A BOM consists of a header production to which items are specified as components and subassemblies in the body of the BOM. Each item is assigned type, quantity and unit type. For each item it can be specified whether the item is an assembly or not.

There are different classes (categories) of items. A BOM can comprise items from different item categories. The most important predefined item categories are the following:

• Stock items
• Non-stock items
• Variable-size items
• PM structure elements
• Text items
• Intra materials

Basic information on bill of material (BOM) in SAP:

• Used in unit-based production

• Its counterpart in process industry is a recipe

• Consists of a header with items

• There are BOMs for material, document, equipment, orders and more

• E.g. used for materials requirements planning (BOM explosion)

• Category by purpose: Design and production BOM

• Category by structure: Single-level, multi-level, summarized and variant BOM

• Can e.g. be plant- and period-specific (a material can have several BOMs)

• Have a status (active or inactive by organizational area)

• Material BOMs are created with TC CS01

• Material BOMs can be changed with TC CS02

BOM is integrated with not only the PP module. BOMs are also tightly integrated with sales and distribution, controlling, material management and plant maintenance (modules in SAP).

Design vs. production BOMS

A design BOM focuses on functional aspects, rooted in the design drawing. A design BOM aims at supporting product development.

A production BOM focuses on the assembly and produciton process and aims at supporting these.

Single-level, multi-level and summarized BOM

Below examples seek to describe illustrated assembly structure using a single-level, multi-level and summarized BOM.

E.g. single-level BOM for product 1:

• Sub assembly 1: 1 pc
• Component 1: 1 pc

E.g. multi-level BOM for product 1:

• Subassembly 1: 1pc
  • Component 1: 2pc
  • Component 2: 3pc
• Component 1: 1pc

E.g. summarized BOM for product 1:

• Subassembly 1: 1pc
• Component 1: 3pc
• Component 2: 3pc

Alternative BOM

There can be multiple BOMs to the same material. These BOMs are then all called alternative BOMs. Alternative BOMs could e.g. exist for different periods or different plants.

BOM usage

BOM usage can be specified and maintained in TC OS20. BOM usage you to define whether BOM must be, can be or must not be relevant for a certain area. Certain area means: Production, engineering and design, universal, plant maintenance, sales and distribution, or costing.

BOM status

The BOM status is used for restricting BOM usage. BOM statuses can be maintained in TC OS23. BOM statuses can furthermore be customized using TC SPRO.

In TC OS23 one can release BOMs for defined applications. BOM explosion in requirements planning is one exemplary application for which a BOM can be released in TC OS23.

Linnart Felkl

Data scientist focusing on simulation, optimization and modeling in R, SQL, VBA and Python