A change status depicts a particular processing status of a recipe object (for example, the recipe header or a phase). Change statuses are ordered sequentially, that is, each change status has a validity period that ends with the start of the next one.

You create change statuses if you:

• Want to plan when objects will be changed and what changes will be involved
• Combine related changes to different objects, such as master recipe, material, and bill of material
• Want to fully document the different processing statuses of a master recipe and their validity periods

When accessing a recipe object, the system always selects the change status that is valid for the corresponding date.

To create a new change status when a recipe object is changed, you must first create a change master record or, for recipes requiring approval, an engineering change order. Depending on what you want to change, the change master record must support the following object types or contain object management records for the following objects:

If you want to link changes you have made to other objects to the changes in the recipe, you also include these objects in the change master record.

• Editing master recipes
• Editing objects in other application components and wanting to use these objects in master recipes (for example, BOMs in BOM management).

SAP Library LO - Engineering Change Management

In the R/3 System, every recipe object has its own change status, and hence, a validity period of its own. You edit change statuses as follows:

• When creating a master recipe, you create a change status for every recipe object, irrespective of whether you work with or without a change master record.
• You create another change status for a recipe object by changing the master recipe with reference to a change master record or engineering change order.

• You change the existing change status of a recipe object if you change the master recipe without a change master record.

• There is only one change status for production versions and you can change this status with or without a change number. If you want to define a production version with a different validity area, you do not create a new change status but a new production version instead.

You determine the validity of a change or change status as follows:

• For production versions, by entering the valid-from and valid-to dates in the production version
• For recipe objects, via the key date you use to edit a master recipe

• If certain conditions are fulfilled, you can change the valid-from date of a change master record within engineering change management .
• To exclude changes with change master records whose valid-from date is in the past, we recommend activating the date check in Customizing for Engineering Change Management.