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Rolling-up BOMs

Question asked by John Bergin on Mar 2, 2017
Latest reply on Mar 7, 2017 by Tim Webb

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We are trying to learn if SolidWorks PDM has a capability to roll-up BOMs within a high-level assembly. We like the BOM feature in EPDM, and its ability to be exported to Excel. However we have not yet discovered if these BOMs can be automatically rolled-up to a "Master BOM" at any higher assembly level. Even if this is not an out-of-the-box capability, we would like to know how other EPDM users might be accomplishing this (add-ins, export to Access routine, etc.). Would appreciate a description or pointed to appropriate literature. Recommending exporting BOMs to ERP system is a non starter, as we do not have one...and may never.

Thanks!

Jim Sculley Mar 6, 2017 2:49 PM

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It looks as though you haven't created any BOMs in EPDM. Right click the Bills of Material Category in the admin tool and select 'New Bill of Materials'. From there you can set up your own BOM. Be aware that the 'computed' BOMs in EPDM are inferior to those that you create in SOLIDWORKS itself. Most notably, there are no item numbers and the order of the items in the EPDM BOM is based entirely on when the file was added to the vault.

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Ben D. Mar 5, 2017 3:35 PM
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1-4T22BP6 wrote:
However we have not yet discovered if these BOMs can be automatically rolled-up to a "Master BOM" at any higher assembly level.
Can you explain this? Not sure what is your intention ...
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- John Bergin @ Ben D. on Mar 6, 2017 9:15 AM
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  Ben,
  I guess a better way to state our need is to say we want to generate a consolidated top level Bill of Material (BOM), wherein all of the parts needed to build a top level assembly appear in a single BOM. This consolidated BOM is not a managed artifact, but is generated on demand. In some organizations this is referred to as a Manufacturing BOM, and or Purchasing BOM.
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  - Gian Flavio Violi @ John Bergin on Mar 6, 2017 9:26 AM
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    I fail to understand why a top-level ASM indented BOM wouldn't work for you. Can you elaborate what options have you looked at and its shortocomings?
    
    Regards,
    GF
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  - Martin Solem @ John Bergin on Mar 6, 2017 9:56 AM
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    So, something like this structure:
    Top-assy
         Part1
         Part2
         Sub-assy1
              Part3
              Part4
              Sub-sub-assy
                   Part1
                   Part5
                   Part6
         Sub-assy2
              Part7
              Part2
    
    Would become BOM:
    Name               Qty
    Top-assy          1
    Part1                 2
    Part2                 2
    Part3                 1
    Part4                 1
    Part5                 1
    Part6                 1
    Part7                 1
    
    ??
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    - John Bergin @ Martin Solem on Mar 6, 2017 10:05 AM
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      Martin,
      
      Yes, that is a good example of what we are looking for.
      
      Also, part of the problem could something very basic: We are not seeing the Indented BOM display option in the dropdown menu as indicated in the SolidWorks manual & help function. I am wondering if maybe our designers are missing something in SW when they create the BOMs in the asm files? or in the drw files? All the subassemblies are in the higher level assemblies and are appropriately depicted in the Where Used & Contains tabs. Is there a reason why the Indented BOM function would not appear in the drop down menu?
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      - Tim Webb @ John Bergin on Mar 6, 2017 12:38 PM
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        Hi John,
        
        Hope you are doing well.
        
        Based on the business needs you stated, check out our educational video on using Named BOMs. I think you will be surprised at the tremendous power this will bring to your team. And since you will probably never use an ERP, you will need to manage your BOMs using something other than Excel and Access.
        
        How To Manage Named Bill of Materials in Enterprise PDM - YouTube
        
        As a general rule, I avoid recommending rolling up BOMs to keep them modular and let each sub govern its own BOM parts. That way, if a lower level part REVs, it will NOT have to REV all the way up the tree. As a result, I also recommend not carrying REV on the BOM, supply chain and production work to the latest REV, and use change orders to govern effectivity/dispositon (i.e. cut over date, lot number, scrap, exhaust inventory, etc.)
        
        Hope this helps,
        Tim CEPA
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        John Bergin @ Tim Webb on Mar 6, 2017 2:17 PM
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        Tim,
        
        Thanks for the info and link to demo. The methodology & workflows indicated in the demo could be helpful to us down the road.
        
        I agree with your statement regarding rolled up BOMs. In our case, we would not want to manage the rolled up BOMs, but want a way to generate them "on demand" in PDM.
        
        As stated in my previous reply, we seem to be missing something basic...we do not see the Indented BOM option within the Bill of Materials tab.
        
