Do you use a BOM System?

[TimB]

Hi all

I have to manage 100+ parts. Its always a game of "O sh!t we are low on X, where did I buy them from?" so I need to introduce a BOM system.

Its either a spread sheet or something like OPEN BOM. I like the idea of OPEN BOM not so much the price although they are not super expensive. It does do neat stuff like place an order into the system and it will work out what stock it will take and enable me to figure out in advance what to order.
My current system is just looking a box of fittings and thinking H'mmm getting low better order some more.

So thought I would ask what do you use?

Cheers
Tim

[JonW]

Hi Tim
A BOM is not what you want but rather an inventory management system.  Excel is perfect for it, A bit larger inventory then Access is another good tool, anything more elaborate such as SAP etc for such a small inventory is not necessary.

There are even Free EPOS systems that can be used such as Loyverse POS,  these can run on IOS Android and PC and you can allocate a picture, cost, part number and allocate inventory.  We use this for Rugby club kit for the kids and for the Cafe but there is no reason why you cant do this for parts.  It also has categories so you can split in to R/C/L IC etc.  You can run reports etc on inventory and it will inform you on low stocking.  It can also run on multiple systems simultaneous and is on cloud, plus its free and very easy to setup

Jon

[TimB]

Hi

I use BOM as it is used most when searching for EBOM or MBOM is another term.

I need to be able to start with components
Then make sub products based off the components
Then make products/sub products made of the sub products and components


Then be able to simply say I have a 3 orders of X, that will require x sub parts and made from x components. From that I can say OK deduct all the parts from my components list. Get warnings when stock is low etc

All the software like Free EPOS are one layer deep. They are designed for people buying and selling not manufacturing.

Excel is ok for basic stuff like where did you buy it from. But not much else with out a load of work.

OPENBOM will do the job at a price.  Minimum is £25 a month, I was quoted today $900 for 3 hours of tutorial. However they do offer very good online help so declined the $300 an hour offer.
Some companies quote $100's a month for the basics.

I'm a 2 man band there has to be a system out there for the likes of me.

[JonW]

Ah ok that's more complex

Many years ago we used to use Access like that but moved to SAP.  £25 a month seems reasonable.  I know a couple of small guys use parts box but think that's more expensive.
Considering all the issues we had running Access £25 seems cheap from a time investment

quick search for a free one came up with https://indabom.com/
J

[TimB]

Hi

Many thanks, I will check that out.

I had a long chat with the misses. She annoyingly pointed out what ever I do may be no better than a bit of paper unless I constantly update it.
So I'm weighing up my options. Defiantly checking out IndaBOM

Cheers

Tim

[Gamboa]

Tim,

Take a look at Stockit (http://stockitsoftware.com/index.asp). I have been using it for many years. It's not perfect but it works fine and it's not cloud-based. The biggest problem with the version I have (which is quite old) is that Stockit doesn't import the Excel BOM.

I would be happy if Dolibarr had a part like Stockit to handle BOM orders.

Regards,
Gamboa

 

[John Lawton]

Interesting. Stockit has been going for yonks. It is produced by West Dev who produce the Numberone Systems Easy-PC pcb CAD package which I have been using for many years now. They also produce the similar DesignSpark CAD package that RS Components offer.

John

[Tenaja]

It is built into our accounting, which is dated. For low cost options, Quickbooks and Peachtree (now, Sage) are common in the US. We were in the process of updating to an ERP (enterprise resource planning) but you can also use MRP (material resource planning).

You probably want to make sure you can get one that handles nested BOM's, since you may have a BOM that makes a PCB, then another BOM that includes the PCB, along with other parts. Without that feature, it's very difficult.