IntroductionManufacturers rely on the information that is included in the bill of materials (BOM) to build a product. The bill of materials typically includes part names, part numbers, part revisions and the quantities required to build an assembly. Thorough BOMs can include more descriptive information too, for example, the unit of measure or procurement type. BOMs that have printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) contain a column for listing reference designators.To manage what can be a tremendous amount of information, companies often use either Excel spreadsheets or a dedicated BOM management system likeArena PLM. Below are examples of how a bill of materials for a GPS navigation product would look in each system.

The BOM defines how a product or service is designed, what parts are ordered and how it is assembled. It follows the product every step of the wayfrom the idea all the way through to the user.

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From purchasing, manufacturing, assembling, and ultimately selling products, keeping track of the entire production process stage-by-stage can be a challenge. Many small to midsized enterprises (SMEs) that use enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, likeSAP Business One, have found that havingBill of Materials (BOM)at their disposal can help them overcome these common production related challenges; making the overall production process much more efficient, accurate, and timely.For many companies, the production process starts with raw materials and the creation of aproduction orderwhich contains all of the materials and steps required to produce an item within a predefined time frame. The materials required for a production order can be found in the BOM generated by SAP Business One. The BOM contains a hierarchical arrangement of components that lists all of the raw materials and child or sub items required to assemble and produce a finished product.Without an integrated ERP solution, the generation of BOM and the overall production process is much more complex and error prone due to the challenges associated with manual processes and in-house legacy systems. These challenges include things like managing of inventory across multiple warehouse locations; tracking and recording inventory movements; ensuring enough raw material and parts are created and ordered at the time of production; calculating shortages or surplus inventory; and access to real-time information.About Bills of MaterialUse a bill of material to detail the specific items and quantities that are used to assemble the parent item, define the items as parents or components in the assembly, and provide the foundation for Product Costing and Master Production Schedule programs. It is the basis for creating a parts list for a work order in the Shop Floor Control system.A bill of material defines the manufacture of any of the following: Finished products (end items) Subassemblies ComponentsA properly structured bill of material: Supports the Product Costing system Allows for efficient storage and maintenance of bill of material information Reflects material flow and how the product is built Permits easy order entry Allows the system to display the master schedule in the fewest end items possible Allows for forecasting of optional product featuresAn inaccurate bill leads to: Poor material planning Material shortages Inaccurate product costing Increased production costs Delayed shipments Excess and obsolete inventory Poor specification control Increased product liabilityA bill of material is used as a master list when generating parts lists for work orders, cost rollups, lead time rollups, MPS/MRP/DRP generation, and kit processing for sales orders.Creating a Bill of Materials Filed under:BOM Management ShareCreating a Bill of MaterialsAll manufacturers building products, regardless of their industry, get started by creating a bill of materials (BOM). The BOM, which is essentially a comprehensive list of parts, items, assemblies and sub-assemblies, can be understood as the recipe and shopping list for creating a final product. A BOM explains what to buy, how to buy and where to buy, and includes instructions for how to assemble the product.

