Q"">BOM. What kind of tools should we use for maintenance?

A: The first barrier to starting up an Advanced Planning and Scheduling System is the servicing of BOM. The larger the amount of data the more difficult the servicing of BOM maintenance. A BOM editor is an important tool for simplifying the work of BOM maintenance. Asprova sent out questionnaires to its more than 1200 users of its Advanced Planning and Scheduling System and found out that easy BOM maintenance is what they want most.

BOM editor in tabular format

The results of the user questionnaire survey show that the greatest demand was for "the ability to input BOM in a format similar to EXCEL. Certainly most of those who are engaged in production control are using EXCEL every day to manage BOM orders and raw materials. It's easiest to use a tool when the entry and display are the same in ease of operation as the tools that they use every day. From the results of those user questionnaires Asprova has put together a BOM input screen that is in the tabular format shown below.

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Data may be directly input into this table or the data that is entered into excel may be copied and pasted. Data that is stored in a database may be directly imported. Data is just directly entered into this table. This works well when there are a large number of linear steps in production and assembly.

Graphical BOM editor

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The presence of branch and a merge gives a sense of immediately understanding the process flow. This is suited a comparatively low level of production and manufacture of items complex in assembly and of production of projects with branch and flow.

Maintaining BOM in this way moves BOM visualization forward by sharing information and data that used to be in the heads of only designated persons.

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