bill of materials Archives | �ۿ۴�ý

What’s the difference between an engineering and a manufacturing BOM?

�ۿ۴�ý — Mon, 02 May 2011 08:21:32 +0000

An engineering BOM, or bill of materials, is essential for all mechanical design projects, whether you are a small engineering company producing one-off designs for medical research, or a commercial enterprise developing hardware designs for bulk production. The latter would generally need to produce separate manufacturing BOMs as well. An engineering BOM lists each item or component and details its relationship to the product under construction. The use and purpose of each component should be made clear, as well as its cost. Mechanical CAD software, including 3D modeling programs, often incorporates BOM management tools to make the job easier. However, most CAD drafting programs are insufficient for MRP (Manufacturing Requirements Planning) purposes, since they represent a one-off prototype rather than bulk production. Parts may need to be grouped differently and the product structure reorganized to support manufacturing. Mechanical CAD design does not always fit in very well with the OEM’s views on manufacturability. There are a large number of manufacturing BOM management products on the market today. But process manufacturing can be highly detailed and complex, requiring extra documents such as batch entry and formula BOMs. Some service providers have attempted to streamline BOM management with a single ‘master’ bill of materials tying manufacturing and engineering BOMs together, but as each department has different needs this can be difficult. We at �ۿ۴�ý Technologies have extensive experience in the field of BOM management. We can prepare and manage your manufacturing and engineering BOMs, or BOM scrub existing files to remove unwanted data.

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How BOM scrubbing could help reduce your system design costs

�ۿ۴�ý — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:17:24 +0000

Around 80% of a product’s budget is decided at the engineering BOM stage – i.e. in early development. Nowadays it is common for mechanical and electrical engineering companies to use CAD drafting tools and 2D to 3D modeling applications to get new system designs into production faster. However, BOM management is equally important.

Your plan should include adequate resources for filing and retrieval of all engineering BOMs. This can be done easily with specialist BOM management software. Depending on the system installed, you can make and record BOM changes, create assembly reports, and BOM scrubs archived data.

You can also use BOM software as a component cross-reference tool to check which components have been used in previous projects. This can cut costs enormously, avoiding the need to build parts from scratch.

A mere 8% of the budget for a new product is spent during the design phase. However, that design has already determined 80% of all future spending, 60% of it at the creative concept phase. An ill-thought creative concept idea can be perilous to profits once you get to the manufacturing stage – not through the design itself, which may be brilliant, but through the costs incurred during the product lifecycle. However cutting-edge a new bag-less vacuum cleaner or hybrid auto is, it’s no use if you have to price it out of reach of the consumer market in order to break even.

Understanding the importance of things like regular BOM scrubbing is essential to modern engineering. We at �ۿ۴�ý Technologies are experts in the fields of mechanical design and high-tech component engineering, with tailored to your exact requirements.

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Cutting System Design Costs Through Intelligent BOM Management

�ۿ۴�ý — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:42:06 +0000

Whether you are a mechanical engineer or a VLSI designer, most engineering costs arise early in development. However keen you are to get your cutting-edge hardware design into production, you need to ensure it will pay for itself in production. Intelligent system design begins with the product structure. This is a hierarchical cataloguing of all the product elements; a precursor to the engineering BOM (bill of materials). In PCB design, CAD drawing tools are employed from the start. In mechanical engineering, mechanical CAD software is also the norm, although early concept sketches may be done by hand. The engineer begins with drafting out the structure of the product, and identifying the main systems and components. For each system part, consideration must be given to standard components already used by the company, or custom-built parts used in other projects, which may serve the necessary purpose. Not until these avenues are exhausted should you look at creating new parts. The engineering BOM is compiled once the product structure has evolved to a form that will support manufacturing, taking the form of a detailed parts list supported by CAD drawings. BOM management goes hand-in-hand with environmental compliance and obsolescence management. Effective component cross-reference strategies should be in place to guard against, for example, parts becoming unavailable due to supplier shut-down or a change in REACH regulations. We at �ۿ۴�ý Technologies realize it’s tempting to cut corners in BOM management, resulting in heavy costs further along the line. We offer a full range of BOM, obsolescence management and value engineering services, to enable your new products to have maximum impact at minimum expense.

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Enterprise data management – what every business should know

�ۿ۴�ý — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:27:48 +0000

Whatever kind of business you’re in, enterprise data management is what makes it run efficiently.

Enterprise data management, or EDM, is a generalist term describing the way in which data is stored, retrieved, organised and presented. Specialised enterprise data management solutions are available in the form of database modelling tools and system software. There are several such programs on the market, often developed by specialist who provide an outsourced service.

Many people wonder what the basics of an effective enterprise data management program are, and how it differs from master data management. To explain this, you first need to know what enterprise data management actually means.

EDM and MDM (master data management) are often used together, MDM being part of enterprise data management. EDM refers to the way in which internal and external data is used to further the aims of the company employing it, and varies accordingly. For example a component engineering firm will use EDM tools for stock control, and tracking the popularity of different lines. This can be anything from new FPGA designs to obsolete semiconductors, so sub-categorisation is essential. On top of this comes profit versus expenditure; environmental compliance, and possible new avenues of revenue such as eCommerce. In short, enterprise data management covers everything a company needs to operate effectively and efficiently.

Enterprise data management solutions currently on the market include SAS, Zema and Bakbone software. However, many businesses turn to us at �ۿ۴�ý Technologies for their enterprise data management needs. We are unique in offering a wide range of solutions, ranging from to component engineering services.

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Save Money with Cost Reduction Services

�ۿ۴�ý — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:44:26 +0000

Here at �ۿ۴�ý we are very proud of our . We like to think of this as a very collaborative process and customers working with us. Together, we have been working with external suppliers and have shown savings in the (BOM Cost) from 10% to 25%. Because we as a company work in a number of different areas such as electronic design, mechanical design, and sourcing, we utilize a team who know all of these areas and can cross borders in ways that other companies are often unable to do to keep costs down.

As well as sourcing high-quality components from the cheapest available sources, and sometimes buying in bulk and passing those costs onto you; we also source from non-local countries if we think we can get savings that we can pass on without this negatively effecting quality. We may also suggest different replacement parts or a variation in design to help cut the overall costs. We keep very up-to-date on current technologies which may well have changed even during the design phase of the project. It is sometimes the case that technologies have moved on to the extent that we can suggest a completely new technology with a lower to replace something in your build. Integration is also something we look at, especially with changes on the IC market happening so fast.

Our cost reduction services also look at the , optimizing the mechanical complexity and the mechanical component costs and even occasionally shifting manufacture to a cheaper country if required.

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