OpenBOM™ is a registered Trademark of Newman Cloud, Inc. | © 2022
Understand the common terms that you might see as you are working with OpenBOM
A BOM is the representation of a collection of parts and assemblies required to build a particular product, often represented as a list or multi-level indented list with levels. For a BOM, an item must have at least a Part Number and Quantity.
A Catalog is a flat list of items (parts or assemblies) which may be used in BOMs. The Catalog contains all the properties of an item and used part number to retrieve the information. The Catalog contains Quantity on Hand and does not contain Quantity used. Quantity used is stored in the BOM.
The key, or identifier, by which a part or assembly is identified is the Part Number. Part Numbers should be unique, although OpenBOM allows duplicate Part Numbers, but special care should be taken if using duplicate Part Numbers.
The Name is the title of a Bill of Materials or Catalog. The Name appears in the Dashboard.
The Dashboard is the landing page of OpenBOM. It’s the primary user interface for interacting with OpenBOM. BOMs, Catalogs, Vendors, Order BOMs, Purchase Orders, Property Tables, and more are all accessed through the Dashboard.
A Folder is a storage metaphor in the Dashboard. BOMs may be assigned to a Folder for organizational purposes, like a tag.
A BOM which has been assigned a particular quantity for manufacturing is an Order BOM. The Order BOM is flat, without structure, and lists all the items required to build “N” number of BOMs. Each item in an Order BOM has a quantity which represents the total quantity for that item calculated for the entire BOM (at any level) and for the Quantity of the Order. For example, if Part Number Screw123 is used in several sub-assemblies in a BOM, 5 in one sub assy and 3 in another, and 7 of the top level assembly (the BOM) are to be manufactured, then the quantity for Screw123 in the Order BOM will be (5+3) * 7 = 56; The total number of Screw123 required to build 7 of the top level product.
Prepared from an Order BOM, a Purchase Order is a list of all items (from a single vendor) and the quantities needed to produce the required quantity of an Order BOM. A Purchase Order is created by using the Create Purchase Order button on the Order BOM Dashboard.
A Property is an individual column name or piece of meta-data retrieved from CAD or other integration. OpenBOM supports eight different Property types. Properties are the headers of the columns. The Property Info Menu option provides more detailed information about a Property.
A Property Table is a collection of Property Type definitions. OpenBOM supports multiple Property Tables.
The Property Type is a pre-defined data type of a property. OpenBOM supports the following Property Types: Text, Numeric, Currency, Date, List, Multi List, Boolean (checkbox) and Reference.
A View is a representation of a BOM or Catalog by filtering the data set of by a particular property and/or value. A View is a lens by which the data can be viewed. The Team Administrator may define which “Views” a particular team member can view the data through, thereby limiting a particular user’s access to items or properties.
A Team is a collection of users who each have defined access to shared data.
The Team Administrator is one user who has the ability to add, remove and set users’ access within the team.
The highest collection of users within OpenBOM is a Company. A Company has additional governance and controls which are set by the Team Administrator.
Production Planning is the general process of creating a BOM and taking it through manufacturing.
A Single-Level BOM is the unstructured list of items (parts and assemblies) which reside on the same “level” in the product structure.
A Multi-Level BOM is a structured view (indented) of the linked list of BOMs required to build a product. Top level, Sub-assy, and individual parts are all represented in the structure. OpenBOM may visually navigate up and down the structure.
A Parts List is a complete list of all “Parts” (not assemblies) required to build a product. The parts may come from multiple levels but a Parts List is shown as a single unstructured list.
It’s the entire product structure including parts and assemblies listed in a single unstructured list. Often called a “Quantity View,” a Flatten rolls up the quantity of a particular item into a single line. For example, if Part Number Screw123 is used in several sub-assemblies in a BOM, 5 in one sub assy and 3 in another, and 7 of the top level assembly (the BOM) are to be manufactured, then the quantity for Screw123 in the Order BOM will be (5+3+7) = 15. There are 15 Screw123 in the entire structure, regardless of where they are in the structure.
A Formula is the definition of an OpenBOM value as a function of another value. The most common formula in OpenBOM is for Extended Cost = Cost * Quantity.
A line in a BOM or Catalog or other OpenBOM table is called an Item.
Totals are in the area at the bottom of the BOM which display the sum of the columns. Use the “Display Totals” menu option to turn the Totals row on and off.
A definition of a particular value to be equal to the sum of the same property in a lower level sub assembly is a Rollup. For example, the Cost of SubAss1 is equal to the Rollup cost of all the items in the SubAss1. Rollups are defined using the option in the Formula editor dialog.
The Grid is the area of the screen which shows rows and columns.
The various assembly and sub-assemblies of an indented BOM are Levels. Often referred to by a notation of 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc., the “1” refers to the Level.
The BOM Part Number is the identification of a BOM’s manufacturing reference number. A BOM represents an assembly and always has a Part Number.
See Name.
OpenBOM returns a list of all the places within OpenBOM where this item is found. Example: Select Screw123 and click Where Used from the menu bar to see all the BOMs, Catalogs and other places this item is used.
OpenBOM returns a list of all items contained in the selected BOM (usually a sub-assembly in a multi-level BOM).
See Totals.
Filtering is the act of reducing the amount of information displayed in the grid by selecting a particular value to display. For example, use the File icon from the BOM menu bar to display only those items where Description = “Diode,” or define a Filter in a view to display only “Released” items.
Item Info is a popup panel which provides quick access to the values for a selected item. In the grid, select an item and click Item Info in the menu bar.
The act of bringing data into OpenBOM data from a variety of other formats is called Importing. Import is available from the Dashboard Create Menu or from the Import icon in the menu bar.
The act of sending OpenBOM data from the grid to a variety of other formats is called Exporting. In most cases, the Export icon is in the upper-right area of the menu bar and provides a number of options.
The Share feature allows a specific individual access to a particular BOM or Catalog (or other OpenBOM asset) via their email address. Also they can Share with Support. Various permissions are available.
See Level.
See Integrations.
Users have a Username and email address associated with the account. OpenBOM uses email addresses as unique identifiers for account access.
A Password is associated with the user’s email address in OpenBOM. This is NOT their email password.
A Template is a method of saving predefined properties and values so they will be present when new BOMs or Catalogs are created.
The area where the user can upload an image of themself, set the company’s image and other default behavior is called the Profile.
The particular OpenBOM “plan” is called the Subscription. User, Professional Users, etc. are all Subscriptions.
See Team Administrator.
The data in a particular cell is called the Value. “The Value of the Description for part number Screw123 is ¼ 20 screw”.
The Menu Bar is the blue strip above the grid which provides context sensitive operations.
The context sensitive menu which appears by right clicking over a value is the RMB Menu.
An Engineering Bill of Materials is typically created from CAD or other design tools. It does not include items like tape and glue or costs, lead times, and other business-related items and item information.
A Manufacturing Bill of Materials is the more complete Bill of Materials. Typically it contains all items (like tape and glue) and information like cost, vendor, lead times, etc., that are necessary to build the actual product.
PLM means Product Lifecycle Management.
OpenBOM™ is a registered Trademark of Newman Cloud, Inc. | © 2022