TRAVERSE Global v11.1

Manufacturing - Bills of Material Overview

The key to a successful manufacturing software implementation begins with the Bills of Material module. A bill of material (BOM) defines product structure both in terms of materials and plant resources such as machinery, tooling, and labor. The Bills of Material module provides a solid base for production activity to be defined, tracked, and reviewed.

The Bills of Material module allows you to create and maintain BOMs. Among the many features of this module is the ability to make high-level material availability inquiries, print generic BOM worksheets, manage standard cost updates, track changes to BOMs, and globally replace BOM components.

In addition to the standard functions found in most bills of material software, the Bills of Material module enables you to import foreign ASCII data directly into the BOM from other software applications such as CAD systems.

A properly designed and accurate BOM is one of the main elements in successful manufacturing implementation. The Bills of Material module is crucial to the productivity and reliability of the Production module that handles production activities, and focuses on the use and planning of materials and shop capacity.

ClosedFrequently used functions

The most frequently used functions are on the Setup and Maintenance and Reports menus. Use these functions for the following tasks:

  • Enter and edit Bills of Material and Engineering Change Orders.
  • Print the Costed Bills of Material and Component Where - Used Report.
ClosedSetup and Maintenance functions

The setup and maintenance functions will be used to set up information to be used in your BOMs and also setting up your BOMs. The setup and maintenance menu contains these functions:

  • Bills of Material
  • Engineering Change Orders
  • Cost Groups
  • Media Groups
  • Engineering Change Order Codes
  • Global Component Replacement
ClosedInterfaces

Bill of Materials can interface with General Ledger and requires Inventory, therefore it is automatically interfaced to Inventory.

Bills of Material includes inquiry functions, reports, and lists that provide you with the manufacturing information you need to analyze your business practices. To make the most of your manufacturing processes, use the functions described below.

ClosedCost Groups

The Cost Groups function allows you to view the current definitions of each of the cost groups.

ClosedMedia Groups

Use the Media Groups function to view visual objects such as schematics, drawings, instructions, visual images, or movies grouped together into a user-defined media group, which can then be assigned to specific BOMs, operations, routing steps, and so on.

ClosedReports

The Bills of Material reports offer you more detailed information that can’t normally be accessed using an Inquiry or Setup and Maintenance function. The option to output to a file or printer also enables you to save the information to review later. Many reports offer a variety of selection criteria and sort parameters for formatting the report to meet your needs.

ClosedCosted Bills of Material

Use the Costed Bills of Material report to view what costs make up a BOM and where these costs come from. A BOM consists of four main elements: materials, by-products (materials created as a result of the manufacturing process and have some value), subcontracting, and operations.

NOTE: Subcontracted steps are actually routing steps and are listed as such in the report.

ClosedComponent Where Used

The Component Where Used report enables you to select a range of inventory items and view where those items are used in BOMs. Use the Single Indention option to view a simple list by component of each BOM in which the component can be found. Use the Fully Indented option to view a fully indented BOM. By looking at a fully indented Component Where-Used report, you can determine the overall effect of a problem with a low level component starting from the bottom and working your way up.

ClosedAvailable Components

If you want to build a specific quantity of a given item, but it’s an assembly with many components, and you can’t easily calculate how many you can build without knowing the quantities available at the subcomponent levels, use the Available Components report. This report calculates the required quantity of each of the components involved from the top level to the bottom (or stocked assembly level) and shows the operator, the component availability at each level, indicates the quantity required that is available, and the net over or under.

ClosedIndented Bills of Material

The Indented Bills of Material report displays material information in an indented format so that each subassembly’s components are indented beneath it. This indention gives you a better look at BOM structure from the top down, including subassembly information. The report drills down into a BOM until a raw material or stocked subassembly is found. Stocked subassemblies are assemblies whose Stocking Level check box is selected on the General tab of the Bills of Material screen within Setup and Maintenance. This check box indicates that it is a stocked item and production orders that include this subassembly create direct demand for this item, but not for its components. An override option exists on the Indented Bills of Material screen to ignore this flag and drill down on all BOMs to their lowest component level.

ClosedSummarized Bills of Material

The Summarized Bills of Material report summarizes components by cost group. Information is not indented, but grouped from the top-level BOM down. Use the Summarized Bill of Material report to quickly see what material components, machinery, labor, and work centers are used for the entire BOM without searching through a lot of additional information. For example, if you print a summarized BOM for a complete automobile, you should be able to see every machine used in the entire process in one grouped summary area, if every machine has the same cost group or type.

ClosedBill of Material Worksheets

The Bill of Material Worksheets is a working form and can be used in place of the Order Traveler and Production Picking List functions within the MFG - Production module. This form is very useful if the Production module is not installed or not yet implemented. The form reflects much of the information that can be found in the Bills of Material master list or other forms, but in a simplified and shortened format.

ClosedInteractive Views

Interactive View functions are designed to quickly give you access to manufacturing information in less detail than a report. The summary nature of interactive views is designed to deliver information efficiently without having to sort through a lot of additional information.

Bill of Material, Component Availability and Available to Promise information can be displayed through the interactive view functions.

ClosedBills of Material View

The Bills of Material View uses a tree concept in a Microsoft Explorer-type setup to help you easily view a BOM from top to bottom.

ClosedComponent Availability View

The Component Availability View function is designed to allow you to see the material component availability based on the building of a specified number of a given assembly. You can immediately know which component materials you are low on and by how much. This inquiry saves you the time of having to calculate all of the quantities required of each subcomponent, and then checking the inventory availability of each one. The quantity of the finished assembly that you can build is dictated by the material component with the least availability.

ClosedAvailable to Promise View

The Available to Promise function allows you to quickly view the availability of any given inventory item. The system displays two availability dates for the item. These dates are generally future dates. The first date is the first available date. The second date is the first available date that does not compromise another pending order.

This function differs from Component Availability in these ways:

  • It checks the availability of any item rather than just BOM items.
  • It doesn’t consider component availability.
  • It takes into consideration the passage of time.
ClosedStandard Costs Maintenance

Use the standard cost variance functions to maintain standard costs. Standard costs may not always be accurate. You change them at infrequent intervals with the intention of creating a standard cost that you can “live with” over a long period of time where the actual costs may be fluctuating. If you are using standard costing as an inventory costing method, an important feature of the standard cost maintenance functions is the ability to post journal entries to GL for changes to standard costs of inventory and do so on a batch basis.

ClosedMaster Lists

Master Lists are basic reports that display the contents of the main files, but do not show historical detail, or complex calculations. The purpose of the master list is to review for accuracy the master file information that you set up, or to check the appearance of sections such as user-defined fields. The following lists are available:

  • Bills of Material – a comprehensive list of all data stored in the Bills of Material master record.
  • Media Groups – prints a list of media groups and their descriptions.
  • Engineering Change Orders - Prints the engineering change orders details.

Some Frequently Asked Questions about the Manufacturing modules