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

Thoughts about BOM ownership

Thoughts about BOM ownership
Oleg
Oleg
20 November, 2014 | 3 min for reading

data-shared-instead-of-plm-erp

The Engineering.com publication about PLM taking ownership of MBOM ignited a few discussions online about the Bill of Materials, BOM Management, and the co-existence of multiple enterprise systems. My first thought was that all of them will have to rethink the way BOM is synchronized between systems. This is not a new problem. Any implementation of enterprise PLM is facing this challenge. Pumping BOM between PLM, ERP and other systems is costly and complex. But the reality – this is the only practical way to do so.

I went back to my old writing to find some recommendations on how to make it easier. My old blog post from five years ago, speaks about Seven Rules Towards Single Bill of Materials. To me, all recommendations are still very relevant. Following them can make your “BOM synchronization” problem less painful. Almost at the same time, Jim Brown of Tech-Clarity also shared his thoughts about single BOM: Single Bill of Material – Holy Grail or Pipe Dream? I liked Jim’s thoughts about Single BOM vs. Associated BOM. Here is a passage I liked:

Companies have spent a lot of time and effort making logical connections between different BOMs, and developing tools to help develop and synchronize different BOMs. For example, PLM, MPM, and Digital Manufacturing software helps companies translate an engineering BOM into a manufacturing BOM and then further into a BOP. In fact, they have gone further upstream to match conceptual BOMs and requirement structures downstream to BOMs. Maybe you would call these “workarounds” to the real answer of a single BOM. But I would propose a different view based on history and my observations. Perhaps engineers have done what we do best – addressed the problem in the most practical way as opposed to the most elegant way to solve a problem.

At the same time, single BOM or Associated BOM is hard. It requires many points of synchronization between departments and processes. Therefore, I still keep my opinion that most companies today are still Not Ready for a Single Bill of Materials.

So, what to do? How to make an improvement? Do you think fighting for MBOM as mentioned in the Engineering.com article is the only way? I tried to visualize the picture of different BOMs and present it with how PLM and ERP ownership is distributed. Take a look at the picture below.

PLM-ERP-BOM-Ownership

There are places where each system claims its benefits. At the same time, there are places where ownership of bills of materials and related product information can be different. The touch point is manufacturing BOM. I still believe this is the next cool thing in PLM – how to manage MBOM.

What is my conclusion? I think both ERP and PLM vendors need to take a step back. Data ownership was a fundamental part of any enterprise business strategy for the last 20 years. Maybe, this is a time to change the data ownership approach. Maybe it is time to think about better data synchronization and transparency. How can we help people to collaborate alongside the product development process from design to management and to support and services? Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

photo credit: mrxstitch via photopin cc

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a global digital thread platform providing PDM, PLM, and ERP capabilities and new experience to manage product data and connect manufacturers, construction companies, and their supply chain networksMy opinion can be unintentionally biased.

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
2 January, 2017

IoT is a topic that raises many debates these days. Speaking to engineering and manufacturing IT people I can see...

4 November, 2010

I read David Dillon blog post on SolidWorks Geeks – File Name and PDM. This short write-up made me think about...

27 September, 2016

My attention was caught by Engineering.com article – eBook: Putting PLM Within Reach. The write-up introduces Jim Brown’s ebook. The...

9 December, 2008

SolidWorks Labs just released new product Treehouse. My first thought on this application was – this is just great for...

13 December, 2016

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is an information management system that can integrate data, processes, business systems and, ultimately, people in...

11 August, 2009

Following my previous post about how PLM can go to mainstream, I had chance to discuss this topic with some...

19 September, 2018

I’ve been busy earlier this week attending ConX18- an annual symposium hosted by Institute of Process Excellence. Check more about...

6 June, 2012

Data management and collaboration are not new topics. I think, the majority of industry experts agree that proper data management...

5 June, 2018

One of PLM projects I’ve been following for long time is Siemens PLM Active Workspace. It was first introduced 6...

Blogroll

To the top