Bills of Material

The bill of material is the primary method for defining and communicating the structure of the product. Although there is no single correct way to structure the bill of material for a product, you can follow some general industry guidelines. These guidelines assist you in determining and developing the levels within the bill, creating part numbers, defining phantoms, and setting up other bill of material issues.

The bill of material was traditionally created, maintained, and used only by the engineering department. However, as bills of material take on new and increasingly important roles within a company, remember to create bills of material that support the needs of all departments. This action eliminates the need to create several different types of bills of material to support the various needs within the company.

Use bills of material to:

• Enter multiple bills of material to maintain many arrangements for an item without creating additional part numbers.

• Access items online by using the item description as search criteria.

• Define quantities of intermediate products in any unit of measure as they progress through the manufacturing process.

• Enter similar items by copying bills of material, routing instructions, and processes; and changing only the information that is unique to each item.