Before we make a start to discuss Bill of Materials (BOM) and this other great tool called excel or spreadsheets we need to understand what they are and the benefits of each.
On a trade show before covid-19 pandemic hit the world news, we demonstrated to a group of experienced product engineers and project managers the new oemsecrets.com BOM tool that was aimed at the electronics industry. I remember one question that was raised that changed the way I approach any product launch mainly to address people who have a tried and tested method that works. “What makes your BOM tool better than my excel spreadsheets?”
What is Excel?
Excel is a product data management software used mainly to organise data and perform financial analysis. A typical user will turn to excel for budgeting, generate charts for presentation analysis, or sort & store data.
What is a BOM?
BOM can simply be described as a single list of parts that a manufacturer needs to create a finished product and is often used as a vendor list. Additionally, BOMs help management throughout the design to the end of manufacturing.
What would make BOM tool better?
Excel has benefits which make it the next best thing:
- Excel is simple and easy to use
- Excel is flexible and can be customised to suit any project
- It can hold any sort of data
- You do not need licenses and access rights, you fully own it
- It is sharable and can be transferred easily to various parties.
Having stated the benefits of excel what would make BOM management tool better?
Oemsecrets.com BOM management tool has a few aspects that add to what you would do on an excel spreadsheet. This management tool is all about helping engineers, product design teams, hobbyists and students reduce failures as they assist with cost, components sourcing, and reduce budget overruns thus keeping financial systems on check.
BOM are first about components & electronic parts and this tool has made it very easy for anyone to track a part accurately using the MPN, with the option of stating a preferred distributor and adding components to cart in bulk. This is one of the main features that makes oemsecrets.com BOM tool standout in a noisy environment.
BOM tools need to provide easy integration which is what oemsecrets.com tool does by accessing API data from various sources making it easier to coordinate machine and human tasks.
Another feature that you will not find in excel is the ability to get data for special conditions like what is the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantities) for certain parts, you can also add a target price and it will automatically calculate the savings or loss based on Real-time data. It also supports multicurrency making it easier to see what it would cost you if you placed orders then and help control your budget.
Because its cloud based, teams can access and share data from anywhere in the world, therefore allowing teams to work collectively making the project efficient.
Conclusion
Oemsecrets.com bill of material tool can be an efficient tool for your BOM management. If you have any questions regarding this product visit website, enquire for more information or even try signup and use the tool for free.
Article written by https://www.boracbl.net/ editor Dan Dooley, a professional embedded systems engineer since 2015