Because the bill of materials pulls together all sorts of product information, it is common that several disciplines (design and engineering, document control, operations, manufacturing, purchasing, contract manufacturers and more) will consume data contained within the BOM record to get the job done right. The BOM guides positive results from business activities like parts sourcing, outsourcing and manufacturing, so it is important to create a BOM that is well organized, correct and up-to-date.And for companies that outsource manufacturing activities, it is especially important to create an accurate and revision-controlled bill of materials. Any time the BOM is handed off to a contract manufacturer (CM) or supplier, it should be correct and completeotherwise you can expect production delays.What to include in an effective bill of materialsBecause one of the main functions of the BOM is to ensure that the product is built right, it is best to include specific pieces of product data in the BOM record. Whether you are creating your first bill of materials or are looking for ways to improve how you create a bill of materials, here is a high level list of information to include in your BOM record: BOM LevelAssign each part or assembly a number to detail where it fits in the hierarchy of the BOM. This allows anyone with an understanding of the BOM structure to quickly decipher the BOM. Part NumberAssign a part number to each part or assembly in order to reference and identify parts quickly. It is common for manufacturers to choose either anintelligent or non-intelligent part numbering scheme. Whichever scheme you use, make sure you avoid creating multiple part numbers for the same part. Part NameRecord the unique name of each part or assembly. This will help you identify parts more easily. PhaseRecord what stage each part is at in its lifecycle. For parts in production, it is common to use a term like In Production to indicate the stage of the part. New parts that have not yet been approved can be classified as 'Unreleased' or 'In Design'. This is helpful during new product introduction (NPI) because it allows you to easily track progress and create realistic project timelines. DescriptionProvide a detailed description of each part that will help you and others distinguish between similar parts and identify specific parts more easily. QuantityRecord the number of parts to be used in each assembly or subassembly to help guide purchasing and manufacturing decisions and activities. Unit of MeasureClassify the measurement in which a part will be used or purchased. It is common to use each, but standard measures like inches, feet, ounces and drops are also suitable classifications. Be consistent across all similar part types because the information will help make sure the right quantities are procured and delivered to the production line. Procurement TypeDocument how each part is purchased or made (i.e. off-the-shelf or made-to-specification) to create efficiencies in manufacturing, planning and procurement activities. Reference DesignatorsIf your product contains printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), you should include reference designators that detail where the part fits on the board in your BOM. Capturing this information in the BOM can save time and help you avoid confusion down the road. BOM NotesCapture other relevant notes to keep everyone who interacts with your BOM on the same page.Documenting all this information in your BOM will keep business activities and manufacturing tasks on target. In addition to capturing this information, you should also consider the following questions when creating a bill of materials.4 key questions you must answer before creating a bill of materials1. Will you document consumables in your BOM record?Many manufacturers second-guess the decision to include glue, wires, fasteners and other non-modeled parts like labels and boxes in their BOM record. But if the part does not make it into your BOM, it might not make it into your product. So take the time to document these parts.2. How will you attach files to your BOM record?As you create your BOM, keep records of supporting documentation like CAD drawings, part datasheets and work instructions. It is best to also associate these files with their specific BOM level items.3. Who is going to use the BOM record?It is important to include as many details as possible in your BOM. You may never interact face-to-face with some of the people utilizing your BOM, so it should convey all the information they might need throughout the products lifecycle.4. How will you reconcile your BOM record?Your BOM record may go through several iterations during the design phase, so you should have a way to distinguish between multiple BOM record versions. That way, when it is time for production, you can be sure each person who uses your BOM is consulting the correct version.An accurate BOM supports efficient manufacturing processesCreating a bill of materials is not only a necessary step in the product development process, it is also what makes your product design a reality. Before you create a BOM record, it is important to consider who will utilize the information and how you will maintain and manage all associated product documentation like part datasheets and CAD files. Develop more efficient manufacturing practices by capturing detailed part information when creating a bill of materials.Choosing a BOM management tool Filed under:BOM Management Share

As a product idea moves from conception through prototype and production, a well-managed bill of materials (BOM) is a critical part of the product development process. To properly manage the BOM, most organizations select a BOM management tool to help ensure the most current product revisions are seen by all members of the production team.What is a Bill of Materials?When it comes to building a product, the bill of materials is the single most important deliverable that an engineering team hands off to a manufacturing team. At its simplest conceptual level, the BOM is a list of parts needed to create a finished product. In real-world usage, however, the BOM is not just a parts listit is a complex collection of individual pieces of information and the relationships between them. In addition to describing a wide variety of parts and how they relate to one another within a product, the BOM is also a vendor list that specifies how huge sums of money are spent.The importance of the BOM is widely recognized in the manufacturing community and billions of dollars have been spent to develop tools that help support the management of BOMs throughout the design and manufacturing process.Why is a BOM management tool important?Organizations find BOM management tools helpful in mitigating the difficulties of product