As a manufacturer, you need control over every aspect of the process. The NetSuite Advanced Bill of Materials feature provides that essential control. This feature separates Bill of Materials records from assembly items, allowing for more granular control over revisions, shared components, and production planning. In this blog, we’ll walk through how to enable and use this feature in NetSuite.
Overview of NetSuite Advanced Bill of Materials
A Bill of Materials (or BOM) is a document that details all the parts, assemblies, and materials you need to create a product. The BOM also includes things like the required quantities of each subcomponent and the vendors you source these items from. The NetSuite Advanced Bill of Materials feature goes a step further than standard BOMs. Here are the key benefits of Advanced Bill of Materials:
- Independent BOM Records: Create BOMs that are not directly tied to a single assembly item, allowing for reuse across multiple assemblies.
- Enhanced Revision Control: Manage multiple revisions of a BOM, each with its own effective dates and component lists.
- Improved Flexibility: Easily update or replace components in a BOM without affecting the assembly item directly.
Setting Up Advanced Bill of Materials
Enabling the Advanced BOM Feature
In order to use the Advanced BOM feature, you will need to enable it in your NetSuite account. You can do that on the Inventory section of the Inventory & Items subtab in Enable Features. Before utilizing the Advanced BOM functionality, you need to enable the feature in your NetSuite account. Note that enabling this feature will automatically convert existing BOMs to the new Advanced BOM structure, so you should test this in a sandbox environment before enabling it in production.
Creating a Bill of Materials Record
The Advanced Bill of Materials feature is live in your account. Now what? Once this feature is enabled, you can start creating BOM records independently of assembly items. To create a BOM record, navigate to Lists > Supply Chain > Bills of Materials > New.
On this record, enter a name for the BOM. You’ll also need to choose the subsidiary for this BOM. Use the checkbox Available for All Assemblies to make this BOM widely available for selection, or restrict it to only certain assemblies. You can also make it available from all locations using the Available for All Locations checkbox, or you can use the Restrict to Locations field to limit it. When you’re finished, save the record. We’ll add individual components to this BOM in the BOM revision process next.
Creating a BOM Revision
Next, let’s create a BOM revision and add the necessary components. BOM Revisions allow you to manage changes to a BOM over time, each with its own set of components and effective dates. Note that you may have multiple revisions in existence for a single BOM, but only one can be effective at a given time.
On this page, name the revision and set the Effective Start Date and Effective End Date. Then, under the Components subtab, add all the necessary items you need to make up this BOM. You’ll also enter the quantity needed, units used, etc. Under the Item Source dropdown, you’ll select either Stock or Purchase Order, meaning that this item will be either pulled out of existing inventory or ordered.
Linking BOMs to Assembly Items
After creating BOMs and their revisions, you need to link them to assembly items to define how products are built.
Here, you’ll be able to add any necessary BOMs for manufacturing this item. Note that you can assign a BOM as the master default across all locations or as the default for a select location. You can also record the effective start and end dates. When you’re finished, save the record.
Conclusion
The NetSuite Advanced Bill of Materials feature provides a robust framework for managing complex manufacturing processes. By separating BOM records from assembly items and introducing revision control, it offers greater flexibility and precision in production planning.