Bill of Materials (BOM)

 

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a product structure that lists the parts and components that constitute the product in the context of an assembly, kit, or model. It contains one or more Products, Services, or BOMs. The number of components a Bill of Materials may contain is unlimited.

A Bill of Materials has to be "cycle-free", which means that a BOM cannot refer to itself or parts (e.g. found in recipes in the chemical industry). Compiere's ERP system maintains the following types of Bill of Materials:

Stocked — The available quantity represents what actually is stocked, not what could be produced. If the price is 0.00, the price is dynamically calculated (i.e. sum of the individual parts).

Non-Stocked — The available quantity of a nonstored Bill of Materials is dynamically calculated on an item to item base and represents what could be available. Non-Stocked BOMs are mainly for data entry convenience. When processing the order or invoice, individual order lines are generated for each product sold. The price of a non-stocked BOM is always the summary price of its individual parts.