sharing between the manufacturing and engineering departments. The engineering project manager, who must estimate costs and analyze engineering tasks, is generally the first member of the organization to compile the BOM. The manufacturing department, who uses the BOM to build the product, is not often involved in the creation of the BOM. This handoff can present a challenge if the parties giving and receiving product data are not on the same page. A BOM management tool can help combine input from engineering and manufacturing teams and ensure both teams work from the same product data.As the design process moves from early development through the handoff to production, a BOM can become increasingly complex and difficult to maintainespecially for organizations who do not have a proper BOM management tool. Frequently, engineering project managers have to create and maintain several versions of the BOM to meet the needs of different audiences, including engineers, contract manufacturers (CMs), Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design services and other vendors. Without a dedicated BOM management tool to handle continually evolving versions of the BOM, product data sharing can be a time consuming and tedious task, not to mention error prone.Because some organizations choose not to implement a BOM management tool, serious consequences can come from poorly managed BOMs. For example, if management does not have a way to access product costs during the development phase, when at least 70% of product costs are determined, an organization can miss cost saving opportunities.Additionally, it becomes more difficult for the design team to collaborate with the supply chain and one another. Finally, the company retains little of the knowledge assembled during a products development because it has no way to organize the information and no place to store it. This can present major problems down the road.What to look for in a BOM management solutionThere are tools specifically equipped to help small to mid-size manufacturers with their BOM management needs. When looking for a BOM management tool, it is important to invest in a tool that will support both short-term and long-term product development strategies.Three key features to look for in a BOM management toolIn order to ensure that a BOM management tool will help an organization efficiently manage product data and streamline the product development process, an organization should select a BOM management tool with the following key features.Firstly, it is important that the BOM management tool empowers the BOM as a data framework, so it can serve as the single product data source for the entire organization in a single location. Secondly, it should place the BOM into a collaborative workspace so that design team members can work with the data in a structure that encourages progress, creates visibility and enables smoother operation throughout the design chain. Lastly, the tool should be accessible outside the boundaries of the organization, so that the design chain and supply chain become integrated partners in product development.A BOM management tool that combines these three elements will improve the efficiency of the bill of materials for individual users and overall data sharing across all levels of the supply chain.Does Excel work as a BOM management tool?In almost all organizations, from single-person consultancies to Fortune 500 corporations, theengineering BOM(EBOM) is initially created and maintained in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.While this may be a good place to start, spreadsheets are not ideal BOM management tools. A BOM is a complex collection of information about parts, vendors, manufacturers and the relationships between them used by a wide variety of people within the enterprise and throughout the supply chain.Because of the inherent complexity of BOMs, efficient BOM management demands a multi-user, relational database that can support a multitude of data types, entries and relationships and can be accessed by everyone who needs to see itregardless of their geographic location. Since a spreadsheet is neither multi-user nor relational, using one as a BOM management tool creates a severe mismatch between the tool and the task.BOM Management with Arena PLMArena provides a dedicated BOM management tool that engineers and manufacturers can utilize to manage bill of materials and related product data. With Arena PLM, the bill of materials is maintained in a centralized location making it easy to keep product data up-to-date.BOMs stored in Arena PLM, can be shared with suppliers and contract manufacturers; so partners have access to the product data they need to build the right product with the right parts. For more information onArena PLM, check out our product page.Manufacturing BOM: Critical for Successfully Building a Product Filed under:BOM Management ShareThe devil is in the detailsand the details of a product are all in the manufacturing bill of materialsThe bill of materials is the core of any hardware product. Having an accurate, clean manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM) is important because it provides details on all the parts required to build a shippable product. Unlike theengineering bill of materials (EBOM)which is organized according to the design of a product, the manufacturing BOM is structured to support how a product is assembled. Without a good MBOM, your product is at risk of being built slowly, incorrectly or not at all.What is a manufacturing BOM?The manufacturing BOM, also referred to as the manufacturing bill of materials or MBOM, contains all the parts and assemblies required to build a complete and shippable product. This includes packaging materials like colored boxes, CDs and printed quickstart guides. It also incorporates items that are used in the assembly process, like liquid adhesives or tape. Both off-the-shelf (OTS) components and custom, made-to-specification (MTS) parts belong on a manufacturing bill of materials, as well as non-tangible items like firmware. Any item that can be found in the final boxed product needs to be included at some level of the manufacturing BOM.Some parts require processinglike pad printing, painting or programmingbefore they are ready to be assembled into a final product. While only the altered part is assembled into the final product, both the pre-processed base part and the finished part are represented on the manufacturing BOM. The manufacturing team needs to know about all the processing steps in order to make critical decisions about which steps will be performed in-house and which will get outsourced to a separate vendor. The location of the processing may be changed during the life of the product to reduce costs, improve quality or increase flexibility.

