Create a bill of materials
Simple BOMs that are not yet associated with items, or that are in the initial planning stages, are created in the Bills of materials page.
This unit includes how to create a BOM without a version.
You can create and modify as many simple BOMs as you want to without having to worry about attaching any items to them. This ability is useful for new orders that are in the initial planning stages.
If a BOM does not yet have any associated items, it can be created in the Bills of materials page.
The Bills of materials page is divided into an upper and a lower section. The upper section shows the BOMs that are in the user's company, and the lower section shows the BOM versions that are defined for each BOM that is selected.
To open the Bills of materials page, go to Product information management > Bills of materials and formulas > Bills of materials.
The BOM designer provides a visual tree structure view of a BOM. It is accessed directly from either the Bills of materials page or the Released products list page. The BOM designer is an alternative for users who prefer to work with BOMs by using a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of a linear one.
Scenario: Create a BOM for a home theater system
The USMF company wants to start manufacturing a new model of home theater system, but they do not have any inventory items that are available yet. The Product designer assistant, is asked to create an initial BOM so that management can determine whether production can start. The assistant creates a single-level BOM, named "Home theater system," without a version, in the upper pane of the Bills of materials page. They also create component items for the home theater system by selecting the Lines button and using the BOM line page. After the component items are added, the BOM is approved.
When you are creating a BOM, assigning material consumption to the resource is useful when the BOM version does not refer to a site but is valid for all sites. In this situation, you need to define a different picking warehouse for each site in the Warehouse field.
If the Resource consumption check box is not selected and the Warehouse field is blank, the picking warehouse is taken from the item's master record data.
After creating BOM lines, you need to specify quantity and configuration groups. In the Quantity field, type the number of items that are included in one unit or one series of the BOM item. If the quantity is calculated for each series, indicate the basis of the series in the Per series field.
For example, if a BOM item is referred to in 100-pound packages, and there are 10 pounds of component item A in each 100-pound package, the quantity will be 10 for every series of 100. Quantities on BOMs can be used to control which version of the BOM is used in production. For example, if fewer than 500 pieces of a BOM item are ordered, version 1 is used; when more than 500 pieces are ordered, version 2 is used.
In the Configuration group field, select the relevant group for the item. The value in this field depends on the product subtype and the configuration technology that is defined for the product.
In the Unit field, view the BOM unit as specified in the BOM unit field, which is on the Engineer FastTab on the Released products page.
After all BOM lines are added to the BOM, the BOM must be approved and activated to be used in production.
Working with BOMs in the BOM designer
The BOM designer page can also be used to work with BOMs. The BOM designer functionality is different depending on where in Supply Chain Management it is accessed from. To create simple BOMs, you can access the BOM designer from the Bills of materials page. It can also be accessed from the Released products list page; however, this page is used primarily to create and work with BOMs that are associated with inventory items.
Use the BOM designer to perform the following actions:
- Create new BOM versions or edit the existing ones.
- Edit and delete BOM lines.
- Check BOMs for errors, for example, BOM circularity.
- Check which BOM versions (if there are any) are attached to the selected BOM.
- Check at which sites the BOM versions are assigned.
- Print BOM and BOM lines for the selected BOM.
- Verify the site to which the BOM line belongs.
When you access the BOM designer from the Released products list page, you will connect a BOM to a certain item. This connection enables a user to create or edit BOM versions and assign items or sub-BOMs to specific operations.
Copy BOM versions
When the BOMs are similar in Supply Chain Management, the copying functionality can simplify the creation of new versions. You can copy existing BOMs on the Copy BOM/route page. Additionally, you can copy the existing BOMs from base data or production. After you copy the BOM items, you can change or delete the BOM lines that do not correspond to the new version and then insert new lines.
If the existing BOM contains configurations, the system also copies the configurations, along with their rules and routes to the new BOM.