Effectively managing a digital bill of materials is required for all manufacturers. It’s the digital BOM that helps reduce errors across the manufacturing processes. However, improving BOM-related processes can take operations to a new level with the ability to manage complexity, increase personalization, enable collaboration, and more.
The benefits of a digital bill of materials can be immense and build the foundation of digital enterprises.
Overcoming Digital BOM Challenges
It’s not uncommon for companies to operate with outdated and ineffective BOM management tools. It may not be immediately apparent, but these inefficiencies can cost a lot in terms of productivity, time, and quality. Here are just a few examples of the most common issues that result from a less-then-optimal digital BOM:
- Manufacturing errors
- Ordering the wrong parts
- Inability to adopt engineering changes
- Poor traceability
- Scrap and rework
- Inability to share product information downstream
Many companies struggle with costly issues without realizing the root cause is sub-par digital bill of materials management.
What to Look for in a Digital BOM Solution
When looking for a digital bill of materials solution, most teams start by evaluating the available functionality. Whether you need engineering BOMs (EBOM), manufacturing BOMs (MBOM), or service BOMs (SBOM) – you want a solution that can do it all. Here are some of the key functionalities that should be considered when selecting your next digital BOM solution:
Product Instruction Development
Users must be able to easily define digital BOMs with different structures. These BOMs can be created manually, by selecting components or assemblies, or through file input that can be validated (also known as the bottom-up approach). The bottom-up approach requires seamless integration into one or more computer-aided design (CAD) systems and any application lifecycle management (ALM) tools already being used.
Revision and Change Management
As products evolve throughout development, teams need a simple way to manage those revisions and changes. Modern digital bill of materials solutions use a status “state” that impacts the availability and rules for downstream tasks.
Product Variant Support
The increased personalization required by customers means that not all products have a single valid digital BOM. Therefore, manufacturing teams need to be able to offer Configure to Order (CTO) and/or Engineer to Order (ETO) options. Modern digital BOM tools will have change-managed and revision controls to support these scenarios.
Information Association
Today’s products consist of more than just parts. Teams must be able to manage parts as well as mechanical, electrical, and software components. Companies should expand their digital BOM capabilities to enable collaboration across design and engineering teams. An integrated system can connect all the data needed for a single product without duplicating data and support digital twins.
BOM Transformation
Your digital BOM solution should be able to create and manage multiple types of product structures. This includes creating derivative structures for different purposes, such as simulation or compliance. By supporting BOM transformation, teams can improve progress tracking and reduce errors.
Product Visualization
While the standard text view of a BOM is valuable, it’s no longer enough for today’s complex products. Teams need to see how all product components, including all variants, come together in 3D according to the digital BOM. These multi-dimensional views enable improved downstream validation and simplified collaboration with non-engineers.
Reporting and Analysis
A digital BOM can support critical downstream decision-making by providing a holistic product structure for reporting and analysis. It also helps with higher-level decisions across the enterprise, making it possible to gain more business value from existing data. Reporting and analysis features should include tools to create specialized online views, view release information, and supply BOM data to big data for advanced analytics.
Get Started with Digital Bill of Materials Solutions
Manufacturing organizations today are undergoing a significant revolution as their digital transformation journeys continue. Digital BOM solutions support these efforts with connected and up-to-date data that provide a foundation for all engineering, manufacturing, and service activity. A digital bill of materials creates a single source of truth for all product information for enterprise-level benefits. These increased efficiencies and decreased costs support improved collaboration and more innovative products. Ultimately, teams with a modern digital BOM can take on the digital future of manufacturing with the data needed to support digital twins, digital thread, AR, IoT, and more.
If you’re ready to learn more about what digital BOM solutions are available, contact us.
