Getting started with EBOMs

Engineering Bills of Materials - or EBOMs for short - are the result of a product design. They form a hierarchical list of assemblies, subassemblies and parts. All these can be used as input to steps in a bill of process.

Step by step, we'll explain how to import EBOMs from CSV, work with the EBOM viewer, and update EBOMs in existing BOPs.

Let's start by uploading an EBOM into an empty BOP. Unfold the right-hand side pane and click on Load EBOM and select your method of choice.

CSV

For Baseboard environments that haven't been connected to any upstream data source (e.g. CAD, PDM or PLM), CSV is the way to go. This Comma Separated Value-file contains all that Baseboard needs to know about your articles. We've created a separate article that describes the CSV file contents.

When you have selected CSV, you can select an existing EBOM, or upload a new one.

Step 1 complete, on to the next one. As you've uploaded a file containing a number of columns, you'll need to help Baseboard figure out which column is which. You can do that by using the dropdown selectors. When you're ready, click Process CSV.

In the next step, Baseboard shows you the parts that it has found in the CSV file, but which haven't been uploaded in Baseboard before.

A part from the EBOM that has been promoted to article, can be allocated to steps in the bill of process. In general, all lowest level parts (we call them leafs) should be promoted to articles. Exceptions are when a subassembly is outsourced. Then, the subassembly should be promoted, and the articles in that subassembly should not.

Allocate the parts by ticking their boxes and selecting Promote to article. Once you're done, select Done.

In Step 4, Baseboard can suggest part allocations based on prior BOPs. We highly recommend using this feature when updating an existing EBOM, because it reduces your workload significantly. If you skip it now, you can always request the allocations through the EBOM environment.

For new BOPs, there's nothing that Baseboard can base it's suggestions on, so we can Skip it.

In the right-hand side pane, we now see that our EBOM has been added to the list. You can add as many EBOMs as you like.

EBOM viewer

The EBOM viewer can be accessed by clicking on the EBOM in the right-hand side pane in the BOP viewer.

The EBOM viewer shows the hierarchical structure, as well as which parts are yet to be allocated to steps. Parts can be allocated from the EBOM to steps in the BOP by selecting a part, selecting a module, a step and a quantity and selecting the +. The counter keeps track of how many parts have yet to be allocated, or have been overallocated.

When suggested allocations are available, you can filter them by selecting the gear icon. Selecting the +/- icon shows you over- and underallocated parts only. Clicking either icon again resets either filter.

Update EBOMs in existing BOPs

When updating an EBOM, you can upload a new EBOM as described above. In Baseboard, the new and old EBOM can coexist. When you're done processing the new EBOM, just delete the old EBOM from the right-hand side pane in the BOP viewer.

The menu in the top right corner helps you process your new EBOM.

Bulk allocate EBOM parts is a quick way of allocating parts to steps in the BOP, just by dragging and dropping.

Select EBOM to compare allows you to compare the differences between two EBOMs when you select Show differences. Create allocation suggestions can be used when you haven't requested suggested allocations during the upload steps. Baseboard gives you two types of allocation suggestions: 'exact match' and 'undecided match'. An 'exact match' is defined as the same part number, revision, quantity and location in the EBOM. An 'undecided match' is created when everything matches, except the article quantity.

Accept lets you process exact matches between this EBOM and all previous revisions of this BOP. With Reject, you can reject all undecided matches.