Question

Alternate Component on Bill of Materials

  • 18 August 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 445 views
M

Wondering how companies are handling the shortage of components within a Bill of Material.  We have circuit boards that are sourced from a company that cannot provide what we need at times.  We created a second version of the circuit board (technically different but same form and function) that we want to be able to use as an alternate component when inventory is low for the original circuit board based on inventory availability.

There is the Alternate Part functionality in Epicor that works great for substituting parts on sales orders.  

Has anyone run into a similar issue with trying to swap out components of a BOM without going through the engineering process?  

2 replies

B

Mike,

Depending on Industry rules for product lifecycle, Quality Control, etc.:

Have you looked at using a different Revision of the Assembly part that calls out the Alternate board? Then when you add that to a Job it will explode that and drive requirements for the replacement board. (Engineering Process)

You could also manually change at the Job Details level to remove the standard board (delete or change Qty to Zero) and add the alternate board. You would need to add other planning parameters for this part as it would not be driven for the Job until it was added during the Job creation steps. Kanban or Min Max or other option could be used. (Job Process)

Next option could be to be a mix of the above and keep the same BOM. Add the Alternate with a Quantity of what is needed the same as regular part. Planning will see messages to Order or Make both Boards. They can act on the messages as needed. (Engineering Process)

 

Those are a few things that come to mind.

Thanks

Bill

 

 

M

Thanks Bill.  I will run these options past our Engineers.  I think they set up a new part rather than a new revision.  

 

I appreciate you responding!

 

Mike

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