Bill of materials

A bill of materials or product structure (sometimes bill of material, BOM or associated list) is a <a href="/facts/List/tpX6LYVY">list</a> of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts, and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an <a href="/facts/Product_(business)/l9P9fUJa">end product</a>. A BOM may be used for communication between manufacturing partners or confined to a single manufacturing plant. A bill of materials is often tied to a <a href="/facts/Production_order/tgUcdnmS">production order</a> whose issuance may generate reservations for components in the bill of materials that are in stock and requisitions for components that are not in stock.
The first <a href="/facts/Hierarchical_database_model/vLzcNqVo">hierarchical databases</a> were developed for automating bills of materials for manufacturing organizations in the early 1960s. At present, this BOM is used as a <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">database</a> to identify the many parts and their codes in automobile manufacturing companies.
A BOM can also be visually represented by a <a href="/facts/Product_structure_modeling/J5UMCQvV">product structure tree</a>, although they are rarely used in the workplace. For example, one of them is Time-Phased Product Structure where this diagram illustrates the time needed to build or acquire the needed components to assemble the final product. For each product, the time-phased product structure shows the sequence and duration of each operation.

Bill of materials open-in-new

Bill of materials