A bill of material (BOM) describes the different components that together create a product. A BOM for a bicycle, for example, consists of all the parts that make up the bicycle: the frame, the saddle, wheels, and so on.

When you enter the material number of a bill of materials that is relevant for sales order processing, the system displays the material that describes the whole bill of materials as a main item. The individual components are displayed as lower-level items.

There are two ways to process a bill of materials in Sales. Once you have entered a bill of material in a sales order, the system runs pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at:

• Main item level if the material is assembled, or
• Component level if the material is not assembled

The type of processing used by the system is determined by the item category group that you enter in the material master record for relevant materials.

If you want the system to carry out pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at main item level, enter ERLA in the Item category group field of the Sales: sales org. 2 screen in the material master record of the finished product. This means that the components only function as text items and are not relevant for delivery. The following graphic shows how a bill of material is processed at main item level.

If you want the system to carry out pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at the component level, enter LUMF in the Item category group field of the Sales: sales org. 2 screen in the material master record of the finished product. In this case, only the components are relevant for delivery. During processing the system automatically creates a delivery group. The latest delivery date among all the components becomes the delivery date for the entire delivery group.