Bill of Materials (BOM)

BOM is the structured tree of every part, sub-assembly, and raw material that goes into a finished aerospace product. The engineering BOM reflects design intent from CAD. The manufacturing BOM reflects how the part is actually built on the floor. A modern commercial airliner has a multi-tier BOM with 2 to 4 million part numbers. A fighter is closer to 300,000 to 500,000. A satellite bus is 5,000 to 30,000. BOM management is the single biggest data problem in aerospace. PLM systems (Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, Dassault ENOVIA) exist to wrangle it. A BOM error that ships the wrong revision to the line is one of the top three causes of aerospace recalls. Roles where this matters: Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, PLM.