Practical Tips for Managing Your Bill of Materials

At its most basic level, a bill of materials (BOM) is a recipe. It lists raw materials and how to combine them to produce something. A BOM also includes sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, and quantities—all of which must be carefully managed. Factor in multiple warehouses, different types of BOMs, and frequent variations/customizations, and BOMs can be difficult to manage.

Identify the Issues

Build a list of your manufacturing business’s pain points. That might include difficulty creating multi-level BOMs, inputting data on a BOM-by-BOM basis, or a lack of material requirements planning (MRP) capabilities. Then, identify upcoming business changes, such as new production facilities, new items that need new production methods, a merger, or an acquisition.

Prioritize

Perform a simple cost-benefit analysis of each issue. Don’t get lost in the minutiae. One problem may be complicated and cost-prohibitive to solve, while another might have an easy, affordable fix.

Understand Your Production Processes

Outline your production processes and how they affect your operations. Include the types of production you perform, if those processes transform inventory items into other inventory items, and if each process will remain static or be unique to customer requirements.

Trust the Experts

Once you have a thorough comprehension of your starting point, leave the hard stuff to the experts. A firm like Boyum IT will understand your needs and recommend technology solutions to help you meet your manufacturing business’s goals.

Here are some solutions that make managing BOMs easier:

·       SAP Business One: A powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution

·       Boyum Cloud Produce: A cloud-based production management environment that puts web interfaces on your shop floor

·       Produmex Scan: Captures production information on mobile devices

·       Produmex WMS: A warehouse management system that builds raw material picking and other workflows into your production processes

Beas Manufacturing: Handles complex scheduling, planning, costing, and quality control requirements