Only the programmed chip is in the final product, but the blank IC and the correct revision of firmware are needed to create the programmed chip. Manufacturing often changes the location of easily transferred processes like programming depending on the production lifecycle stage. For example, beta and early production units may be programmed in-house while mature products with stable software can be programmed at the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) vendor who supplies the PCBAs.Why is the manufacturing BOM important?The manufacturing BOM enables the final transition from product concept to a concrete, touchable object. The more accurate and complete the contents of the manufacturing bill of materials are, the better the decisions you can make about how to get the product efficiently and cost-effectively into the customers hand.How and where a part will be made impacts the purchasing of components and processed parts, the availability of inventory and the contents of build kits on the manufacturing line. It determines what steps happen on the assembly floor during the production run and what happens ahead of time (possibly at another vendor). Options like these create trade-offs between time, money and control, and those decisions need to be managed as part of the new product introduction (NPI) process. The accuracy and completeness of a manufacturing bill of materials allow a company to make better trade-offs and improve its ability to successfully ramp, build and introduce a new product.The manufacturing bill of materials drives manufacturing, operations, purchasing and logistics for a product. The information from the MBOM feeds the business systems used to order parts and build the product. These include enterprise resource planning (ERP), materials resource planning (MRP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) solutions.

Inaccuracies in a manufacturing BOM lead to problems: If the wrong parts or wrong quantities of parts are ordered, a company will not be able to build enough productor any product at all. This leaves the company with unusable components that need to be returned or extra parts that tie up money in inventory. For manufacturing and operations departments that are already running lean, cleaning up these mistakes is a hassle that wastes time and money. Depending on the size of the original mistake, the amount of money lost could be large enough to impact the companys bottom line.How does an MBOM differ from an EBOM?Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM) vs. Engineering Bill of Materials (EBOM)MBOM Organized into subassemblies that reflect the manufacturing process Represents the physical product, packaging and included documentation Contains all components required to build the product MTS, OTS, mechanical, electrical, software & firmwareEBOM Organized according to CAD/EDA tool and engineers preferences and processes Represents only the physical product being engineered, not the packaging or manufacturing consumables Often includes items for a single engineering discipline only, summarizing or excluding items from other disciplinesThe major differences between the manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM) and theengineering bill of materials (EBOM)are in their structure and depth. Manufacturing BOMs must contain all the parts and assemblies. If an item needs to be purchased, processed or inventoried to make the product then it needs to be represented on the MBOM. All these parts are structured into the manufacturing bill of materials based on how the product is assembled. For instance, if a product has ten 6-32 screws, each screw is listed in the manufacturing BOM in the subassembly where it is used. On the other hand, the engineering BOM for this product may only have one line item that lists the 6-32 screw with a quantity of 10. The engineering BOM may not provide any information about how parts relate to each other.In fact, there may be more than one engineering BOM because different engineering departments each create their own. The structure of the mechanical BOM is generally derived from the mechanical CAD model. That BOM is organized according to the engineers design process and often contains groups of unassociated parts collected together for the engineers convenience in working with the model. Mechanical BOMs commonly list printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) as a single item because adding hundreds of tiny components is tedious, slows work on the CAD model and adds little value to the mechanical design process. Electrical BOMs, on the other hand, only show all the components that make up the PCBAs; they dont deal with the rest of the product at all. And the firmware required for a product may not be listed on either the mechanical or the electrical BOM!In addition to being more complete, MBOMs tend to have more levels to describe each stage of the assembly process in more detail. For example, the lens subassembly that needs time to cure will be called out separately with its own part number and manufacturing work instructions (MWI). In the EBOM, the individual lenses and mounts would exist, but they would be included in a larger optical assembly. For the mechanical engineers, the many subassemblies needed by manufacturing add layers of complexity to the structure and make it harder to work with the CAD model.Better manufacturing BOMs enable better decisionsA detailed manufacturing bill of materials is critical to the successful management of manufacturing resources. With a deep and accurate MBOM, the new product introduction (NPI) process is smoother, and the ramp to full production is more controlled. With knowledge about ALL components and steps in the manufacturing process, the operations team can make appropriate trade-offs throughout the life of a product.Engineering Engineering items are items that your engineeringfunction creates and that are not ready forproduction (created in Oracle Engineering). Manufacturing items are items you use inproduction (created in Oracle Inventory).How do they differ? Engineering items have the item attributeengineering item selected. Manufacturing items have the item attributeengineering item. Engineering items are not visible in OracleInventory.

