Help with Bill of Materials

[Braden.Bates]

I am building a Bill of Materials for internal use only. I've been using this thread (http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafo...bill+materials) for help, but have a few clarifying questions that I was hoping to get some help with.

A little background on the project: We are manufacturing products that will sit on the shelf until they are shipped to our field technicians to be installed. The BOM is needed to automatically pull the parts from inventory each time a product is built and put on the shelf as completed inventory.

The main thing I need help with is how should the tables be organized within the set? Right now I have the following tables put together and in a set:
-BOM Parts Master
-BOM Stock
-Product A BOM lines
-Product B BOM lines
-BOM suppliers

Do I need to build the invoicing tables as well, even though we do not invoice the products to customers? Same question for the Purchase Order tables. Once I get this cleared up I'm sure I will have more questions but I would like to get the skeleton of the structure together on paper before I start filling it in with the meat of the problem. Thank you in advance!

[MoGrace]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Hi Braden,
Could you give an example of a few products and their parts list? Also whether or not any sub-assemblies are involved?

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Of course! They are small controls for commercial boiler applications. Parts lists include mainly the control board, modem module, antenna connection, and the housing for the control along with a few screws and decals that go on the housing. Only 2 products are in use at this point, one for smaller applications and one for larger applications, with the main difference being the control board itself. There are no sub-assemblies required. Thank you Robin!

[CraigSchumacker]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

1) I'm not sure you would want to build this without addressing the posssiblilty of sub-assemblies... It would not be much more to take it to that level.

2) While the set structure is important for entering your masters, the BOM will need to be hard coded in XBasic... a series of loops (and sub-loops) pulling the components from stock as it refers back to the engineering masters for sub-components.

Certainly, your task is much easier than it could be, as it sounds like you are not looking to project out against a Just-In-Time delivery schedule and raw material replenishment times...

I think you'd need to post samples for Robin, or anyone else, to be of much help.

What you want to do is lay out a flow chart on paper for what the script should do. The coding will fall right in place after that is defined.

I'm not much help, I know, but there's not much to go on...

[preston2]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

I noticed you have BOM Suppliers yet you also stated you are the ones that manufacture the parts.

As for how to configure the set.

Which table will contain the master part number or SKU number for the completed part? That is the table the set should be built off of.

Do Product A and Product B both can some of the same assemblies needed to build the final part?

If you can give an example of how a part is built (flow wise) it may help. And also are the "Parts" assemblies of other parts?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

-BOM Parts Master
-BOM Stock
-Product A BOM lines
-Product B BOM lines
-BOM suppliers

Braden, take a couple of minutes and describe what you plan to store in each of these tables. i.e. tell us what you envision as the "purpose" for each table.

Without knowing this I am tempted to go out on a limb and say that you probably shouldn't have separate tables for both A and B BOM lines, especially if the table structures are the same. Usually better to use single table, and a field in the "lines" table to distinguish A and B lines. You may find that such a field is unnecessary since you can probably tell the "Type" of product by looking to the Master, assuming the "lines" are linked to the "master".



-- tom

[MoGrace]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Of course! They are small controls for commercial boiler applications. Parts lists include mainly the control board, modem module, antenna connection, and the housing for the control along with a few screws and decals that go on the housing. Only 2 products are in use at this point, one for smaller applications and one for larger applications, with the main difference being the control board itself. There are no sub-assemblies required. Thank you Robin!

Great start! Do you build these control boards or purchase them? Same for the modem module - because if you must build either, then you do have sub-assemblies to consider. Otherwise you only need a purchase order table, parts table and vendor table to create your inventory of parts in stock. Then your BOM table will be the line items you select and copy from the parts table for each master product you create. As you add your BOM line items, you deplete the parts in stock. Very similar to the Alpha Sports example.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Braden, I would agree with Craig on how this would work but without the need of Xbasic. Alpha has everything to hand to build the routines you need.

Also, I don't think you need to build a set with the Parts when you sell a Unit.

After some suggestions from Tom, (his look very valid your case too) the way I did this was to have a routine to go through the Units sold on that Invoice, then subtract the number of Parts that were required in each Unit. So if you sold two different Units both needing the same parts but in different quantities, then it would not matter. Then there was another routine to mark each Unit so as not to duplicate the first routine. This was in case a new Unit was added to the Invoice before it was sent but after it was originally saved.

