Manufacturing · Setup & configuration · 9 min read

Create and approve a bill of materials

Draw up a BOM with components, have another engineer approve it, and activate it so orders use it.

Before you begin

• The finished product and every component exist in Inventory as stocked products.
• You have manufacturing.bom.edit. A second engineer with manufacturing.bom.approve is available. By default the person who drew up a version cannot approve it.
• If the BOM needs operations, create the route first or soon after (see Routes and operations).

Steps

Create the BOM

1. Go to Manufacturing > Configuration > Bills of Materials and click New BOM.
2. Choose Product it makes. It cannot be changed once orders use the BOM.
3. Leave Code empty to get BOM-<product code> (a second BOM for the same product becomes BOM-<code>-2), or type your own. The code is upper-cased and must be unique.
4. Enter a Name if you want one.
5. Choose the Type: Manufacture, Phantom / kit, Kit, Subcontract or Formula / batch.
6. Choose a Route and a Production profile if they differ from the defaults.
7. Click save. The BOM opens with version 1 in Draft.

Add components

1. On the Components tab, add a line for each component.
2. Choose the Component (not the BOM's own product) and the Qty per unit made. It must be more than zero.
3. Enter Scrap % if you expect loss, from 0 to under 100. Order quantity is qty x order qty x (1 + scrap %).
4. Enter Operation (the route sequence where the component is used) so the shop floor shows it at that step.
5. Choose the Issue method: Manual issue, Preflush (issued at release), Backflush (issued when production is registered), Automatic or Operation-based.
6. Fill Substitute group if approved alternates exist for this line.
7. Tick Phantom if the component is itself a sub-assembly whose own BOM should be exploded into the order (up to 12 levels).
8. Click Save version.

The Cost column shows quantity times the component's cost.

Approve and activate

1. A different engineer, not the author, opens the BOM and clicks Approve on the draft version.
2. An engineer with manufacturing.bom.approve clicks Activate. The version becomes Active from today.

What happens next

• Version states run Draft, Approved, Active. An Active version is the one new orders use.
• When you activate a newer version, the older Active version is closed with an end date of yesterday and shows Expired.
• Orders already released keep the version they were released on.
• With cost permission you see a Cost roll-up panel. Example, for 1 office table with 1 table top (AED 120), 4 legs (AED 15 each) and 16 screws (AED 0.25 each): material 184.00; with the route's labour 45.00, machine 21.00 and 10 % overhead of 25.00, the cost per unit is AED 275.00.
• The Where used tab lists BOMs that use this product as a component.

Changing an approved BOM

1. On an Approved or Active version click New version and enter what changes. This copies the version as the next draft.
2. Edit, save, approve and activate as above.
3. Only one draft can exist at a time: 'This BOM already has a draft version - finish that one first.'

Other actions: Back to draft on an approved version (refused once any order was released on it: 'Orders were released on this version; it stays as it is. Make a new version.'), Deactivate version, Delete draft (only when the BOM has more than one version), and Archive BOM or Restore under More.

Good to know

• Segregation of duties. Approving your own version is refused: 'The person who drew up a BOM version does not approve it - ask another engineer (segregation of duties).' An administrator can switch this rule off in Production Settings; the change is audited.
• Approval checks: a version needs components ('Add the components before approving.') and cannot make a loop, such as a product inside itself.
• A BOM with no live version for an order's quantity and date is refused when the order is created.
• Kit BOMs are never picked for orders.
• The BOM screen does not offer fields for effective dates, minimum and maximum quantity, output quantity, yield or by-product shares; ask your implementation team if you need them.