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A Bill of Materials (BOM) lists all the items that go into a finished good or subassembly. The Bill of Materials can simply list only the Materials and Quantities being used to manufacture a finished good or sub assembly. Furthermore it can be structured in a manner indicating all the the steps of assembly. This can let the bill of materials look like a tree with the finished good or subassembly as root. Items in a subassembly can be parts whose amounts whould be counted as natural numbers of pieces or if it is simple materials being used, measurements of mass, length or volume. Bills of Material are used as documents supporting the assembly process. They also play a role in MRP I, MRP II and ERP inventory and resource management systems. A Bill of Materials defines the product structure in terms of materials, and provides a potential connection to functional resources such as machinery, tooling, and labor as defined by a bill of routing. In terms of "data," a BOM provides content management of product development resources and piece parts so that they are connected, relationally. Good BOMs can provide such information as where components are used, component availability, an indentured list of materials, costs, and summaries. A Bill of Information (BOI) does the same thing, but for a different set of data: administrative, contractual, technical, and financial. The content of a BOI is comprised of relationships and views of enterprise data, management data, functional data, and product data. The BOI consists of all of the information and relationships to completely document the entire life cycle of a product - including the associated project information (administrative, contractual, technical, and financial data) and its location. The BOI is housed in the product data management system. The aggregate, then, of the BOM and the BOI provides a total suite of the information needed to propose, plan, develop, procure, manufacture, test, track, deliver, and maintain a product throughout the life cycle - fielding, maintenance, and disposition activities, included. The trouble taken to build the BOM and the BOI is well worthwhile, and provides a robust management approach and tool. If the BOM is the composition of the product, then the BOI is the content of the product. Though it's hard to integrate the MRP/ERP system and the PDM system, the reward is a view into the data in a way never before enabled. The BOI is functionally represented in the same way -- and using the same verbage and relationships -- as is the BOM. The management BOI, the data BOI, and the product BOI are all used to harmonize the project and place all aspects into focus. Have you thought about using this approach? Have you used it successfully in the past, or have you had challenges that the use of a BOI could resolve? What are your thoughts about the BOI complement to the BOI? Cynthia C. Hauer is the Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Data Management, in Huntsville, Alabama. She has 21 years of experience in Information Technology which includes extensive involvement in CM, DM, data base design, user interface, data storage, CALS and all facets of system design and implementation. Ms Hauer holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and is certified as CMIIC and CCDM, certifications in both ICM/CMII and NDIA, respectively. You can reach Ms. Hauer by email at chauer@cmcrossroads.com
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 January 2006 04:59 |
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