Create and work with a BOM

Microsoft Dynamics AX 4

This section contains a series of topics about creating and working with bills of materials (BOM) in the Inventory management module. The BOM is a list of all the components and raw materials that go into producing or manufacturing an item or final product.

Note
For additional conceptual information, see text below.

Topic	Description
Copy a BOM from Items	Contains a procedure about copying a BOM from the Items form.
Copy	Contains explanations about copying a BOM from both the Item form and the Bills of materials form.
About copying BOMs	Provides the user with a brief overview of the Copy BOM function and an example of its use.
Copy a BOM from the Bills of materials form	Contains a procedure about copying BOM from Bills of materials form.
Create a BOM and BOM version	Contains a procedure about creating new BOMs and BOM versions.
Change a BOM item	Contains a procedure for how to make changes or add new items to the selected BOM.
About opening lines from BOMs	Provides a brief explanation about viewing editing and creating BOM lines that make up a BOM.
About the Summary form	Contains an outline of different line types.
Approve a BOM or BOM version	Contains procedures for approving BOM or BOM versions from either the Item or the Bills of materialsform.
About opening lines from items	Provides the user with an additional explanation about viewing: BOM versions associated with a BOM item The BOM lines that make up a particular BOM.
About Complete	Contains a brief conceptual explanation of individual BOM calculations and associated BOM lines.
Active versions	Provides an explanation of active versions and an example of multiple active BOM versions.
About BOM line validity	Describes BOM lines in brief as valid or invalid depending on dates specified on the BOM lines. Topic includes an example.
About expanding from sales orders	Contains an example of how expanding the BOM from the sales order can assist the user in managing price offers.
Explode a BOM from a sales order line	Contains a procedure on how to explode a BOM from the Sales order form in the Accounts receivable module.
Link BOM lines to route operations	Describes two ways to link BOM lines to route operations and two ways to remove links using the BOM designer form.
Explode a BOM from a purchase order line	Contains a procedure for exploding a BOM from the Purchase order form in the Accounts payable module.
Create an item of type BOM	Contains the procedure for creating a BOM item in the Items form.
About BOM calculations	Contains general conceptual information about using BOM calculations.

BOM Levels

Complex products often have several subBOMs, or multiple BOM levels. The number of levels in the structure of a particular BOM is dependent on how the item being produced is handled. If it is tracked, stored, or sold in a particular form at a particular stage of processing, then it requires a level in the BOM.

It is important to consider the degree of detail needed in your BOM structure. A highly detailed BOM with many levels enables you to conduct more precise costing and forecasting. However, this increased complexity also requires more company resources, while insufficient levels in the BOM prevent it from adequately reflecting the flow of items within the company.

BOM Components

The components of the BOM are the parts or items required for production of the final product. Used in conjunction with scheduling, the BOM provides essential information, such as which item should be produced and in what quantity.

Every item produced by your company must be accounted for financially. Therefore, costing information must be included in the BOM. The amount of costing detail depends on the needs of your production processes. High-value items might have to be tracked in detail, whereas nuts and bolts might not be tracked because tracking and costing these items individually can cost more in time and money than the value of the items themselves.

Note
Items can be grouped to form a package or kit. Kits are used for special sales offers. For example, a fragrance company might decide to launch a special offer campaign to sell some of their products as a kit. The kit contains a variety of items such as perfume, lotion, and shower gel. It is assigned a separate item number in the system so that it can be accurately tracked.

BOM Versions

Version control can assist you in phasing out an old component, or changing vendors. BOMs expire by a certain date. When you create a new BOM by taking a copy of an existing one, change the components, and validate it on the same day, the application phases out the old component, and starts planning and buying the new one.

There should always be a valid BOM version for an item. Determining which version is valid for a particular item depends on where you are working in the system. The BOM number is identified according to the following priorities:

Generally, a specific subBOM item can be specified on a BOM line.
In the version table, the system looks for an item version that is active, in which the dates fall between the specified version date intervals.