Using the BOM List

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain how to work with the BOM list.

Plants and Contract Manufacturers

BOM List Overview

When users search for BOMs within specific external systems, the search results in a BOM list containing the specific details, such as owners, plant, pricing or other specific terms.

Note

Bill of Materials can be imported to SAP Ariba through integration via the Cloud Integration Gateway or via CSV import.

Note

Having a BOMs available in direct material sourcing requires turning on a specific parameter allowing for BOM structures to be integrated or created in SAP Ariba. The Product Sourcing dashboard can be used for materials only, if the customer is from an industry that does not use bill of materials.

Typically, all bill of materials or materials are associated with a contract manufacturer or a plant.

Default plants and contract manufacturers

Buyers who do not use plant, or only use one plant, can use a default plant to store prices in the pricing database without having to select a contract manufacturer (plant). In sites integrated with SAP ERP, when you create an item, the default plant is added to the assembly when the data comes from SAP ERP. The default plant is used for every assembly.

The default plant can be configured to display, or not display, in the user interface. When the default plant is configured not to display in the user interface it is still present in the system and is added to the assembly when the data is sent from SAP ERP; and the Contract MFR, Contract MFR ID, Assign Contract MFR fields, and the BOMs missing contract MFRs tile are not shown.

The default plant can be configured to display, or not display, in the user interface. When the default plant is configured not to show on the user interface:

  • It is still present in the system and is added to the assembly when the data is sent from SAP ERP.
  • The Contract MFR, Contract MFR ID, Assign Contract MFR fields, and the BOMs missing contract MFRs tile are not shown.

Support for placeholder plants enables buyers to initiate sourcing activities and to collect prices even if a plant is not assigned to the BOM.

Note

Customers who do not require Contract Manufacturers in their business model can rename the Contract MFR field to Plant.

How to Assign Contract Manufacturers

Prerequisites

You must be a member of the Materials Manager group to assign contract manufacturers to BOMs.

Steps

  1. To choose the BOMs to which you wish to assign contract manufacturers, on the Product Sourcing dashboard tab, do one of the following:

    • Check a BOM directly on the dashboard tab.
    • Click a BOM name, choose View BOM details, and check a BOM.
    • Click the BOMs missing contract MFRs action tile to view a list of BOMs without contract manufacturers and check a BOM.

  2. Choose Assign → Contract MFR.

  3. In the popup, choose the manufacturer you wish to assign to the BOM and choose Assign.

  4. When you refresh the dashboard, the BOMs missing contract MFRs action tile updates.

How to Assign Owners to Materials

Prerequisites

You must be a member of the Materials Manager group to assign owners to materials.

Steps

  1. On the Product Sourcing dashboard tab, do one of the following:

    • Check the BOMs directly on the dashboard data table.

    • Click the Materials without owners action tile. Check the box next to the Item ID in the filtered list of materials without owners.
    • Click the BOM ID or name, choose View material details, and check the materials.

  2. Choose Assign owner.

  3. In the popup, choose one of the following:

    • Choose the owner from the list.

    • Directly enter the owner name or part of the name in the Owner field. A list of owners that matches the text you entered automatically appears. Choose the owner from the list.

Result

The Materials without owners action tile is updated when you refresh the dashboard. Owners can now view the material details.

How to Export BOM Details to Microsoft Excel

Exports from the BOM Details page are processed in the background. When SAP Ariba completes processing the export request, you receive a message on the Product Sourcing dashboard. Buyers can download the BOM hierarchy and BOM split data export directly from the message.

It is possible to export BOM details to Microsoft Excel. This enables you to assign BOM splits and other information directly in the Excel spreadsheet and import the content back in to SAP Ariba.

You can limit the number of items exported to Microsoft Excel when exporting BOMs, BOM splits, and materials. If you want to limit the number of items exported to Microsoft Excel, contact SAP Ariba Support to configure the following site parameters:

  • EXCEL.MAX_RECORDS_FOR_BOM_EXPORT
  • EXCEL.MAX_RECORDS_FOR_BOM_SPLIT_EXPORT
  • EXCEL.MAX_RECORDS_FOR_MATERIAL_EXPORT
  • EXCEL.MAX_RECORDS_FOR_BOM_COMPARISON_EXPORT

Prerequisites

You must be a member of the Materials Manager or Materials Viewer group to view and export BOM details.

Steps

  1. On the Product Sourcing dashboard tab, search for or find the BOM you want to export to Microsoft Excel.

  2. Click the BOM ID or BOM name.

  3. Click View BOM details. The BOM Details page displays.

  4. Check the BOM level you want to export to Microsoft Excel.

  5. Choose Export to Excel.

    SAP Ariba displays a confirmation message at the top of the screen indicating that the export request was successfully submitted.

