OpenBOM Video Demo Series – Inventory, Production, Enterprise Integrations, and Downstream Processes

Welcome to the last set of videos from OpenBOM Video Demo Series. In this article today, I’m going to cover two videos that are covering various aspects of downstream processes and how OpenBOM supports them. One of them is focusing on Inventory Control and Purchasing and another one is about how to integrate OpenBOM with different enterprise applications. 

No business can succeed without a sufficient supply of inventory. However, managing that inventory can be a daunting task. OpenBOM gives you integrated functions to help make the planning of purchases and a simple tool to manage inventories. While it is not a comprehensive ERP function for many projects when you build small productions or work on prototypes, it can be a critical function to achieve fast speed in development and procurement. It is integrated and simple at the same time. 

As a manufacturer, you understand the importance of enterprise integrations. By integrating your systems, you can improve communication and collaboration, optimize operations, and ensure regulatory compliance. At OpenBOM we put a strong emphasis on how to connect with other applications and systems. The goal is to manage a seamless integration and data handover between systems. 

Inventory Management and Purchasing 

While product lifecycle management (PLM) is a core of OpenBOM, inventory management functions are fully integrated with engineering BOM and Item management and provide capabilities to manage simple stock (quantity on hands) and perform planning based on sourcing and vendor management. 

Catalogs and Sourcing 

OpenBOM catalogs manage items, which have information about inventory level (QOH), preferred vendors (vendor list), and sourcing (where each item can be purchased or sourced). This data set is the foundation of comprehensive information about item master and related data such as cost, sourcing, and more. 

Planning and Orders 

Planning BOM and Orders allows you to perform important production and purchasing tasks. They include capabilities to make stock orders (to replenish QOH) and also production orders (based on a BOM) to create planning estimations including what components need to be ordered, quantity gaps, and other important decisions.

The end of this process is generating of RFQs and POs to communicate with contractors and suppliers. 

Enterprise Integrations 

The key element of OpenBOM is “openness”. We developed OpenBOM with openness in mind making it easy to integrate with many other systems. It includes a flexible data model with instant data schema and collaborative data import. OpenBOM’s open architecture allowed us to build many integrations with different systems. 

Ready-to-go solutions

There are several out-of-the-box packaged solutions integrating OpenBOM with other systems. Among them, you can find QuickBooks online, Oracle Netsuite, online catalog integrations (eg. Octopart), and some others. These integrations are available immediately. Some of them are part of a regular subscription and some of them require an additional subscription plan. Check OpenBOM pricing for updated info. 

iPaaS and Partnership offering 

OpenBOM is partnering with other solution providers to deliver a wide range of integrations with different systems (PDM, PLM, ERP, CRM, etc.). The foundation of this offering is OpenBOM partnership with vdR Nexus, an iPaaS platform capable of connecting to many other systems. Check more about it here – Enabling Low-Code Enterprise Application Integration for Engineering & Manufacturing using OpenBOM and vdR Nexus Platform. 

Also, you can check other partners’ offerings and solutions. Check more for OpenBOM’s certified consultants and partners. 

Public REST API 

Ultimately, OpenBOM API is the foundation of all integration power. OpenBOM provides a public REST API allowing the export and import of data with OpenBOM. Besides that, OpenBOM also provides a custom integration toolkit with more advanced API sets. 

Video 9: Inventory Control, Production Planning, and Purchasing

In the following video, we demonstrate an overview of OpenBOM inventory planning functions, including sourcing and purchasing functions. Check it out. 

Video 10: Enterprise Integrations

In the following video, we speak about OpenBOM capabilities to integrate with different enterprise systems downstream as well as about the capabilities of OpenBOM to build integrations using API and other tools. Check it out. 

Other videos from OpenBOM Demo Series

• Video 1: Introduction
• Video 2: Data Model, Catalogs, and BOMs
• Video 3: Item Management 
• Video 4: CAD integrations
• Video 5: Importing your data
• Video 6: Formulas and calculations
• Video 7: Types of BOMs
• Video 8: Change Management 
• Video 9: Purchasing and Planning
• Video 10: Enterprise Integrations

Conclusion: 

We are bringing an introductory video series to help everyone to learn about OpenBOM. In this article and videos, we speak about OpenBOM capabilities to integrate with a broad spectrum of enterprise applications (MRP, ERP, CRM, etc.) using out-of-the-box solutions, partner offerings and also using OpenBOM REST API. Check this out. 

REGISTER FOR FREE and start a free trial to check how OpenBOM can help you today. 

Best, Oleg