BOM versus Parts List

[Lew_Merrick]

A Bill of Materials was created for Architecture. It is concerned with ensuring that the correct number of sized lumber, sheets of plywood. and the like are delivered to a construction site. The Parts List was developed to support manufacturing during WWII. It is much more detailed and is based around providing a correct size of material out of which a Part or Component will be made and how said Parts or Components are used to make a Sub-Assembly, Assembly, or Installation. They are quite different in terms of information supplied and requirements to be met.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

The Parts List approach to Project and Data Management evolved from it's root in providing overview and control for manufacturing performed in support of WWII activities. From shortly after WWII until we "Privatized" such things in the early-2000'nds, it was defined and controlled by (Military Specification) MIL-Q-9858. It established the foundation for the massive industrial growth experienced by America in the wake of WWII. [Its loss is one of the great costs of the "MBA Culture" we are paying today. It operates hand-in-hand with the thesis (developed at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton College in the late-1950's) that America should not be in the business of educating people but should be in the business of selling education -- which explains a lot when you think about it.

 

[bigseb]

I guess for many people the two terms are interchangeable for day to day use.

 

[GIOV]

The Parts List approach to Project and Data Management evolved from it's root in providing overview and control for manufacturing performed

Its loss is one of the great costs of the "MBA Culture" we are paying today

Yes, Part list is more professional because involve a master code that identify not only the part but also the purchase order, the material order from the package store, MH and hence the total project cost following the Gantt & Pert Charts. I have my experience with a historic record of quality, cost and time in finish a fishing vessel in one of the best shipyard.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

I guess for many people the two terms are interchangeable for day to day use.

Sebastian -- Kind of like those who do not differentiate between a variable and a parameter.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Giov -- A Parts List ought to "feed" a Database System that tracks all parts of a Project from cradle to grave.

 

[GIOV]

Giov -- A Parts List ought to "feed" a Database System that tracks all parts of a Project from cradle to grave.

I think the meaning is a Database System that tracks all parts of a Project from the design to its expected life.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

[QUOTE="GIOV, post: 123720]I think the meaning is a Database System that tracks all parts of a Project from the design to its expected life.[/QUOTE]

One aspect of the lste-1970's version of MIL-Q-9858 (that was never fully implemented) was tying things to s personnel database such that if employee Joe Blow performed an "operation," his training in that type of "performance" was automatically cited into the Report. Certainly, the calibration certificates and qualifications were part and parcel of any Report. That should be a relatively simple task of database programming.

 

[bigseb]

A lot of poeple just aren't held to a higher standard, I guess. A simple list of 'things we need' usually suffices. You tend to see this a lot in small businesses that operate on the SPQR (small profit, quick return) model.

 

[JST]

It need not be a higher standard, it is a different philosophy of creating the "list of stuff we need".

One is part number oriented, without considering how material arrives. One is material oriented, in that it considers how much material is required, including details of how material comes in. Yes that is very simplistic, and there are many other issues.

The bill of materials shows the quantity of each part number needed to make the item. It is no particular help with how much 16mm shafting must be ordered given that it comes in 5 metre lengths.

SOMEONE has to figure that out so that material can be ordered, regardless of whether a "higher" or "lower" standard is held to. The typical parts list provides that, in addition to showing in what form the stuff is used (part numbers). And other things, of course. "So much of this material, fabricated into those, and used in these".

The true parts list is a list that can be directly given to a purchasing agent who can then buy it and know that every material item needed to make the product has been ordered. It does not necessarily mean that what is bought is used directly in the form in which it arrives on the dock.

The "bill of materials" usually is composed of finished parts that are used directly, although some BOMs are hybridized if part numbers are not assigned to some cut bulk materials. So there may be fibre insulation listed as X number of feet, or metres, etc, simply because the stuff is cut to fit as it is installed on the assembly line, and specific numbers are not assigned to each cut piece.