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.
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For additional conceptual information, see text below.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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:
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Generally, a specific subBOM item can be specified on a BOM line.
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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.