        Is there something we need to do in order to see this feature? The Bills of Materials option in our Admin screen seems to have no functionality.
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        Ben D. @ John Bergin on Mar 6, 2017 2:42 PM
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        You don't have any BOMs created. Right click on Bill of materials, create a BOM with columns you need, and that should be it.
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        Jim Sculley @ John Bergin on Mar 6, 2017 2:49 PM
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        It looks as though you haven't created any BOMs in EPDM. Right click the Bills of Material Category in the admin tool and select 'New Bill of Materials'. From there you can set up your own BOM. Be aware that the 'computed' BOMs in EPDM are inferior to those that you create in SOLIDWORKS itself. Most notably, there are no item numbers and the order of the items in the EPDM BOM is based entirely on when the file was added to the vault.
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        John Bergin @ Jim Sculley on Mar 6, 2017 3:14 PM
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        Ben, Jim,
        
        Thanks! We have not been using EPDM very long, so we did realized this was necessary. This might not answer completely, as we will still need to play around with some of the other suggestions here to get rolled up BOM displayed per in Martin's example above...but this solves the core problem for now.
        
        Just curious, though, as to why the individual Parts Lists were being pulled from our drawings and displaying in the Bills of Materials tab even though had no Bills of Materials created...
        jb
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        Jim Sculley @ John Bergin on Mar 7, 2017 8:14 AM
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        There are 3 different BOM types when using EPDM: derived, computed and named. A derived BOM is the SOLIDWORKS BOM extracted from the SOLIDWORKS drawing itself. This is what you were seeing. They will always be listed in the dropdown as 'filename:BOM name'. A computed BOM is the BOM that you set up via the EPDM admin tool. You can have more than one and you can specify what BOM is used by different users/groups. These will be listed in the dropdown as the name of the BOM as shown in the admin tool. For instance, we have 3 BOMs defined (Mechanical, Electrical and EFR), and the drop down looks like this:
        A named BOM is essentially a snapshot of one of the the other types of BOMs that becomes a separate document that you can edit independently.
        
        There are pros and cons to each type of BOM. I suggest you investigate each of them thoroughly before choosing. Where I work, we use a combination of derived and computed BOMs. A custom add-in generates an Excel BOM on demand from the derived BOM in a drawing (or the associated assembly). If a file in the assembly has been revised, but the assembly wasn't updated, this BOM will be inaccurate with respect to the revision numbers of its components. Therefore, this BOM is checked against the computed BOM looking for any files that are out of date so that they can be flagged in the Excel output (by highlighting them in red). This approach allows all the BOM work to be done in SOLIDWORKS.
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        John Bergin @ Jim Sculley on Mar 7, 2017 10:10 AM
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        Jim,
        
        Thanks for the detailed follow up.
        
        In a previous company we did all of that unique Parts List/BOM (I use these terms interchangeably, but realize that not everyone does) parsing in our ERP system, after the released Engineering BOMs were transferred. So I am familiar with the multi-BOM needs concept. For better or worse, we do not have ERP/PLM systems here. We also do not have all of the needed BOMs in EPDM, such as those for our PCB assemblies. Consequently we need to become savvy with BOM management in EPDM. We appreciate the suggestions we have gotten here so far. I know we will have plenty of additional questions along the way. Thanks in advance!
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        Tim Webb @ John Bergin on Mar 7, 2017 12:26 PM
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        Thanks everyone for helping John after I left my comment yesterday. I had client meetings all afternoon and wasn't able to get back to this thread until now.
        
        John, create a bill of materials column set in your PDM admin tool as Jim recommended, by right clicking the "Bills of Materials" node in the PDM Admin tool and selecting "New Bill of Materials..."
        Setup the columns and permissions, taking note of the options below the variable for each column like "Look for variables in referenced configuration and, if empty, in custom properties". This selection is based on your PDM data model and entirely up to you. There are caveats though.
        Then setup your group permissions for activating (more on this in a moment), reading named BOMs, and seeing computed BOMs.
        
        As an FYI only - Officially, the "Activate computed BOM" permission enables the BOM to be displayed in the BOM view in the file explorer if you select "Display" then "Show Bill of Materials", you can normally see the activated BOM.
        
        But from a process perspective, an activated BOM can also be used as a process "flag" so only activated BOMs can be exported using the data export rules AND to keep BOMs from being "released" for purchase too early or before being reviewed.
        
        Essentially, if the BOM is "ready" for consumption by other departments, it gets activated as a deliberate process. This way, each BOM gets reviewed as though it is as valuable as a drawing to be released to production because it carries the same weight for Supply Chain to purchase the right or wrong materials or quantities.
        
        Everyone knows someone who has lost tens of thousands of dollars on bad BOMs through either a wrong part number or wrong quantity.
        
        It's one way to do it.
        
        Hope this helps,
        Tim CEPA
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Andrew Holowack Mar 6, 2017 8:32 AM
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If each of your sub-assemblies contain the parts you want to include in the top level BOM then you can just use the Parts Level or Indented BOM to get all this information. If you have things like consumable items which should be included in these subassemblies you could add them as virtual parts, (Paint, Oil, etc.). Is that what you mean?
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Mike Sveda Mar 6, 2017 12:55 PM
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We have an Excel macro that takes the BOM data, rolls it up, and puts it in formatted Excel tabs. One tab is manufactured parts, one purchased, one modified purchased, stock items and EE ordered items. You can use the Level column for calculating the roll-up in an Excel macro
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