What is BOM management?
BOM management is the capturing, configuring, and managing of all product data that is developed throughout the lifecycle of a product. Effective BOM management is critical to a manufacturer’s success no matter the size or the number of parts in the product.
Your digital transformation starts with BOM management
Most manufacturers are grappling with speed and agility in the face of growing numbers of product options and variants. Homegrown tools and processes make it very challenging to find and ensure traceability and associativity of the right product information.
By adopting a parts-centric approach to managing their bill of materials, manufacturers can foster collaboration from the point of product conception through manufacturing, device connectivity, and field service.
Here are ten ways manufacturers can realize immediate benefits from a digital product definition that provides full connectivity across engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and service.
Provide early visibility to stakeholders
Enable stakeholders to access information early in the product development process, which helps increase cross-departmental collaboration and ensures faster time-to-market.
Support a range of BOM structures
Provide specific BOM views for departments, each of which are associated with the others, ensuring traceability between parts (CAD, electrical, mechanical, software, and so on).
Comprehensively manage configurations
Create “closed-loop” lifecycle system consolidation and automatically incorporate the configuration flow from upstream definitions into downstream configured BOMs.
Enable pervasive visualization
Make visualizations and digital models available for use throughout the product development process. Visualization helps with part recognition, while also making it possible to leverage digital models and optimize downstream processes and deliverables.
Improve component and supplier management
Part reuse is key in helping reduce waste and improve costs and efficiency. Enable users to quickly find and reuse the parts they need when they need them.
Ensure change management and traceability
Products evolve rapidly. Easily manage changes to a product’s definition and ensure your deliverables reflect product development changes across the enterprise.
Enable collaboration and IP protection
Share relevant, accurate, up-to-date data that can be accessed and used with minimal rework to maximize productivity—all while protecting intellectual property (IP).
Create BOM-based reports
Enable users to better understand the digital product definition, allowing them to query and find specific information and understand patterns, as well as analyze the products.
Make BOM transformation a reality
Enable a group to change the original BOM to a view that works for them. Downstream users can plan their BOMs earlier in the process rather than wait for engineering drawings.
Start your PLM foundation the right way
Are you still using engineering drawings and spreadsheets as your product definition? It’s time to switch to a part-centric approach. Explore how a part centric BOM can provide a holistic digital product definition, streamline collaboration, reduce complexity and more in this new eBook. Download now to learn how to improve your product management.
Key BOM management software features
Comprehensive out-of-the-box configuration management for a model-based digital thread. Downstream digital content is associative (not copied) with traceable links to manufacturing, service, and more.
Visualization: See product configurations in 3D including loading components on demand, perform interference checking, color coded search and visual compare in Creo View, while fully leveraging these viewables in downstream in process plans, work instructions, catalogs, AR, etc.
Editing: Create and manage product designs including inline editing, autocomplete search, save-as, import from spreadsheet, and driving BOM built from CAD
Compare: Compare product structures including differences in parts, bill of materials, CAD, documents, etc. View differences and explore in 3D
Part replacements and supersedes: Define relationships of interchangeability including alternates, substitutes and part obsolescence
Part classification: Define attributes that streamline finding parts using graphical navigation or attribute searching. Ensure part standardization through classification driven naming
Options and variants: Build configurable product platforms and create configurations and 3D deliverables for design and downstream needs such as MBOM and process plans
Part AML/AVL: Tie supplier part information to product design and allow definition of preferred suppliers for commodity parts. Enable part request process for supply chain and engineering collaboration
Integration for embedded software: Link software deliverables from SCM tools to BOM to provide a complete product definition including software
Transformation: Associative engineering, manufacturing, and service bill of materials views to streamline reconciliation; support for textual and graphical transformation
Part types: Define parts definitions that help describe and capture different business needs with varying attributes, lifecycles and access control.
Part history: Timeline history; compare information and part structure directly from history table
Customer stories
Learn how these companies have adopted a parts-centric approach to managing their BOMs in order to drive their digital transformation.
Types of bills of material
Engineering BOM (EBOM)
Enable product design to associatively create the EBOM from up-to-date CAD and PLM data.
Manufacturing BOM (MBOM)
Enable manufacturing teams to associatively create the MBOM from the EBOM and prepare process manufacturing plans and work instructions.
Service BOM (SBOM)
Enable service teams to associatively create the SBOM from the EBOM. Prepare work instructions, manage service parts and information, and establish connected field service.
PTC solutions for BOM management
ServiceMax is cloud-based software for field service management, supporting remote/on-site service, automation, maintenance, contracts, and customer self-service.
Adopt a parts-centric approach to managing your BOMs with a single source of truth and experience true closed-loop lifecycle management from early concept through all iterations, design cycles, stages, and product release.