Are your Product B BOM lines sub assemblies of Product A BOM lines?

One last question, have you thought about usable returns?

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

The essential core tables I have used for every flavour of BOM from commercial bakery to security and locking hardware assemblies that has never failed any scenario in over 30 years.

table 1
Stock master - contains stock of both components and finished goods. This eliminates any problems with sub assemblies. A supplier field indicates.

table 2
Material conversion (provides the BOM).
Parts stock code (part no), quantity, price and finished (or resulting component) stock code -from table 1.

tables 3 issues and 4 receipts audit tables

Everything required to move and inventory stock can be done with the above. Such as Purchase (receipts), conversion including re-conversion (issue and receipts)
Sales of parts, assemblies or finished stock (issues)

table 5 for WIP
enables assets evaluation at any time and strict stocking levels.

[MoGrace]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Do I need to build the invoicing tables as well, even though we do not invoice the products to customers? Same question for the Purchase Order tables. Once I get this cleared up I'm sure I will have more questions but I would like to get the skeleton of the structure together on paper before I start filling it in with the meat of the problem. Thank you in advance!

How are you getting around this? You must be 'selling' these units to somebody...

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

1) I'm not sure you would want to build this without addressing the posssiblilty of sub-assemblies... It would not be much more to take it to that level.

2) While the set structure is important for entering your masters, the BOM will need to be hard coded in XBasic... a series of loops (and sub-loops) pulling the components from stock as it refers back to the engineering masters for sub-components.

Certainly, your task is much easier than it could be, as it sounds like you are not looking to project out against a Just-In-Time delivery schedule and raw material replenishment times...

I think you'd need to post samples for Robin, or anyone else, to be of much help.

What you want to do is lay out a flow chart on paper for what the script should do. The coding will fall right in place after that is defined.

I'm not much help, I know, but there's not much to go on...

Hi Craig,

Any way I look at it, sub-assemblies are just not a part of our manufacturing process, so While I certainly could build that in, I don't think it would be of much use. I was planning on using the <TBL>.change_begin and <TBL>.enter.begin to do most of the changes between tables as the old BOM post had recommended. Would these be a good starting point?

Thank you

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

I noticed you have BOM Suppliers yet you also stated you are the ones that manufacture the parts.

As for how to configure the set.

Which table will contain the master part number or SKU number for the completed part? That is the table the set should be built off of.

Do Product A and Product B both can some of the same assemblies needed to build the final part?

If you can give an example of how a part is built (flow wise) it may help. And also are the "Parts" assemblies of other parts?

Hi Preston,

The BOM Suppliers table lists the suppliers for all of the small parts (enclosure, control board, screws, modules, etc.). We receive the control board from China, and solder on the modem module and antenna, then test the board and package it in the enclosure for install.

The BOM Parts Master is the table with the completed part, and is currently the parent table for the set.

Products A and B use a lot of the same parts, but here are no sub-assemblies for either product.

For a basic example of the flow of manufacturing, we take the completed control board we receive from China, solder on a modem module and antenna, insert a SIM card, test the control, then package the control in the enclosure with 2 screws and decals on the front and back of the door of the enclosure. Insert a couple of wire glands in the enclosure, and the product is ready to be put on the shelf as completed inventory.

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

Great start! Do you build these control boards or purchase them? Same for the modem module - because if you must build either, then you do have sub-assemblies to consider. Otherwise you only need a purchase order table, parts table and vendor table to create your inventory of parts in stock. Then your BOM table will be the line items you select and copy from the parts table for each master product you create. As you add your BOM line items, you deplete the parts in stock. Very similar to the Alpha Sports example.

Thanks for the reply, Robin. The control boards and modules are received completed by the manufacturing dept. fully completed. I have the BOM tables for each of the two products completed, including all parts needed for each and linked up to the parts master and stock tables that they will pull from.

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

How are you getting around this? You must be 'selling' these units to somebody...

The bulk of our business is based on service and monitoring of the information that the controls provide us. We provide the controls at cost, and receive a monthly revenue fromt he client for the service and information provided.

[Braden.Bates]

Re: Help with Bill of Materials

How are you getting around this? You must be 'selling' these units to somebody...

The bulk of our business is based on service and monitoring of the information that the controls provide us. We provide the controls at cost, and receive a monthly revenue from the client for the service and information provided.