Usage of BOM Explosion Number in “Planned or Customer Independent Requirement”/”Sales Order Document” in the Automotive Industry

In the Automotive Industry, before the actual Product Launch or Vehicle Launch the Vehicles need to go through various processes of simulation and testing. Some of these processes involve verifying the process of manufacturing and design of the vehicle.

These processes of validations are called PV (Process Verification) and DV (Design Verification) processes.

As part of the process, before the actual vehicle launch, there is a requirement to explode the Production Orders though the BOM (Bill of Materials) is valid at a later date.

If the production/ planned order is either Sales Order or Customer Independent Requirement (CIR) driven, then a concept called BOM Explosion Number can be used. If we do not use the assignment of a BOM explosion number, the order start date of the planned order is always used as the explosion date for the BOM. The system explodes the BOM that is valid on this date.

Below are the steps for doing this:

Step1:

Create a BOM Explosion Number for the Production Plant and High Level Material through the transaction code: MDSP.

Here in this BOM Explosion Number, a fixed date needs to be provided and it signifies “the date that the valid BOM or routing is determined for the production    series.” By means of the BOM explosion number, we can define a common explosion date (fixed key date) for all BOM levels. BOM explosion is then carried

out with this fixed key date for all levels

Step2:

Enter the BOM explosion number in the sales order, or in the planned/ customer independent requirement or when manually creating/changing planned orders.

Benefits:

With this, even though the product/ vehicle launch is in the future and even though the BOM is valid at a later date, the organization can get ready to run the BOM Explosion of the Planned Order to validate their design/ process.

This also helps organizations to define a process for procuring goods and testing the same through SAP in advance of the actual product/ vehicle launch.