Most organizations managing bills of materials (BOMS) that represent multiple projects and product lines understand that there are likely overlaps of similar parts used across BOMs and programs. Overlaps of similar parts is also a challenge due to mergers and acquisitions. These overlaps reduce part re-use and can lead to increased costs, as purchasing divisions are buying smaller quantities of commonly-used parts for multiple programs or buying separate parts that could be standardized across multiple programs.

A significant portion of a product’s cost are determined during the design phase – picking the wrong part can have major negative impacts. Part Standardization in BOM Intelligence provides the workflows necessary to allow users to reduce material overhead costs and improve manufacturing flexibility by promoting the use of common, cost-effective, reliable and available components in products/designs.

The benefits of Part Standardization include:

• Reduced annual costs for maintaining parts and suppliers
• Improved inventory management savings, especially when inventory is managed by internal or corporate part numbers
• Reduced supply chain risks by identifying opportunities to eliminate use of non-standard parts
• Improved quality through increased re-use of preferred parts and preferred manufacturers
• Reduced search times across the organization