Bills of Material FAQ's

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Subject:Copy BOM

Q:

When I try to copy a BOM, why does the copy fuction only copies implemented but not pending (ie those due to come into effect in the future).

A:

The BOM copy function does not copy unimplemented components because the unimplemented component(s) is a result of an ECO created via Engineering. If the unimplemented components where copied, they would never become implemented because there is no ECO associated with the new bill. If you want to have the same pending changes on your new bill, you should create an ECO that mirrors the changes on the original bill.

Subject: Viewing ECO changes in BOM

Q: I have an ECO effecting a BOM. When I go into Bills/Bills and look at the BOM (Display set to Future and Current), with "Implemented Only" not checked, I can see the changes that are scheduled to take place in the BOM (i.e. Items disabled and items added). When I go to the Alternate Region "Material Control", I can edit attributes such as subinventory and Locator for the implemented components. Why cant I update the attributes for the unimplemented components? How do I enter the subinventory and locator for the new items? I can do so after the ECO is implemented, but not before. A:
You have to go back to the ECO. You should be able to enter that data there, before the ECO is implemented. You should be able to edit these fields on the ECO itself. It makes sense that you would not be able to edit these fields for an unimplemented ECO through the BOM screen. This would allow somebody who does not have access to ECOs to modify an ECO through the BOM update form. All of these fields (WIP supply type, Subinventory, and Locator) are item attributes which can be used to default this information in on the Bill of Material. This may be the most time efficient way to do this if a component is always coming from the same location regardless of where it is being used.

Subject:Configure Bill Function

Q: The documentation for configurator says you can configure a bill from the "Bill of Materials" window by going to the "Special" menu and selecting "Configure Bill".I entered a model bill of material and when I try to select "Configure Bill" under the "Special Menu", it is grayed out and I can not select it. What am I doing wrong? A:
To use the "Configure Bill" function: Create your full, indented model bill (AB1_ATOMODEL) -- all items, option classes and options. Create an item for your new standard bill AB1_CNFGITM. In the BOM region of your new item, enter the item number of your existing model "AB1_ATOMODEL" in the field called " Base Model." Now go to the BOM form and enter your new standard item number "AB1_CNFGITM".

http://www-apps.us.oracle.com/bom/bomfaq.html

2/24/2009

Bills of Material FAQ's

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At this point, you should be able to select Special*Configure Bill, and the system will display the choices in your Model bill. You should be able to choose the desired options, and thereby create the BOM for your new standard item.

Subject:BOM Open Interface

Q: What does Bill Import do? Where does the information come from? Where does the information go? A:
BOM import is the program that imports the data from the Open Inteface tables. You can use the Open Interface to import data from external systems such as legacy or product data management (PDM) systems. If you have flat files with the data, you'd use SQL*Loader to load the interface, then run BOM import. For written documentation, you can read the Manufacturing Implementation Manual.

Subject:BOM Exploder

Q: Custom Quote Application System Lines from a quote will be sent over to OE through the interface tables and running Order Import. Before the lines are sent over to OE interface tables, the client wants the information to be validate ( valid models, items and options, option classes) My questions concern Models and how they are set up in the BOM_EXPLOSIONS table. Is the BOM_EXPLOSIONS table the correct table to validate against? (We will bompnord.bmxporder_explode_for_order to ensure there is a current bom_explosions to validate against) I know that we need to get the bill sequnce id from bom_bill_of_materials using the inventory_item_id = assembly_id, org_id = ord_id and alternate_bom_designator is null. Example of the lines that need to be validated:
BOM_EXPLOSIONS COLUMNS Bill_seq_id Parent_seq_id Model (top Level) 1 1 line 1 included item 1 1 line 2 included item 1 1 line 3 Option Class a ? 1 line 4 Class a option ? 1 line 5 Model A 2 1 line 6 included item 2 1 line 6 Option Class B ? 1 line 7 Class B Option ? 1 line 8 option 2 1 line 9 Model C 3 1 line 10 included item 3 1 line 11 option 3 1
From my understanding, the top level model bill_sequence_id will be the parent bill sequence id for all the items, models and options below it. How are option classes defined or identified in the bom_explosions table. Will they have their own bill_sequence_id? (Do we get this from the bom_bill_of_materials also? How are the options in the option class identified? How does one validate for mutually exlusive options? What other validation concerns are there with

http://www-apps.us.oracle.com/bom/bomfaq.html

2/24/2009

Bills of Material FAQ's

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options and options classes?

