Overview of Structures

In Oracle Product Development, a Bill of Materials is called a structure.

When you add an item to a parent item, you create a simple structure. As items are added, the structure is always named and referred to by its top-level item.

A structure holds all the items and documents that make up an assembly or subassembly. Items and documents might be in the same structure; there's no restriction on the maximum or minimum number of either type of business object.

Any item on a structure might be associated with one or more manufacturer parts. On the Structure table, an icon next to an item indicates the presence of manufacturer parts. So, a structure populated with items will likely comprise associated manufacturer parts.

A document structure holds all the documents that make up a meaningful document, such as a specification for a product. When you add a document to a parent document, a simple structure is created. A structure of documents will be named and referred to by its top-level document. A document structure might be only one document.