Webinar Recording: BOM Types, Which One Is Good For You?

Oleg Shilovitsky
Oleg Shilovitsky
23 January, 2020 | 2 min for reading
Webinar Recording: BOM Types, Which One Is Good For You?

Going back to basics in today’s webinar and talk about the fundamental things – BOM types. Often there are tons of confusion around BOM types – EBOM, MBOM, XBOM, SBOM… you name it. We don’t talk about them today. We will do it later.

Today, we talk about 4 fundamental types of Bill of Materials

1- Single level BOM.

This is the basic and the simplest BOM – list of parts. No structure. Think about the list of components you need to build a product. Usually, the most commonly used because of its natural simplicity. 

2- Multi-level BOM (indented BOM).

This BOM presents structure and parent-child relationships. This one is a complete structure of components – parts and assemblies. It can be two types – quantity-based and instance-based. Quantity based means no part can be present multiple times in the same level. So, an instance is not identified – only quantity. Instance BOM allows to every single part instance to be represented in the BOM

3- Part List.

A flat list with a list of all parts and corresponding quantities. It is a quantity summary.

4- Flattened BOM.

A quantity-based rollup built from a specific top-level BOM. Flattened BOM contains both assemblies and parts, but very much similar to the part list that contains only parts. 

Check the video from the webinar 

And this is a slide deck.

Conclusion.

The information about the product can be presented in various forms. BOM types cover fundamental options – single-level BOM, multi-level BOM, flattened BOM and part list. Knowing these BOM types you can feel very comfortable speaking about different product structures. 

In the next webinar, we will talk about configured BOMs, Resolved BOMs and Views.

Register for OpenBOM user subscription later today 

Best, Oleg @ openbom dot com.

Let’s get to know each other better. If you live in the Greater Boston area, I invite you for a coffee together (coffee is on me). If not nearby, let’s have a virtual coffee session — I will figure out how to send you a real coffee.

Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my Beyond PLM blog and PLM Book website

Read OpenBOM customer reviews on G2 Crowd to learn what customers are saying about OpenBOM. 

Related Posts

Also on OpenBOM

4 6
3 September, 2025

We live in a digital world and data has become the most valuable business asset. Whether you are designing a...

29 August, 2025

Digital BOM is a foundation of all OpenBOM to ERP integrations. From the very early days of PLM, the connection...

28 August, 2025

In 2025, the push for better design-to-manufacturing integration is stronger than ever. But for many companies, this still gets reduced...

27 August, 2025

For decades, PDM meant file vaults, check-in/check-out, and revision control. But today’s products span mechanical, electronic, and software domains, with...

26 August, 2025

This article is part of OpenBOM BOM Excel MCP building in public. For the next few weeks, we are going...

22 August, 2025

In yesterday’s article – Understanding OpenBOM’s Multi-Tenant Data Model and System Configuration, I shared some insights about OpenBOM’s multi-tenant data...

21 August, 2025

In today’s manufacturing and engineering world, the term multi-tenant triggers both questions and confusion. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has historically...

20 August, 2025

Since the very beginning of OpenBOM, our mission has been to help engineers, manufacturers, and teams organize product information and...

19 August, 2025

There is a need for a rich and structured context.  Artificial intelligence has quickly become the buzzword in every boardroom,...

To the top