, the EC immediately proceeds from Approved to Implement and the parts remain in Approved.
Manual promotion of Affected Items from Review to Approved is not allowed.
Production parts/specs in Approved state can no longer be demoted back to Review state.
A Reviewed and Approved part is Approved for Release.
Part changes are no longer allowed after completion of the Review Route.
ECRB/ Reviewer scrutiny is necessary to help prevent time consuming errors.
Problems found after part Approval must be fixed by Releasing the part and then revising it again in another EC.