A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Apple iPhone 6 and and cross product families BOM planning

Apple iPhone 6 and and cross product families BOM planning
Oleg
Oleg
18 August, 2014 | 2 min for reading

ipad-bom-assy

To manage Parts and Bill of Materials is not a simple tasks. I shared some of aspects related to the complexity of Part Numbering last week in my post – Existing data prevents companies to improve Part Numbers. The discussion in comments took me towards the complexity of Part Numbers in supply chain. Here is the passage (comments) made by Joe Barkai

…multiple BOMs with inconsistent numbering schema often hide a bigger problem: inconsistent attributes and metadata. I [Joe Barkai] worked with a global automotive OEM on issues surrounding architectural complexity reduction and global quality management. I discovered that each product line was using different part numbers. This was obviously difficult to manage from a supply chain perspective. But, not less importantly, other metadata and data attributes such as failure modes, labor operation codes and other important information were codified differently, rendering cross product line reporting and analysis difficult and potentially lacking, if not erroneous

Product lines and multiple configurations is a reality of modern manufacturing. The customization level is growing. On the other side to manage parts and BOM globally becomes one of the most important and challenging tasks. I found another example of that in today’s news . This is an example of a potential impact on Apple from management of bill of material  across multiple product lines and supply chain. Navigate to Seeking Alpha post – Apple iPhone 6 Will Pick Up iPad Sales Slack. Here is the passage I captured:

Apple still generates the majority of profits in mobile, despite the slight declines in market share. Last November, research firm IHS estimated  $274 in bill of materials and manufacturing costs for the 16GB iPad Air with Wi-Fi connectivity that retails for $499. Going forward, Tim Cook, operations man, will likely leverage Apple’s immense buying power to further drive down costs for component parts shared between the iPhone 6 and eventual iPad upgrade.

I have no information about PLM system used by Apple to manage bill of materials across product lines. However, I guess, re-use of components among different product lines is a very typical approach used by many manufacturing companies.

What is my conclusion? The complexity of bill of materials management across product lines and supply chain are skyrocketing these days. To manage part numbers, bill of materials, cost and multiple product lines can become a critical part of PLM solution to support manufacturing profitability. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
19 March, 2009

I wanted to get back to micro-blogs, and more specifically, to Twitter.  In one of my previous posts, I discussed...

31 January, 2019

Last year, I wrote about Why traditional PLM ranking is dead. The article raised a wave of discussion and debates...

17 June, 2019

I continue to reflect on everything I’ve learned last week at PTC LiveWorx. One of the most important messages was...

16 April, 2023

The digital transformation revolution has taken the manufacturing industry by storm. It is clear that many companies have begun to...

4 December, 2009

My new post on 3D Perspectives: Best, Oleg

10 October, 2018

PLM project isn’t a piece of cake for many organization. Some people say PLM is never ending project. It is...

11 October, 2019

Yesterday evening I attended the first Onshape Boston User Group meeting. The meeting was organized in the Onshape office in...

3 December, 2012

The complexity of user interface in PLM applications is a well-known fact that acknowledged by almost all PLM vendors today....

28 February, 2015

I’ve been attending m3 Manufacturing meetup in Berlin earlier this week. It was a very interesting gathering of makers, hardware...

Blogroll

To the top