Configurable BOM

A configurable bill of materials (CBOM) is a form of bill of materials (BOM) used by industries that have multiple options and highly configurable products (e.g. telecom systems, data-center hardware (SANS, servers, etc.), PCs, autos)

The CBOM is used to dynamically create "end-items" that a company sells. The benefit of using CBOM structure is it reduces the work-effort needed to maintain product structures. The configurable BOM is most frequently driven by "configurator" software, however it can be enabled manually (manual maintenance is infrequent because it is unwieldy to manage the number of permutations and combinations of possible configurations)

The development of the CBOM is dependent on having a modular BOM structure in place. The modular BOM structure provides the assemblies/sub-systems that can be selected to "configure" an end-item.

While most configurators utilize top-down hierarchical rules syntax to find appropriate modular BOMs, maintenance of very similar BOMs (i.e., only one component is different for various voltages) becomes highly excessive. A newer approach, (Bottom-Up/Rules-Based Structuring) utilizing a proprietary search engine scheme transversing through selectable componentry at high speeds eliminates the Planning Modular BOM duplications. The search engine is also used for all combinatorial feature constraints and GUI representations to support specification selections.

See also

• Bill of materials (BOM)
• Engineering bill of materials (EBOM)
• Modular BOM
• Material requirements planning (MRP)
• Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II)
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)