Integrating Engineering & Manufacturing Bill Of Material (BOM) Through ERP Software Solutions

With ever-increasing movements in manufacturing toward a seamless integration of shop systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has proven a viable solution to the problem of communication between departments. The immediacy of graphically-displayed (GUI), real-time data available to operators at the touch of a finger functions to reduce the amount of time and paperwork necessary to make job production run smoothly. However, one of the last vestiges of needless multilayer redundancy in the manufacturing system is shown in the very essence of the production system; that is, the conceptual and actual separations that exist in the engineering and manufacturing bills of material (BOM). While there are, of course, different types of bills of material dependent upon the department that generates them and for their intended purpose, the similarities of ultimate purpose found in engineering and manufacturing BOM?s is the basis by which ERP seeks to their integration within the engineering/production process.

Generally, a BOM describes the product to be produced in terms of its various assemblies, sub-assemblies, and parts. In addition to being a listing of parts, a thorough BOM displays these elements in hierarchical fashion with a master BOM outlining the list of components by broad reference and working its way down through the sub-assemblies and increasingly detailed constituent components necessary for the production of the product. For many ERP software systems utilizing GUI displays, this hierarchical mapping of BOM entry and inquiry is produced in what is termed an exploded tree view, whereby components as kids are easily traced back to their parents. As well, to the extent that BOM?s provide a knowledge of type and quantity of parts necessary for a particular job, they are vital to accurate purchasing and efficient inventory maintenance.

The problem regarding BOM?s in manufacturing is when the classic structure of the engineering BOM needs to be enhanced by the creation of a manufacturing BOM for actual production. In the past, wasteful amounts of paperwork were needed to describe the production in terms of routers?especially when it came to the inclusion of data such as phantom parts. In addition, any engineering change order (ECO) that affects material ordering, purchasing, inventory or any number of other departments could cause great delays in production as they thus affect the manufacturing BOM. In short, the classic separation of engineering and manufacturing BOM?s (where quoting is always in the middle) necessitates the additional step of reorganization of the assembly router.

With ERP software, engineering and manufacturing BOM?s are now integrated to eliminate such reorganization and the need for an additional BOM for manufacturing itself. Tooling information is included directly into the router from engineering as the different tree levels are controlled in ERP software under a single dispatch list. In addition, ECO?s are automatically updated within the GUI and without additional paperwork. In the more robust ERP software systems, the engineering BOM is backward scheduled on the shop floor for more accurate assembly instructions. However, perhaps the greatest benefit of all in the use of ERP to integrate engineering and manufacturing BOM?s is that of a single-system organizational communication structure. Now, engineering and manufacturing are finally working together on the same page, resulting gained efficiencies in direct production costs (such as inventory management) and reduced waste in various in-direct costs (such as off-production labor time).

http://www.globalshopsolutions.com/erp-software/erp-materials-management.asp

Dusty Alexander is the President of Global Shop Solutions. Global Shop Solutions is the largest privately held ERP software company in the United States.