Product Structure B/M

It is a bill of materials expressing a product structure where the order of processing parts or assembling products are considered, and the relationship between parent items and child items are maintained. For example, in the Product Summary B/M depicted in the figure, the product structure of Product Z is shown in a form of relationships between parent items and child items, and child items and grandchild items as its Product Structure B/M. Such Product Structure B/M is used to grasp the influence of engineering change, calculate the cost by item, or calculate the requirements of purchased parts or manufactured items.

Compared with Product Summary B/M, it is necessary to consider the product structure when Product Structure B/M is created, but it is useful for most production activities such as MRP, engineering change, and cost control. On top of that, controlling bills of materials in an integrated manner is possible. These days, in the computerized materials, such control system as DBMS (Data Base Management System) or B/M (Bill of Materials) processor is usually used to maintain and control Product Structure B/M, where, operated with two masters of items and product structure, it can display Single Level, Indented, or Summarized bill of materials.

Related term: Bill of Materials
Antonyms: Product Summary