BOM / routing setup advice

I would recommend you evaluate using the Acumatic Product Configurator.

Thanks Angie. We haven’t looked into the Configurator yet, and as these items are standard and resold regularly, we wouldn’t want to configure them each time...unless my understanding of how the Configurator works is incorrect (it probably is!)?

When you say Machine, do you mean the Work Center on the Bill of Materials? It sounds like you want to “Mass Change” a specific Work Center on a list of BOMs. Currently Mass Change only works for Materials so that would not work here. There is also “Substitute Work Centers” but that would not solve your problem either unless the new Machine/Work Center is in a different Warehouse.

I haven’t worked with Configurator in Acumatica yet but my understanding is that you would have 1 Item that can be configured X number of ways. This would then drive a Production Order’s BOM Source. 

I agree with @josborn02 regarding the Import Scenario. This is probably the easiest way to manage it.

@RobLowe Please check the idea BOM Relation Item Class.

Thanks josborn02. We have used import scenarios to create our BOMs and that has worked well. The scenario I’m trying to foresee is how to keep future changes to BOMs manageable. If the routing for 100 finished goods is identical and only materials are different, is there a way to create 1 x common routing and apply it to all relevant finished goods? An idea I’ve got would be to create a subassembly (only containing operations) which can be used in all the finished goods with the same routing, then a separate operation which captures just the materials (which would be different per finished good). This way if a production process changed, by changing the subassembly, all relevant BOMs would be updated - I think?! Otherwise if a work center was changed (new machine bought etc.) I imagine you would have to go into each BOM and make the required change? Or as suggested, is using import scenarios the better solution?

That’s what I was thinking Andreas, thanks.

@RobLowe I would probably still lean towards an Import Scenario but I am pretty sure what you just described can be accomplished using a Phantom part on the BOM. The subassembly as you called it would contain the “Master Routing”, this would be your Phantom item. When you add this Item to the BOM you would mark it with a Material Type of Phantom and set Phantom Routing to “Before”. 

• Before (default): Operations of the phantom subassembly are included in a production order before the parent operation.

You could then modify that Phantom Item’s BOM/Master Routing and it would apply to all the other BOMs where it has been added. I still think this will require a bit of work to configure and an Import Scenario is recommended.