PPrroottoottyyppee iitteemmss tthhaatt aarree nnoott rreeaaddyy ffoorr pprroodduuccttiioonnEngineering and Manufacturing ItemsThe windows that you use to create engineering and manufacturing items areidentical. They differ only in the following ways: You create and change engineering items using the Oracle Engineeringwindows. You can create and change manufacturing items using theOracle Inventory forms. When your engineering items are ready for production, you can transfer orcopy them to Oracle Inventory as manufacturing items. When you transferan engineering item, it becomes a manufacturing item. When you copy anengineering item, it remains and you create a manufacturing item with adifferent item number.

Specify Components of BOMYou use bills of material to specify the component items that you use to: Manufacture assemblies and subassemblies Configure sales orders Explode aggregate forecasts Calculate standard costBill of materials or BOM.BOMis the term used to describe the "parts list" of components needed to complete a saleable Finished Goods (end-item).Referred as recipe. A bill of material is a formally structured list for a father item or factory made item (semi-finished or subassembly or finished) which lists all the component parts of the father item with the name, quantity, and unit of measure of each component, called child item in ERP. Whenever the design changes user should update the BOM. ERP will give revision number automatically. User can make BOM up to n level, in other words there is no limit in ERP for making multi-level BOM. The semi-finished goods is also called Factory made item. Topics discussed:Bill Of Materials, BOM, ERP Modules, BOM For Food, BOM For Plastic, BOM For Discreet Production, Where BOM Is Used, What Is BOM, Bill Of Materials For Manufacturing Industry Examples of BOM such as, BOM for automobile ancillary, BOM for discreet product, BOM for construction industry, BOM for corrugated box, BOM for large industrial systems, BOM for special purpose machines, BOM for project base industry BOM for assembled products, etc. is shown above. To view various examples of BOM click on the thumbnail view above. These examples are just to learn the concept of the BOM, actual BOM may be somewhat different than shown above. BOM module is an important module in ERP. BOM is a pivot around which ERP rotates. However, this requires good amount of time and effort to make the master data file. Usually the technical person, design experts, or a person who knows how the final product is made prepares the BOM. In other words, anybody and everybody in an organization is not permitted to access the BOM master. This is one time effort, but must be done to get full benefit of ERP software. If the product is not standard or child items are not standard, it may result into many BOMs, that is why it may be a good idea to standardize the child items as much as possible. In ERP create the BOM master database. User can export the BOM to MS Excel sheet format. The BOM view shows father item and child items relationship graphically. The BOM may change depending on the Finished Goods (end-product) and production method. For example, in case of process production, there will be only one child (main raw material) and one father item. Whereas in case of assembly production, there may be many child items. Add similar BOM feature allows creating a BOM from existing BOM of a similar product and then saving after minor changes as new BOM tremendous time saving feature for large BOM. Bill of Material with "Copy similar BOM" feature. User can print the BOM using 'BOM reports menu' in MS Excelsheet format. The excel sheet can be saved as soft copy or user can print the excel sheet from Excel. Bill of Material for furniture industry. Left side shows "child items". Where BOM is used?The BOM is integrated with many ERP business processes as follows: BOM can be used for preparing a work order (job card) for own production or at the third party. This work order shows the list of child items that is required to produce the father item. BOM is also used in preparing the cost sheet. Marketing executives can use BOM for preparing estimates. BOM can be used for MRP or Material Requirement Planning. To compute the shortage quantity the BOM is exploded automatically by ERP software to list the item/s required to be purchased to fulfill a given sales order (ORI). This MRP report, in turn will help purchase officer to procure items. BOM master is also helpful in keeping track of revision numbers or engineering changes, called R number. This R number is also reflected on the work orders etc. to help user.