Bill of manufacture

Two key data areas of the production data base in computerized production and inventory control systems are bill of material (BOM) and routing. A bill of material is a listing or description of raw materials and components that make up a product, along with the quantity of each required. The BOM may take various forms and be used in a number of ways. A routing specifies a sequence of operations to be performed at corresponding work centers and the processing times at each for making a product. The great majority of existing systems regard the BOM and routing as two separate subsystems, possibly with some degree of cross-referencing. For many purposes, however, our own experience and that of other authors have highlighted advantages in the integration of the BOM and routing.