Lesson 4

Bill of Materials
This lesson will cover the following topics:

» Bill of Materials (BOM)

» Creating a BOM

» Input BOM Attributes

» Edit BOM Settings

» Edit BOM Values

» BOM Substitute Components

» Removing and Replacing BOM Items

» Browse BOM

» BOM Subviews

» Lab Exercises

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Bill of Materials (BOM)

» A bill of materials (BOM) is a list of Items (components and subassemblies) that make up an
assembly.

» In Arena, any Item can be an assembly. You make an Item into an assembly by adding other
Items to its Bill of Materials view.

» When an Item is an assembly (it has a BOM) we call this a parent Item with child Items.

» Because Arena is a relational database, if you add another assembly to a BOM, you automatically
get its entire bill of materials.

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Creating a BOM
There are many ways to create a BOM in Arena:
» Duplicate an item with a BOM.

» After item creation you’ll see a green message bar at the top of the page showing “You may
want to…” add this item to a BOM or add Items to this Item’s BOM.

» Search for items, check the rows, then use the Add to BOM button at the bottom of the page.

» Search, check the rows, Keep the items, and then use the Add to BOM button at the bottom of
the page.

» Open an Item, go to its Bill of Materials view > Indented subview and select the add items
button. Search for items and add one or many to the BOM.

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Input BOM Attributes

» When adding Items to a BOM you’ll be able to enter values for BOM attributes.

• Line number – used to sort the Items on the BOM, if left blank the BOM will be sorted by
Item Number (may be entered manually or automatically)

• Quantity

• Reference Designators (may be checked against quantity)

• BOM Notes

• Any additional custom BOM attributes configured by your Account Admin

BOM Workspace Settings

Your Account Administrator can configure the following workspace settings for Bills of Materials:

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Edit BOM Settings

On the Bill of Materials view of an Item you can edit these BOM settings:
» Line Numbering

• Automatically generate line numbers

• Allow manual editing of line numbers

» Reference Designator Checking

• Don’t check reference designators

• Check reference designators and generate a warning if there’s a mismatch with quantity or if
the same reference designator is used more than once.

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Edit BOM Values

» The Edit button opens the BOM lines for editing the following attributes:

• Line Numbers (if allowed under Edit BOM Settings)

• Quantity

• Reference Designators

NOTE: reference designators are case sensitive – c6 is not the same as C6

• BOM Notes

• Other custom BOM attributes added by your Account Admin

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BOM Substitute Components

» For any Item in a BOM you can define substitutes:

Other acceptable Revisions of the same Item

Other acceptable Items entirely

» Unreleased Items are not permitted as substitutes

» Viewed, managed, and ranked in the Indented BOM subview

» Can specify quantity and notes for substitutes

» Where Used shows where an Item is named as a substitute

NOTE: Your Account Administrator must turn on a setting to use this feature.

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Removing BOM Items
» When removing items from a BOM you have three options:

• Remove one item from the BOM

• Remove one or more items from the BOM

• Remove one or more items from multiple BOMs

» To remove just one item from the BOM use the Remove command at the end of the row.

» To remove multiple items from the BOM use the delete button and then check the rows you
want to remove.

» Choose to remove from just this assembly, or to remove from multiple assemblies.

» When removing items from multiple assemblies, a where used is done on the items and you
choose which assemblies to remove the items from.

» The Working Rev of each specified assembly will be modified.

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Replacing BOM Items
» Replacing an item on a BOM allows you to use the same line number for the new item.

» When replacing items on a BOM you have two options:

• Replace an item on the BOM with another item

• Replace an item on multiple BOMs

» Use the Replace command.

» Search for the replacement item.

» Select the replacement item.

» Choose whether to replace in this assembly or to replace in multiple assemblies.

» When replacing an item in multiple assemblies, a where used is done on the item and you
choose which assemblies to replace the item in.

» The Working Rev of each specified assembly will be modified.

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Browse BOM

» Opens a secondary window showing the Bill of Materials

» Handy for jumping around between BOM Items

» Great for looking at a particular view in multiple Items

» Go back to parent assembly with link at top and then close browser when done

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BOM Subviews
The Bill of Materials view has multiple subviews, each showing the BOM with different information.

» Indented – This is the default layout for a bill of materials and is sometimes called a nested
BOM.

• This is the BOM subview where you do your work. The other subviews are read-only.

• Collapse or expand subassemblies using the triangle to the left of the line item, or check
Expand All.

» Flat — All child Items are listed in a single-level display, regardless of whether or not they are
contained within subassemblies.

» Sourcing — Child Items are listed with Vendor and Manufacturer sourcing information for each.

» Costing – this BOM subview is used along with non-revision controlled custom attributes for
costs.

» Purchasing — Child Items are listed with costing and Supplier information for each.

» Sharing — Child Items are listed with Supplier sharing information for each.

» Custom — Child Items are listed with columns of information defined by an Account
Administrator. You can view any Custom BOM defined for the workspace by selecting it from the
drop-down menu.

» Redline — Child Items are listed with text formatting to show changes that have occurred in this
bill of materials from a chosen revision to the current revision.

» Compare — Child Items in this assembly are compared to the child Items in other assemblies of
your choosing. Text formatting shows differences in specified fields.

» Potential – only available from an item’s Working Revision. This shows the working revision of all
child items.

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Custom BOM Views

» Your Account Admin can create custom BOM views.

» In the Bill of Materials view > Custom subview you can select the different custom views.

» One custom view can be set as a default for each Item category.

» Custom BOM views can be used as a simple form of reporting – print the page or export to
Microsoft Excel.

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BOM Redline

» See differences between two revisions of the same BOM.

» Shows differences (in red) between current revision and selected revision.

» This example shows the redlines, or differences, between the Working Revision BOM and the
superseded revision C of the BOM.

» There was 1 addition and 2 edited components in the Working Revision since revision C was
released.

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BOM Compare

» Compare—BOMs from 2 or more different Items

» Configurable by each user

» Compare quantities, reference designators, substitutes all at once

» Compared Items stay in this view until you remove them

» Compares selected revision to Effective Revisions of other Items

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Potential BOM
» The Potential BOM subview shows the working revisions of all child items.

» Use this subview to see what’s being modified on each child item. You can use this information
to decide whether child items need to be released along with the parent item.

Compare this effective “rev D” with the Working Revision shown below:

Potential BOM view – shows a changed quantity, modified note, and an added item.

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