Today’s Product Innovators Need Intelligent BOM Management

Early BOM Management Solutions

Tabulated BOMs on Drawings

Benefits

  • Depicted BOMs (parts List) shown directly on drawing

Weaknesses

  • Not intelligent (raster image)

Spreadsheets

Benefits:

  • Introduced parent/child structure and basic relationship

Weaknesses

  • Disconnected from drawings, change orders
  • Difficult to control changes and track usage

Relational Databases

Benefits

  • Provided ability to classify and data (e.g., item master, approved manufacturer’s data could be associated with BOM structure data)

  • Created ability to manage multilevel BOM relationship and search for where-used assemblies

Weaknesses

  • Early databases required IT/ technical resources and were “home-grown” solutions

  • Separated from systems and processes that managed change orders, drawings, files, and other documentation

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

Benefits:

  • Increased productivity and quality of mechanical or electrical designs (vs. manual, hand-drawn designs)

  • Provided ability to generate BOM and export for use in downstream systems

Weaknesses

  • Disconnected design systems (e.g., EDA, mCAD, software)

Product Data Management (PDM)

Benefits

  • Simplified engineering design team collaboration when working simultaneously on the same designs

Weaknesses

  • Failed to introduce any real BOM-related advantages beyond what CAD solution offered

  • PDM solutions typically addressed only one CAD tool and didn’t provide comprehensive way to manage ALL aspects of design (e.g., electrical, mechanical, software)

Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP)

Benefits:

  • Improved and helped automate production planning, procurement, and manufacturing processes

  • Included ability to manage BOM record more effectively

Weaknesses

  • Focused on latest-release BOM used for production and planning, not on all preproduction revisions in design and development

  • Did not address supply chain collaboration

As these solutions were introduced, many companies leveraged more than one, resulting in disparate systems across the enterprise. This led to a patchwork of systems in which impacted teams had difficulty identifying the right revision or product design.