    After SAP Ariba processes the export request, the notification bell icon on the Product Sourcing dashboard indicates that a new notification is available.

  6. To download the corresponding BOM hierarchy or BOM split data export Excel file, click the notification bell icon and choose Download.

  7. To import the Excel, choose BOM split and choose Import from Excel.

BOM Comparisons

Direct Material Sourcing users can compare:

  1. Two distinct bills of material
  2. Different versions of the same bill of material

Capabilities

  • Comparing materials & different term values (ENABLE_ITEM_VERSIONING site parameter must be enabled)
  • Filtering on the differences
  • Compare a BOM on two different dates, comparing two different responses on a BOM quote, and two different BOMs
The Compare BOM screen is displayed.

Item Versioning

The ENABLE_ITEM_VERSIONING parameter enables item versioning to store the history of BOM changes. Item information such as ownership, price, splits, and costing level are stored.

The BOM history is used to compare two versions of the same BOM. If there are multiple updates during the day, the last update for the day is stored as history and used when comparing BOMs for past dates.

Comparing BOMs

The BOM differences are colored coded:

  • Green is new.
  • Red is deleted.
  • Purple is changed.

Several fields are highlighted on the Compare BOM screen.

You can filter the comparison results by:

  • Rows with items marked as not required or missing.
  • Rows with added items.
  • Rows with changes to user-defined item compare configurations.

Note

You can download your BOM comparison results to Microsoft Excel. In addition to the comparison data, the Excel includes additional worksheets with information about the BOMs.

BOM Splits

There are two types of splits:

  • Approved manufacturer list (AML) splits are splits across every item and contract manufacturer.
  • BOM splits are splits between item groups in a particular BOM. The action tiles that are available to you depend on the dashboard tabs that are available to you and your user permissions.

Prerequisites

Users must be a member of the Materials Manager or Materials Viewer group to enter split percentages for materials they own. You must be the owner of the material to add split percentages.

Steps

  1. On the Product Sourcing dashboard tab, do one of the following:

    • Click a BOM ID or BOM name and choose View BOM details. Choose BOM split and double-click the split percentage field to make it editable.
    • Click the BOM item groups without 100% split action tile. Select the BOM IDs for which you want to enter split percentages and click View/Edit BOM split info.

    Note

    You can also choose Export to Excel to add your split percentages in a spreadsheet and then choose Import from Excel to upload your updates.

    SAP Ariba displays the Enter BOM Split page.

  2. To enter BOM split percentages, do one of the following:

    • Enter split percentages in the Split % field.
    • To export the BOM split detail information to an Excel spreadsheet, choose Export to Excel. You can enter split percentages directly in the Excel spreadsheet. After you make your updates, choose Import from Excel to import the Excel spreadsheet.
    • Enter a split percentage in a Split % field and click the copy icon in the Split % textbox. The Split % value you entered is copied to the remaining periods. A message is displayed showing the copy status.

    Note

    You must be the owner of the material to add split percentages.

  3. If you selected multiple BOMs, you can choose Selected BOMs to navigate to the other BOMs you selected and enter split percentages.

How to Get Quotes for BOMs

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for creating quotes for bill of materials are the same as for creating any type of sourcing event in SAP Ariba and have been covered in previous lessons.

Steps

  1. Complete one of the following actions to display parent BOMs:

    • Click one of the BOM action tiles. The data table automatically filters to display BOMs according to the action tile you selected.
    • Enter a BOM name or ID in the search box and click the search icon.
    • Click Advanced Search. On the Advanced Search page, enter one or more BOM IDs, separated by spaces.

  2. Select the parent BOM for which you want to collect supplier quotes and click BOM Quote.

  3. The Create Sourcing Project page displays.

How to Get Quotes for BOMs - Video

This video demonstrates the new product development process with bill of materials (BOMs). Using the example of a bicycle, it shows you how to expose a BOM to a supplier in a sourcing event. It also demonstrates how to compare BOMs.

Cost Breakdowns

Customers can capture cost breakdown information directly in SAP Ariba Sourcing using cost group functionality.

You can use the cost breakdown user interface to view and edit the cost group content of a line item. The exercise allows the buying organization to control the item cost by completely understanding their supplier costing structure.

The cost breakdown interface is displayed.

With the feature enabled, users can create cost groups within RFQ templates:

  • The Allow Cost Groups to capture detailed Cost Breakdowns in the Bidding Rules section of the sourcing event template must be set to Yes.
  • To configure a formula for the Price term of an RFP event template, Can project owner create formulas in the Project Owner Actions section of the sourcing event template must be set to Yes.
  • To view cost breakdown of material items in the View Item 360° page, the ITEM_360_SECTION.ENABLE_CLEAN_SHEETS parameter must be enabled by Ariba Customer Support.

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