‘Excellence is not an act, it is a habit.’
Aristotle
BOM management doesn’t receive a great deal of attention, but it quietly works to speed up manufacturing and improve the bottom line. If BOMs are managed with precision and accuracy, manufacturing will run smoothly.
However, if the BOMs create a mess or if they become outdated, the issues will add up quickly. The miscommunications in manufacturing usually revolve around the BOM.
Optimizing your BOM management process isn’t about rushing out to buy more software or adding more spreadsheets to your toolbox. Rather, it’s all about developing habits and an infrastructure based on one of the most critical documents in your factory. The best part is that sometimes it’s the smallest changes that produce huge improvements.
1. Treat the BOM as a Living Production Document
One of the most common mistakes is being tempted to treat a bill of materials as a file that doesn’t change. In fact, a bill of materials evolves as your product evolves.
A good bill of materials, or BOM, is like having the directions and the GPS leading the way to make something. And the good bill of materials guide from MRPeasy offers useful insights on planning and consistency, so having a BOM in place, regardless of the size of your business, is helpful. This ties directly into production processes and cost quoting.
In order to make such a process continue to function effectively, analysis needs to be done on the BOM to make changes whenever there is a design change, a modification by the supplier, or a process improvement. Such a change lays the foundation to achieve standardization.
2. Standardize BOM Structure Across Products
Unorganized BOM formats slow down related processes across the organization. If products use different configurations, processes slow down due to unnecessary data handling.
This involves reaching a common understanding of how parts, assemblies, numbers, and descriptions are represented. This process does not eliminate flexibility. Guesswork is removed. When everyone receives the same format, errors are reduced and teamwork improves.
A standardized BOM layout also facilitates educating new people on how things work, system integration, and data analysis. It makes it possible for everyone to speak the language of the BOMs effortlessly.
3. Clarify Ownership and Accountability
Many errors in the BOM are made simply because nobody ‘owns’ the document. That mostly happens because the engineering people expect the operations people to keep it up-to-date. But the operations people feel the purchasing people have it under control. And the purchasing people think the engineering people are still in charge. It’s a never ending circle of passing the hot potato.
A clear ownership process resolves this problem. Every BOM needs to have a noted ‘owner’ who is responsible for making sure it is accurate and up to date. This does not mean a single individual is doing all the work, just that they are responsible for ‘signing off.’
If there is accountability, updates occur sooner, and the ‘blame game’ is eliminated. The quality of BOMs will increase since someone can actually be held accountable, rather than being attributed vaguely in each department.
4. Connect BOMs to Real Purchasing and Inventory Data
A BOM must not be alone. It proves valuable when it is directly integrated with procurement and inventory management.
If the BOM quantities correspond to consumption and the suppliers’ capacity, then the forecasts will improve. The purchasing department can then plan for the future rather than merely reacting. The inventory will now vary on purpose, rather than randomly.
Now the optimization of the BOM influences cash flow and lead times, beyond improving document quality, because teams are able to identify cost drivers and adjust sourcing plans before problems occur.
5. Use Change Control Without Overcomplicating It
Change control often gets a bad reputation for slowing things down. In reality, the problem is not change control itself but overly rigid processes.
A good balance of speed with traceability is what works well in this situation. When properly noted, it eliminates confusion as it records what was changed, why it was changed, and at what point in time.
Here are two simple tips for making change control effective so that it doesn’t hold you back:
- Record the reason for each BOM change, not only the changes themselves.
- Inform the concerned teams in the production or purchasing process.
Such small actions ensure that BOMs that are outdated are not left behind to cause costly errors.
6. Break Complex BOMs Into Logical Subassemblies
The harder products are to understand, the harder BOMs are to work with. An enormous list of many parts increases the risk of errors and makes changes impossible to complete.
Breaking down BOMs into logical subassemblies makes them easier to understand. Subassemblies can be normalized, maintained independently, and applied for different projects. This is applicable to modular design and enables faster iteration.
How subassemblies can assist with BOMs:
It eliminates duplication, enhances version control, and makes it simpler to trace the effects of changes.
When to introduce subassemblies
Generally, if the team fails to comprehend or modify a BOM quickly, it becomes apparent that the structure of the BOM is, in fact, flat.
A major benefit of this approach is also its alignment with how things are made concerning products at the shop floor level.
7. Review BOM Accuracy on a Schedule, Not Only After Problems
Many teams don’t review the BOMs until something actually goes wrong. It’s too late at this point.
Having a schedule of BOM reviews changes the attitude, from fire fighting to fire prevention. Regular inspections detect minor variances before they lead to inventory shortages, overages, or rework.
They don’t have to be complicated. What is important is that the BOM data corresponds with what is actually happening. By doing so, one can instill trust in the system and avoid last-minute surprises.
Building Cross-Team Trust Through Better BOM Visibility
The benefit of good BOM management has a lot to do with the unseen value it provides in building team confidence. The same data is used by engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, and finance, but they usually find themselves viewing different data sets.
If BOMs are not clean and complete, the team struggles against creating workarounds. Spreadsheets multiply. Email trails grow long. Good decisions slow down.
Good BOMs remove that friction. When everyone is looking at the same info, suddenly conversations change. The questions get more direct. The assumptions fall away. Teams quit fighting about which version is correct and begin to discuss how to enhance outcomes.
It also assists in obtaining better quotes and cost controls. Since the bill of material contents are accurate, the sales and financial teams can set final prices for products confidently. Unexpected margin dumps become rare, and material information and amounts become locked and loaded. Eventually, customer relationships also improve since timelines and pricing become predictable.
Another good thing about product names is faster onboarding. It’s hardest on new employees if critical information is locked in people’s heads. It’s easier for them if a good BOM is maintained. Then they understand where things fit together. Where are the critical components? Where are the dependencies? It’s all in front of them.
Finally, improved BOM visibility enables and enhances continuous improvement. If the information is credible, people are more likely to analyze the information. Trends emerge. Waste becomes apparent. Marginal gains mount up to substantial results.
In this respect, optimizing BOMs is not only an issue of documents, it is an issue of communications in general. It helps create an understanding of how products are assembled from various components. When an understanding of this has been reached, it leads to increased production speed, improved teamwork, and more decisions made with confidence.
Nothing is Perfect
It’s not about being perfect at BOM optimization. It’s all about consistency, clarity, and embracing the process. A good BOM process will enable you to make more intelligent decisions when it comes to production, procurement, and planning. It will reduce the stress associated with the results and make them more predictable.
As BOMs become living documents that can be standardized across all product lines and linked to real-world data, they become much less painful to maintain. They become assets.
The companies that succeed at this quietly exceed their competitors, not because they work harder, but because they have a better foundation and their processes can be trusted.
⸻ Author Bio ⸻
Petra Rapaić is a B2B SaaS Content Writer. Her work appeared in the likes of Cm-alliance.com, Fundz.net, and Gfxmaker.com. On her free days she likes to write and read fantasy.
