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Ask the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Expert: Scheduling Assistance
Ask the Expert

How Many BOMs Needed?

Asked on Nov 28 2007 12:34:30:000PM

Q

We currently have Teamcenter Engineering as our Design management tool and SAP for PDM and ERP. It has been suggested that we must now only have one BOM in SAP which is only one view so the design view and manufacturing view of the BOM is the same. Designers will effectively be creating the manufacturing BOM as their design. Do you know of any other organisation that does this and can it work efficiently?

Tony Chambi, Chelmsford, NA
AThe decision as to where to maintain engineering and manufacturing (and other ) views of BOMs is dependent on how you wish your organizations to work. There are many organizations that develop their EBOM in a product like Teamcenter and do the MBOM in an ERP system like SAP. Others maintain one master definition in the PLM side (e.g., Teamcenter) and have it maintain multiple views based on discipline (EBOM, MBOM, service BOM, etc.).

Generally the design (EBOM) and the manufacturing (MBOM) views of the BOM are different, as each discipline has different needs and definitions as to how they structure and use a BOM. For example, the MBOM may contain phantom parts or made-on-assembly parts that do not exist in the EBOM view. It is a best practice to have one logical master definition and then to have multiple views of that master for each discipline.

Meet the expert

Kenneth B. Amann

Director of Research, CIMdata Inc

A graduate of Georgia Tech, Mr. Amann has 35 years of experience researching and working with Product Lifecycle Management and Product Data Management architectures, as well as developing computer-based engineering applications and document / information management systems. Mr. Amann has held senior positions in PLM marketing, development, and consulting. His experience includes evaluating corporate engineering and manufacturing operations, managing PLM programs, recommending collaborative and concurrent engineering and product information management solutions, implementing PLM solutions, and developing and evaluating requests for proposals. Prior to joining CIMdata, Mr. Amann was the managing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Technology Leadership Group, where he conducted research into and evaluated emerging PLM technologies and vendor products based on these technologies.
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