Bill of materials

How it is used

The backbone of MRP and ERP systems. Engineers create, update and release the BOM, and planners explode it to calculate material needs. BOM is said as a word, 'bom', or letter by letter. In food and chemicals it is often called a recipe or formula.

Example sentences

1. The bill of materials for this pump has 146 items on four levels.

2. Engineering changed the gasket, but nobody updated the bill of materials in the ERP system.

Common collocations

• update the bill of materials
• multi-level BOM
• BOM explosion
• release a BOM

Related terms

• MRPShort for material requirements planning: a method, usually run in software, that uses the production plan, bill of materials and stock levels to work out what to buy or make and when.
• ERPShort for enterprise resource planning: one software system that connects a company's purchasing, production, stock, sales and finance data, such as SAP.
• raw materialA basic material, such as steel coil, plastic granules or cotton, that a factory turns into parts or products.
• master production scheduleA plan that states how many of each finished product will be made in each period, usually week by week, and drives material and capacity planning. Shortened to MPS.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• bill of materials · Mechanical Engineering

More terms: Production Planning and Control

• capacity
• lead time
• bottleneck
• production schedule
• demand forecast
• line balancing
• make-to-order
• ramp up