The bill of materials (BOM) is a key part of the product development process. Once the engineering department has created the BOM, downstream departments use it as a guide throughout the development process, from design to manufacturing to maintenance.

The BOM (Bills of Materials) is essential for various stakeholders, both internal and external to the company, including manufacturing, procurement, sales, finance, and service departments.

Developing a modern bill of materials (BOM) poses a number of challenges that companies are trying to overcome, such as the growing demand for smart and connected products and component standardization.

By investing in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions, it is possible to overcome all these challenges, as it becomes possible to:

• Synchronize a BOM with multiple data sources: to ensure that the BOM includes information from all design domains
• Use the BOM across all functional departments: it is important that all stakeholders, internal and external to the company, can easily access the most up-to-date version
• Managing variability with a bill of materials: to track product variants and provide essential data on the different options that will need to be produced
• Using SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions: To support future-oriented companies to overcome many of the challenges related to BOM creation and management

In this eBook, we will illustrate what the challenges are related to BOM management and how a Cloud-based Software as a Service approach can help companies overcome these challenges.