The Master Data Specialist defines the material components required for finished products and assemblies in bills of materials (BOMs). The bill of materials for a bicycle we manufacture in our bicycle company includes components such as frame, wheel, light, and other parts. Assemblies, such as the bicycle frame itself, also have their own BOM, resulting in multilevel BOM structures. The following image illustrates a simple BOM:
The Master Data Specialist also defines for each BOM (Bill of Materials) item how many components are required to assemble a product. For example, assembling one bike requires two wheels (a front and a rear wheel), one frame, and two lights (front and back). Also, they assign an assembly activity from the routing to each BOM item. During production execution, the SAP Digital Manufacturing system displays only the relevant BOM items to the Shop Floor Worker for the current manufacturing step.
If you assemble components managed in serial numbers, the Master Data Specialist can configure the system such that it requires the Worker to record these serial numbers during assembly. The system then creates a where-used list for each component, which you can analyze later, for instance, when investigating a defect or a customer complaint.
Usually, the component or raw material in a BOM corresponds to the material that the Production Worker assembles. However, it’s possible that this component isn't available, for example, if the supplier can't deliver this material. Then, the Master Data Specialist can specify alternate components that the Shop Floor Personnel assemble as substitutes.
To maintain a BOM, the Master Data Specialist uses the Manage Bills of Materials app in SAP Digital Manufacturing. Similar to the material master and routing, the Master Data Specialist can either transfer a BOM from SAP S/4HANA and enrich it in SAP Digital Manufacturing with manufacturing-specific information, or directly maintain a BOM in SAP Digital Manufacturing and assign this BOM as the default in the material master. For example, if there are no assembly steps maintained at the BOM item level in SAP S/4HANA, or if the exact assembly steps differ from the routing maintained in SAP S/4HANA, the Production Master Data Specialist can (re-)assign assembly activities to each BOM item after transferring the master data record from SAP S/4HANA to SAP Digital Manufacturing.