A:

The table bom-explosions has the exploded BOM for the models. The models are stored for OE: Item Validation Organization. If u use OE then the BOM is exploded before u enter the configuration window. This inserts BOM for OE: Item Validation Organization. However, if u choose to run pre-exploder from concurrent programs menu then it inserts the BOM for Item Validation Organization and alos inserts a row for top level item for each organization.(You need to verify this....but i am pretty sure about it). There is top_item_id column in bom_explosions which ties all items within the model to parent item (MODEL item). So if u know parent item u can get the exploded bill of material for the model. You need to check for the re_explode_flag which indicates if u need re_explosion. You also need to check the loop flag which indicates if u have loops in the BOM ! (i don't remember exact value for these flags) The option items are indicated by field (bom_item_type or bom_type - something like this.... i don't remember the exact field name bt u can check)

Subject:Slow BOM Explosions

Q: We are using 10.7 16.1 GUI Citrix WinFrame Our client needs an immediate answer about this situation. An ATO item has a structure with 12 option classes. Two option classes have 1500 options. The other 10 option classes have several hundred options. * It takes 4 minutes for the BOM to be retrieved in BOM. * 3 minutes for the configurator form to load the ATO structure in OE/Enter Orders Form. * 5 minutes for the ATO to expand when I click the ++ button in the configurator form of OE enter orders. Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this the best it gets? I am correct in my assumption that this aspect of the apps cannot handle this type of product structure? A:
Like you we too had serious Performance problems ! (still continue to struggle in some areas). There is a patch which improves performance and you can ask the support to send it to you. See attachment for patch details. If you are not using OPC you need to just ask for OE Pacth Set C. We did apply the patched and really makes stuff run fast ! Apart from that we did some tuning especially on BOM_EXPLOSIONS TABLE. Try adding a non-unique index on top_item_id. Properly size BOM_EXPLOSIONS table.

Subject:Mass Change

Q: I've created two BOMs: TestA and TestB. Both have the component X1 but with different quantities. TestA requires (5) X1 and TestB requires (3) X1. I want to perform a mass change to replace item X1 with Y1. However, when you access the mass change form you can Add, Disable or Update but not replace. If you add then you specify a quantity but the required quantites are not the same (otherwise you could just disable and add the coponents). The 'book' states: "You can use the Mass Change Bills of Material form to mass change your bills of material. You can define a mass change to add, delete or replace a component, alter a component quantity or yield, or change other component information." Any ideas for the mass replace component? A:
The way Mass Change is supposed to work is you first "DISABLE" the component being replaced and in the next line you "ADD" the component which is replacing the old component. It would have been nice if Oracle had a "REPLACE" feature specifically. But we can

http://www-apps.us.oracle.com/bom/bomfaq.html

2/24/2009

Bills of Material FAQ's

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still do replacement as I indicated above.

Subject:Routing
I have a customer that requires only 1 operation sequence (i.e. 1 operation step) for their routings. Some of the components on the bill of materials are backflushed (defined as "operation pull"), and others are not (defined as "push"). In doing some testing, it appears that the "push" items are removed from inventory automatically at the completion of the operation along with the backflushed components, even if they were never issued to the operation. Has anyone seen this situation before? It appears that the system forces the issuance of all component at the completion of the final operation step.

Q:

A:

Greg -- this sounds pretty strange. Have you checked all the places where the system might be told to backflush? I wonder if you've actually set it up somewhere. The Supply type is an item attribute. The supply type is a component attribute in a BOM (the item can be a push item, but the BOM could make it a pull component in that assembly). The WIP job can override the BOM supply type, either when you define it, or manually (in the WIP requirements). Ultimately, it's the WIP requirements setting that wins -- have you checked the actual WIP requirements to see what the supply type is set to?

http://www-apps.us.oracle.com/bom/bomfaq.html

2/24/2009