Bill of Materials

Bills of materials are used to simplify the identification of materials when planning work.

A Bill of Material (BOM) is a list containing a hierarchy of component parts that make up a piece of equipment or asset. The component parts, also known as BOM Parts, are the individual stock items or an assembly of stock items included in the BOM. An example of a BOM might be an Apple iMac computer. The BOM parts identified for this particular BOM might include a Monitor, Keyboard, mouse, and so on. Another example might be a BOM for a carburetor. The BOM parts included on the BOM might be a carburetor rebuild kit.

Your organization can build a BOM or define a BOM part and reference it on an asset, component, or fleet asset (vehicles). The BOM or BOM part can then be used as search criteria when searching for an asset.

A bill of materials can be a great advantage for maintenance personnel when they are planning or working on an asset. The bill of materials can be used to easily find the stock items related to component parts of the assets that need to be worked on. This relieves planners from doing extensive research to find the correct related stocked and non-stocked items needed. As needed, you have the ability to add materials to activities from the asset’s Bill of Materials. Selecting the add from BOM action opens a dialog where you can choose items from the BOM pick list.

Bills of materials can be multilevel, with a list of components and lists of parts for the components, lists of parts that make up the parts, and so on. The level of detail you build into them depends on your organization's resources and needs.

A Bill of Materials is similar to a Specification in that the same Bill of Material can be created as one source for specific criteria needed to maintain the asset, which is then referenced on many assets.

Bills of materials are classified in the following ways:

  • General Stock Item Part — Defines a general piece of stock or equipment. A generic stock item BOM is automatically generated by the system when a stock item is created.
  • Independent Part — Defines a generic part which is not a stock item, but can be composed of many parts. For example, a truck would be defined as an asset, not a stock item, but might reference a BOM with independent parts. These must be created manually.

Access the Bill of Materials tab on applicable stock items to review the associated Bill of Materials tree or the BOM Part record for the stock item.