Streamlining Bills of Materials Management in Dynamics 365 Business Central
With the Microsoft Dynamic 365 Business Central platform, manufacturers have the tools to streamline their bills of materials (BOM) management processes. Companies can craft efficient BOMs tailored to their unique needs and enable more agile operations. Accurate and up-to-date BOMs are essential for efficient production, compliance with regulations and standards, and ensuring the quality of the final product. However, managing BOMs can be a complex task. In this article, we’ll look at how leveraging Dynamics 365 Business Central for BOM management can help you optimize your business processes and save time. We’ll also discuss the benefits of using BOM management software, tips for effective BOM management, and more.
Challenges of Bill of Materials Management
Manufacturers often face challenges when managing their bills of materials (BOM). Common issues manufacturers encounter include:
- The need to create and maintain multiple versions of the BOM
- Maintaining accurate and up-to-date data across multiple parts, assemblies, and components
- Ensuring there is a clear view across multiple levels of the BOM
- Keeping track of inventory levels for parts
- Processing manual input errors and preventing discrepancies within the bill
- Understanding a complex BOM with an extensive amount of components
- Managing obsolete components
The Challenges with Poorly Managed BOMs
Optimizing your BOM is crucial in today’s competitive marketplace, and poor BOM management can have ripple effects on your operations, such as:
- Inaccurate BOMs can cause delays in production as they can lead to missing components, incorrect quantities, or the use of outdated information.
- Poor BOM data can lead to increased costs, including overproduction, underproduction, inefficient use of materials, and labor.
- Substandard BOMs can lead to incorrect components, quality issues, damage to a company’s brand, and legal issues.
- Traceability is essential in today’s connected manufacturing world, and inaccurate BOMs can make product origin tracing very challenging. This is important for aerospace and medical devices.
- As components become obsolete and phased out, accurate BOMs become more challenging.
Identifying a Modern ERP Platform for Manufacturers
A modern ERP platform, like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, can optimize your manufacturing operations due to its robust manufacturing and supply chain modules. Cloud-based Dynamics 365 Business Central stays current with continuous updates and helps manufacturers manage complex BOMs. Below are important features:
- Centralized BOM data management in Business Central ensures that all users and departments work with the same information.
- Business Central can automatically update BOMs when items are added, modified, or removed from the system.
- Business Central’s version control allows manufacturers to track changes, understand the impact of those changes, and report on them.
- BOM cost management is an important feature that allows companies to calculate each component’s cost and make informed decisions about their products.
- Business Central inventory management features help companies track components’ availability and manage inventory.
- Business Central connects you to suppliers and offers visibility throughout the supply chain.
Managing Manufacturing Complexity with the Multi-Level BOM Viewer App
Business Central’s centralized BOM management system produces multiple levels of components, and this can make BOMs hard to understand and difficult for users to make changes, such as adding or removing components.
So, how can you solve BOM complexity issues?
The Multi-Level BOM Viewer app from Insight Works is an add-on for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that helps streamline the BOM management process. The app delivers a simple interface for viewing BOMs and the ability to make changes without moving to multiple screens. Plus, the BOM management can all be done in the BOM Viewer app while exporting BOMs from and to Excel.
The Multi-Level BOM Viewer is part of the Enhanced Planning Pack app, a suite of add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that can help streamline and optimize the planning and production process. The Enhanced Planning Pack app includes several other tools like a planning worksheet, forecasting worksheet, and routing analysis tool.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive and efficient solution for managing your BOMs, we recommend checking out the Multi-Level BOM Viewer app from Insight Works.
The Manufacturing Experts at ArcherPoint
Find out more information about Dynamics 365 Business Central manufacturing and supply chain modules and how to create a roadmap for extensions like the Multi-Level BOM Viewer app from Insight Works. Contact ArcherPoint today to get started.