A well-organized Bill of Materials (BOM) is the backbone of every successful product development process. Whether you’re designing a new product or managing engineering changes, effective BOM management software ensures accuracy, traceability, and collaboration across teams. In today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape, BOM management software is essential for improving productivity and product quality.

BOM management software facilitates the transformation of design data into manufacturing plans to ensure alignment between design and production.

BOM Overview

BOM Definition

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a comprehensive list of parts, components, subassemblies, and raw materials required to build a product. It serves as a single source of truth for engineers, manufacturers, and supply chain teams, ensuring consistency from design through production.

Types of BOM

There are two main types of BOMs, purpose-based BOMs and structure-based BOMs.

Purpose BOM:

  • Engineering BOM (eBOM): Documentation of a product’s design and functional aspects, including all components and sub-assemblies required for design verification and validation.
  • Manufacturing BOM (mBOM): Derived from the eBOM, this includes details about the manufacturing process, including the assembly instructions, routines, work instructions, etc.
  • Sales BOM: This is created to support generating quotes and ordering, focusing on customer-specific needs and configuration options.
  • Service BOM: Documentation including a list of components and parts for maintenance and repairs.

Structure BOM:

  • Single-level BOM: A simple list of all parts needed for a single assembly, without showing the sub-assemblies.
  • Multi-level BOM: A more comprehensive list of parts, listed in hierarchy that details the components, sub-components, and the relationships between them.
  • Flattened BOM: A report-style version of a multi-level BOM that lists all items in one flat list.
  • Configurable BOM (cBOM): Specifically used for products with many variations to represent a more extensive product family with selectable components based on the customer’s requirements.

Different types of BOMs may be used at different stages of the product development process. The key is that all the BOMs across a single product, regardless of purpose or structure, are consistent.

BOM Management Software

BOM management software is a digital solution for managing and organizing all the information related to the components and materials needed to manufacture a product. It is like a recipe for a product, including the “ingredients”, aka parts, and “instructions”, aka manufacturing details. Given its importance across the product development process, it often works from or in tandem with a product lifecycle management (PLM) solution.

Benefits of BOM Management Software

BOM management software helps improve the entire product development process by increasing efficiency at every step:

  • Design accuracy by ensuring that teams are always working from the latest specifications.
  • Faster time-to-market by reducing delays often caused by miscommunication and manual updates.
  • Cost reduction is achieved by identifying cost-saving opportunities with clearer visibility into parts and suppliers.
  • Boost regulatory compliance, as BOM management software includes tools to make it easy to generate compliance reports with complete traceability.
  • Improve quality as errors and reworks are reduced from teams working across consistent and up-to-date BOMs.

What to Look for in BOM Management Software

Not all BOM tools are the same. When evaluating new tools, it’s essential to look for the following:

  • Version control and version history
  • Multi-domain BOM support
  • Change management
  • Integration with CAD and PLM
  • Cloud-based collaboration
  • Role-based access

You’ll want to focus your BOM management software search on tools that promote collaboration, data integrity, and lifecycle visibility.

Windchill PLM: The Best BOM Management Software

If you’re looking for BOM management software, look no further than Windchill PLM. Windchill offers robust capabilities for managing BOMs supported by scalable and intuitive tools.

  • Centralized BOM Management: Windchill acts as a single, secure repository for all product data, ensuring data integrity and version accuracy.
  • Real-Time Collaboration: Teams across engineering, manufacturing, and procurement can work together without data silos.
  • CAD Integration: Windchill supports seamless integration with leading CAD tools, including Creo, SolidWorks, and AutoCAD.
  • Advanced Change Management: Pre-built workflows automate change requests, reviews, and approvals, minimizing delays and errors.
  • Scalability and Customization: The platform is suitable for small teams and global enterprises alike, easily adapting to yours business’s needs.
  • Compliance and Traceability: Maintain regulatory compliance with complete traceability throughout the product lifecycle.

Ready to Get Started with Windchill?

BOM management is no longer a back-office task; it’s a strategic asset that drives innovation and operational efficiency. PTC Windchill provides everything modern product teams need to manage complex BOMs. By centralizing data, streamlining processes, and enabling real-time collaboration, Windchill helps businesses bring better products to market faster.

If you’re ready to get started with PTC Windchill, contact us.