Text Items in Bill of Materials

This blog explains how you can use text items in the bill of materials (BoM) and how it is transferred all the way through the production documents chain until it reaches the production task.

Production Managers typically want to pass information relevant for the production worker which depends on the bill of material, but which is different from an inventory-managed component. A text item in a BoM is neither inventory managed nor is there a value associated with it. So there is no impact on financial postings. An example is the information to add a certificate or to ensure the transportation safety with adding plastics or paper items at a certain production step. This reminds the production worker to do certain activities and it helps not to forget it.

You start with adding a text item in the Bill of Material along with the components. You can add it as part of the line item group or as a separate one. As for any other change, you also need an ECO ID for adding or changing text items.

Production Bill of Material with a Text Item

In the next step, you can assign the text item in the production model to a specific operation/activity.There is no confirmation expected for this item (neither explicit nor backflush). The corresponding released execution model also displays the text item and transfers it to the production request.

Production Model with a Text Item

When the production request is created, you can also display the text item as part of the list of input products.

Further on, in the production order, you will find the text item under input products on the products tab or directly in the order structure if you have assigned it to an operation/activity in the production model.

Production Order with a Text Item

And finally, the text item is available in the corresponding production task for the warehouse worker in a specific tab.

Text Item in the Production Task

Please note:

• You can have several texts in a Bill of Material.
• Eventually you have to enable the text Item check box and the text item description in the Personalization pane.
• A text item is not relevant for any cost determination, so it is not transferred to finance and is not part of the material cost estimate.
• The corresponding web services and the reports/data sources also include text items.

You can also have a look at the system demo in a video.