All about BOMs
What is a BOM?
The Bill of Materials (BOM) is a structured list of components, materials, subassemblies, and quantities needed to manufacture a product.
Within an ERP system, BOMs are a crucial component for numerous functions such as production planning, inventory management, procurement, and costing. Unique to ALERE, the BOM is also used as the sales order configurator.
Components of the BOM in ALERE
Finished Good – Located at the top of a BOM tree, this is the final item produced by the work order.
Component – A discrete, intermediate item within the BOM. Also referred to as subassemblies, component items usually contain a sub-BOM and may either be produced from raw materials, components, phantoms, a combination thereof, or, in many instances, purchased directly from a supplier.
Components are viewed by the MRP system as a complete assembly, rather than a group of components like a kit or phantom. Therefore, MRP will recommend purchase orders or sub-work orders to fulfill the demand for the components required within the finished good.
Raw Material – Inventory materials that do not have their own BOM and move directly from inventory to WIP when consumed by a work order.
Alternate – A list of items used interchangeably with the related raw material or component item.
In ALERE, when a work order is released, each item is checked for availability in inventory. If an item on the list is unavailable, ALERE performs a check to see if enough alternate material exists to fulfill demand. If so, the alternate item is substituted for the primary material. The order of the alternate materials within the BOM specifies the preference of the alternates.
Phantom – A transient item produced as a function of the work order. A phantom is similar to a component item in that it will have a separate BOM associated with it, but that’s where the commonality ends. Phantoms are never purchased, are not commonly stocked, and do not require a separate work order for their production.
The inventory required to produce the phantom will be directly added to the material list underneath the assembly’s part number, and MRP ties the fulfillment of the demand directly to the work order, rather than a sub-work order.
A unique feature of ALERE is that it allows phantom assemblies to be stocked if required. This often occurs when a work order is partially completed and canceled, or when an assembly has been returned and is disassembled into component pieces for reuse. When issuing material to work orders or performing an MRP run, ALERE prefers to consume phantoms from inventory before driving into lower-level material requirements.
Variable Phantom – Unique to ALERE, a Variable Phantom functions similarly to a regular phantom, but acts as a multiplier for all of its child items comprising the phantom assembly. Its primary use is within sales order configuration or make-to-order production environments where the actual material required varies depending on variables such as additional assemblies, area, or volume. This carries the significant advantage of not having to create and maintain a BOM for every single use case.
An example use case for a variable phantom would be finding the material requirements for a window. After inputting the desired length and width of the window, the BOM would propagate the work order, sales, or quote with the correct amount of material and cost.
Modular – Also unique to ALERE, and heavily relied upon by make-to-order and mixed-mode manufacturers, modular BOM components permit multiple permutations of finished goods to exist under a single BOM structure by enabling the selection of elements that drive the BOM through different selection “trees”, similar to that of a sales order configurator.
An easy to illustrate example is offering different colorways for an item. The raw materials, phantoms, and components for the finished good will be listed out as usual, but all the paint colors are grouped as children of a modular choice. When the sales or work order selects a color, the paint colors not chosen are dropped from the material requirements.
The advantage of this structure is threefold. First, if a common component changes due to an engineering change or the obsolescence of that part, only one BOM would need to be updated. Second, if a new option for the finished good is added, an entirely new BOM does not need to be created to support it. Third, this structure eliminates the need for a separate sales order configurator that would otherwise require its own relations and management.
Kit – A kit is simply a prepackaged group of parts to repair or build something. Kits do not require an intermediate item to be produced when consumed, and can be stocked. In the event a kit is needed for a sales or work order, but is not available, the lower-level materials are automatically added to the pick list.
ALERE’s BOMs also contain a host of other features, such as the repository for BOM revisions, find number associations, effectivity dates, default route relationships, and child configurations.
The comprehensive BOM structure within ALERE serves as the backbone of manufacturing operations, seamlessly integrating production planning, inventory management, and sales configuration into a unified system. By supporting diverse manufacturing environments and offering unique features like variable phantoms and modular components, ALERE’s BOM functionality eliminates the complexity of managing multiple systems while maintaining the flexibility needed for modern manufacturing. This integrated approach not only streamlines operations but also ensures accurate costing, efficient resource allocation, and the agility to respond quickly to engineering changes and new product variations, making it an indispensable tool for modern manufacturers.