Modular Bills of Materials
Simply BOM Management, Sales Configuration, and Manufacturing Planning
What is a Modular BOM?
Simply put, a modular BOM is a choice of components or raw materials embedded within a bill of material structure. This choice enables users to configure a finished good with a rules-based list of pre-configured options. After the configuration is performed by the user, the unused options are then dropped off the material list when added to a work order or sales order.
How does a modular BOM differ from an alternate material?
Alternate materials and modular BOMs may appear similar on the surface but serve very different purposes.
Alternate materials in a BOM are issued as a substitute for primary materials when an insufficient stock exists to fulfill material demand. As such, alternate materials are similar enough to be indistinguishable from the primary raw material and do not change the form or function of the finished good when used. The ERP system’s MRP engine and material issuing process will consider the stock of both the primary and alternate materials.
Alternate Example: Manufacturer B’s blue paint may be substituted for Manufacturer A’s blue paint. The MRP system and material issuance processes will prefer the issuance of Manufacturer A’s blue paint. The issuance of either Manufacturer A’s or Manufacturer B’s blue paint neither changes the form nor function of the finished good.
In contrast, modular BOMs rely on the user to configure the material list, much like a sales order configurator. The outcomes of the configuration process dictate the specific inventory requirements for the MRP engine and materials for the issuance processes. Modular BOMs enable a wide range of related finished goods to be built from a single BOM and allow those finished goods to differ in form and function.
Modular Example: A bicycle can be spec’d with a men’s or women’s frame. The women’s frame requires 12 feet of 5/16″ aluminum tube and may be painted Red, Blue, or White. The men’s frame requires 11.5 feet of 3/8″ aluminum tube and may be painted Green, Black, or Orange. Both bicycles use the same derailer, pedals, handlebar, grips, and chain.
Based on the user’s configuration choices, finished goods utilizing the same BOM may be produced with different forms and functions.

How does a modular BOM differ from a sales order configurator?
In ALERE, a modular BOM is the underlying record that drives the sales order configuration process rather than a separate process.
Traditional sales order configurators require a process that involves creating a part number and BOM for every possible configuration of a finished good and then creating a set of rules that map the sales order configurator selections onto each part number. This process is inherently fragile and challenging to maintain, as changing or adding any material choice results in significant downstream work to either the BOM or the sales order configurator ruleset.
ALERE’s Modular BOM removes the BOM/SOC mapping requirement by enabling configuration questions to be embedded directly into the BOM as choices. The available answers to the modular choices are the components or raw materials required to add the modular choice to the finished goods. Structuring BOMs in this manner means organizations can effectively limit the number of BOMs needed to build multiple iterations of the same item. The modular BOM assists organizations in limiting the total number of master inventory item numbers, as every combination of configuration choices contained within the BOM could be built under a single part number.
ALERE’s Modular BOM can create rules-based configuration branches for parts with dependencies by nesting multiple modular choices.