Editing Bills of Material 

Procedure

Creating a Bill of Material

When you create a bill of material, you have to select one material as the header material. The header material cannot already be assigned to another BOM. You can only select materials that are in the same collaboration or that are in a work area of the same competitive scenario. Once you have assigned the header material to the BOM, you can no longer change it. The name of the BOM is at first generated from the name of the header material, but can be changed later on, as required. When you create a bill of material, you first have to enter the values of the BOM attributes.

Changing a Bill of Material

In addition to the attributes, you can create and change BOM items and document links.

Bill of Material Items

cFolders supports the item categories variable-size item, stock item, and text item. Depending on the item category, the system displays different attributes. Variable-size items and stock items must have a component that can be selected using the search help. The component in an item can be changed at any time. Text items do not have a component. Each item can have linked documents. The prerequisites for documents that are linked to a BOM also apply to these links.

Document Links

You can link an unlimited number of cFolders documents to a bill of material. You can use a search help to select these documents. In a collaboration in the collaborative scenario, documents can only be linked to a bill of material if the document is in the same collaboration or in standards. In a collaboration in the competitive scenario, documents can only be linked to a bill of material if the document is in the same work area or in standards.

If a link between a document and a bill of material is deleted, only the link is deleted. The document still exists.

A material can be used as the header material for one bill of material only. It can also be used as a component in an unlimited number of BOM items. Here too, assignments can only be made within the same collaboration or in the work area of the same competitive scenario.

Copying a Bill of Material

You have two options when copying bills of material:

       1.      Copy the bill of material to the same collaboration or the same work area:

The bill of material is copied to the target folder and all document links in the copy refer to the same documents as in the original. The components in the items of the BOM copy are also the same as in the original.

Since the copied BOM cannot use the same header material as the original, the system first checks whether a material exists that is a copy of the header material in the original BOM and is not used as the header material of any other BOM.

If such a copy exists, this material becomes the header material of the BOM copy.

If no copy exists, the system copies the header material of the original bill of material. This copy is then used as the header material of the BOM copy.

       2.      Copy the bill of material to a different work area:

The bill of material is copied to the target folder. Each document link (that does not link to standards) is checked to determine whether a copy of the linked document exists in the new work area.

If a copy does exist, the link in the BOM copy refers to the copy of the linked document in the new work area.

If not, the linked document is copied to the work area with the BOM, and the BOM is linked to this copy.

Components in the BOM items are handled in the same way. The system also checks whether a copy of the header material exists and is not already being used as the header material of any other BOM.

If such a material exists, this material becomes the header material of the BOM copy.

If not, the system copies the header material of the original bill of material. This copy is then used as the header material of the BOM copy.

Once you have copied a bill of material, check whether the status of the new linked documents, components, and header material is up-to-date. Since several copies can exist, check whether the copy you require is linked to the bill of material.

Exporting Active BOM Versions

For active BOM versions, the system provides up to five different exports in CSV (Comma Separated Value) format and one export in XML (Extensible Markup Language). The exports that are available depend on the settings you made in Customizing for Collaboration Folders in the IMG activities Specify Field Selection Profiles in Comma Separated Value Format and Specify Profiles for Export of Material BOM in XML Format.

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       1.      Select the export you want to use from the menu under Export.

       2.      Enter your chosen explosion level or leave the field blank if you always want the BOM structure to be exploded fully.

       3.      Select the field selection profile you require for the export in CSV format or the XML profile for the export in XML format.

       4.      Depending on the type of export, you can select attributes of different cFolders elements.

       5.      For the export in XML format, you can format the URL of the linked documents for files included in the PDX (Product Data eXchange) package with the notation file://filename.

       6.      For the export in CSV format you can select the attribute for displaying the column header.

       7.      If you do not enter a file extension, CSV is used for the export in CSV format and XML for the export in XML format.

       8.      If you do not enter a file type, the system uses application/msexcel for the export in CSV format and text/xml for the export in XML format.

 

Document links in the cFolders BOMs and items are exported as attachment elements below the BillOfMaterial and BillOfMaterialItem elements that are not contained in the DTD (Document Type Description) according to IPC-2571 and therefore do not correspond to the standardization.

These settings are saved for each export type in the user settings and will be available again for the next export.

Single-Level Comparison of BOM Versions

Depending on whether you display the active BOM version or an older BOM version, you can choose a comparison with the last or with the active BOM version in the item overview.

The single-level comparison includes the attributes and document links of BOMs, items, header materials, and components. Links to manufacturer part numbers are also compared for material versions.

Status changes and categorizations are not taken into account.

If differences exist, the system displays the type of change of an item in an additional column marked with a delta in the item overview.

Selecting individual items enables you to restrict the content of the detailed results list for the comparison of BOM versions. If you do not select an item, the system also displays the changes to the BOM and header material in the detailed results list.