An engineering BOM, or bill of materials, is essential for all mechanical design projects, whether you are a small engineering company producing one-off designs for medical research, or a commercial enterprise developing hardware designs for bulk production. The latter would generally need to produce separate manufacturing BOMs as well.
An engineering BOM lists each item or component and details its relationship to the product under construction. The use and purpose of each component should be made clear, as well as its cost. Mechanical CAD software, including 3D modeling programs, often incorporates BOM management tools to make the job easier. However, most CAD drafting programs are insufficient for MRP (Manufacturing Requirements Planning) purposes, since they represent a one-off prototype rather than bulk production. Parts may need to be grouped differently and the product structure reorganized to support manufacturing. Mechanical CAD design does not always fit in very well with the OEM’s views on manufacturability.
There are a large number of manufacturing BOM management products on the market today. But process manufacturing can be highly detailed and complex, requiring extra documents such as batch entry and formula BOMs. Some service providers have attempted to streamline BOM management with a single ‘master’ bill of materials tying manufacturing and engineering BOMs together, but as each department has different needs this can be difficult.
We at Enventure Technologies have extensive experience in the field of BOM management. We can prepare and manage your manufacturing and engineering BOMs, or BOM scrub existing files to remove unwanted data.
