Parts

Parts are the basic component of any Bill of Materials (BOM) management application. Parts can have a classification, such as Assembly, Component, Material or Software. A part can be bought or made in-house. It can be associated with other items. It can have alternate or substitute parts. It can have a list of approved manufacturers (AML) for making the part, and a list of approved vendors (AVL) for purchasing the part. It can have associated documentation, such as drawings and specifications. It can have a Bill of Material (BOM) and/or it can be part of another part’s BOM. It can be the top-level assembly for a product model.

The following figure shows the underlying Data Model for a Part. Each of the relationships shown in the figure is described in detail in the following sections.

Figure 31.

Each part has a life cycle associated with it. Refer to Part Life Cycle, Manual Promotion and Revise and Change Management for details.

Part reports, such as a Multilevel BOM report or a BOM Costing Report, are available to output information.