Bill of Materials: Find the right software to Manage your production

A bill of materials or product structure (sometimes bill of material, BOM or associated list) is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts, and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product.

The Bill of Materials is vital to the correct manufacture and/or assembly of products, BOM software is also necessary for growth. Optimizing accuracy and quality from the beginning of the process allows manufacturers to increase production volume track inventory.

Key Features of BOM Software

• Real time BOM pricing and availability. Get real time pricing and availability data for components in the inventory list or in a Bill of Materials.
• Multilevel BOM. Create profiles for items in the system that can then be combined to create a completed project. BOM software ensures that all sub assemblies and component parts are listed in the system for accuracy.
• Alternate part selection. Get alternative part suggestions with the ability to automatically add them directly to the BOM.
• The Bill of Materials feeds the Work Order. Production can be scheduled on a work center. As a result, material, assembly and schedule requirements are generated with extreme accuracy.

Benefits of Bill of Materials Software

• Easy-to-find items. BOM software assigns a code to each item and lets users create custom names, making it simple and quick to find specific items or sub assemblies in the system.
• Reduces costs. The BOM provides a basis for good inventory management so that stock can then be ordered only when it’s required, avoiding excessive inventory holding costs.
• Share real-time data. When implemented, BOM software and other manufacturing systems are accessible by other stakeholders, including management, external service providers and other logistics teams in real time. This means any changes that occur at one site will be reflected immediately in the system for everyone else, preventing any production mistakes as a result of miss communication.
• Maintain production history. Audits and compliance problems can cause big headaches for manufacturers. With a BOM system, every change to items or the production process is recorded and saved, so documents proving compliance are always on-hand.
• Part requests: Purchasing will receive real-time engineering part requests from the BOM database instead of having to wait for individual spreadsheets to be distributed. Not only does this process reduce the possibility of errors, but it saves time too.