1. A BOM can define products as they are designed.” Most people now acknowledge the role of another critical enterprise business system to manage product design, which is product lifecycle management or PLM software.
2. The concept of an engineering bill of material (EBOM) was introduced in PLM systems, since there is very rarely a single tool that fully defines the design intent of a product. This is most commonly due to the increasing number of products that require mechanical, electronics, and software engineering — also referred to as mechatronic products.
3. Each of these engineering disciplines have different design tools that are used. When this is the case, the PLM EBOM addresses individual design tool limitations by synchronizing the CAD design structures from multiple tools to items in a single product’s EBOM.
4. The best PLM tools also provide other capabilities in the context of an EBOM to define full product design intent. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
-Integration to ERP systems
-Inclusion of packaging and raw material specifications, spare parts kits, supplier -equivalent part numbers and/or manufacturing alternates/substitutes
-Traceability to original product requirements
-Materials declarations from the supply chain for calculating compliance with regulations -such as Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV), Registration, -Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), etc.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
1. Capabilities to fully define product design intent with a PLM EBOM translates into immediate business benefits and resulting consequences if not properly addressed as follows:
2. Aggregate all design input into a single EBOM from mechanical, electronics, and software teams - Proper impact analysis to be performed between teams does not occur when assessing a proposed engineering change or investigating a corrective action, which leads to lost productivity and late product deliveries
3. Accurately transmit design intent, packaging, raw material, and spare part items to ERP - Manufacturing process planning and/or purchasing errors occur when manually entering BOM items into ERP from a CAD drawing
4. Design teams understanding market requirements or contract line items - Products fail in the marketplace or contract milestones are not fulfilled resulting in lower revenue
5. Track materials substance quantities during the design process instead of after-the-fact - Potential to not be able to sell products in a given market if its compliancy regulations are not met resulting in lower revenue
EBOM VS MBOM
1. The EBOM (Engineering BOM) is a structure that reflects the engineering definition of a product, constructed using assemblies (functional groups of information) and parts (mechanical/electrical or software builds – specified by various specifications: 3D CAD, 2D CAD / Schematics or specifications).
2. The EBOM reflects the full definition from a product how it should appear in the real-world and is used inside an organization to align information coming from different disciplines.
3. The MBOM (Manufacturing BOM) is a structure that reflects the way the product is manufactured. The levels in the MBOM reflect the processing steps needed to build the product.
4. Here based on the same EBOM different MBOMs can exist, as a company might decide that in one of their manufacturing plants they only assemble the product, wherein another plant they have tools to manufacture some of the parts themselves.
5. In case your company delivers products to their customers, either in a B2B or B2C model, the communication towards the customer is based on a product ID, which could be the customer part number (in case of B2B) or a catalog part number.
6. The EBOM/MBOM for this product might evolve over time as long as the product specifications remain the same and are met.
SITUATION FOR EBOM AND MBOM
1. Historically most companies have worked with a single BOM definition, due to the following reasons:
2. In an Engineering-To-Order process or Build-to-Print process the company the target is to manufacture a product at a single site – Most of the time one product for ETO or one definition to many products in BTP. This means the BOM definition is already done with manufacturing resources and suppliers in mind.
3. The PLM (or PDM) system only contained the engineering definition. Manufacturing engineers build the manufacturing definition manually in the local ERP-system by typing part numbers again and structuring the BOM according to the manufacturing process for that plant.
4. Where the first point makes sense, there might be still situations where a separate EBOM and MBOM is beneficial. Most of the time when the Build To Print activity is long-lasting and allows the company to optimize the manufacturing process without affecting the engineering definition.
5. The second point is describing a situation you will find at many companies as historically the ERP-system was the only enterprise IT-systems and here part numbers were registered.
PRODUCT LIFE MANAGEMENT
1. Creating a PLM-ERP connection is usually the last activity a company does. First, optimize the silos and then think about how to connect them (unfortunate).
2. Meanwhile, PLM-systems have evolved in the past 15 years, and a full BOM-centric approach from EBOM to MBOM is supported although every PLM vendor will have its own way of solving digital connectivity between BOM-items.
3. You should consider an EBOM / MBOM approach in the following situations:
4. In case you have a modular product the definition of the EBOM and MBOM can be managed at the module As modules might be manufactured at different locations, only the MBOM of the module may vary per plant. Therefore, fewer dependencies on the EBOM or the total EBOM of a product.
5. In case a company has multiple manufacturing plants or is aiming to outsource manufacturing, the PLM-system is the only central place where all product knowledge can reside and pushed to the local ERPs when needed for potential localization. Localization means for me, using parts that are sourced in the region, still based on the part specification coming from the EBOM.
EBOM AND MBOM PARTS
1. An EBOM part is specified by documents – this can be a document, a 3D model combined with 2D drawings or a 3D annotated model. In case this EBOM part is a standard part, the specification may come from a part manufacturer through their catalog.
2. As this part manufacturer will not be the only one manufacturing the standard part, you will see that this EBOM-part has potentially several MBOM-parts to be resolved when manufacturing is planned. The terms Approved Manufacturing List (AML) – defined by Engineering and Approved Vendor List (AVL) – based on the AML but controlled by purchasing apply here.
3. Now the case that the EBOM-part is not a standard part. In that case, there are two options:
4. The EBOM-part holds only the specifications and the EBOM-part will be linked to one or more MBOM-parts (depending on manufacturing locations). In case the part is outsourced, your company might not even be interested in the MBOM-part as it is up to the supplier to manufacture it according to specifications
5. The EBOM-part describes a specification but does not exist as such individuals. For example, 1.2-meter hydraulic tube, or the part should be painted (not specified in the EBOM with quantity) or cut out of steel with a certain thickness. In the MBOM you would find the materials in detailed sizes and related operations.
EBOM AND MBOM STRUCTURE
1. In the traditional PLM implementations, we often see the evolution of BOM-like structures along the enterprise: Concept-BOM, Engineering BOM, Manufacturing BOM, Service BOM, and others.
2. Each structure could consist of individual objects in the PLM-system. This is an easy to understand approach, where the challenge is to keep these structures up-to-date and synced with the right information.
3. Another more granular approach is to have connected data sets that all have their unique properties and by combining some of them you have the EBOM, and by combining other elements, you have the MBOM.
4. This approach is used in data platforms where the target is to have a “single version of the truth” for each piece of information and you create through apps an EBOM or MBOM-view with related functionality.
Source:
https://virtualdutchman.com/2019/01/20/the-importance-of-ebom-and-mbom-in-plm-reprise/
https://www.mbtmag.com/home/blog/13245492/why-a-bom-belongs-in-plm-even-if-erp-has-one
