Dynamics 365 – BOM and Formula Approval and Activation
Somebody must do it. Somebody must be bold and approve and activate the BOM, or the Formula for that matter. That is why we are here, to get to the bottom of this question. Let’s dive into BOM and Formula approval and activation in Dynamics 365. But first, a quick refresher.
What is a BOM? The Bill of Materials (BOM) is the list of items used to make a more complex item. Often it is raw materials that are assembled into a finished good, but it can be individual components that make a sub assembly, that is then combined with other components to make a finished good. In the example below, the earbuds and phone are created separately and can be sold separately, but they are also sold as a bundle.
Raw materials made into a sub assembly, the ear bud component.
Raw materials made into a finished good, the ear buds.
Finished goods made into a finished good. Creating a combination sales item of the phone and the ear buds.
What is a Formula? A formula is like a BOM, but the components that make up a formula cannot be deconstructed. An example of a formula might be something with ingredients, like a yummy cookie. With a BOM like the ear buds shown above, a person could technically take them apart and still have identifiable pieces. With the cookie, most of the time, the ingredients can no longer be identified individually.
In D365 when you create a BOM or a Formula, both must be approved and activated for use in the system. The approval part is easy. Once a BOM or Formula is constructed, the user can click on the Approval button. The BOM can be accessed from Modules>Product information management>Bill of materials and formulas>Bill of materials and the Formula can be accessed from Modules>Product information management>Bill of materials and formulas>Formulas. Look for the Approval button in the Maintain group on the Action bar. Once the Approval is clicked, the system will open a side bar with the ability to choose a user that is approving the BOM/Formula and then click OK.
The system can have many approved BOMs and Formulas and they do not have to be activated at this point. The approval simply indicates that as far as the system is concerned, they are set-up properly and can be used in the planning and manufacturing process. The BOM/Formula can have multiple versions and each version will have to be approved prior to being activated. To do this, click on the Header tab on the right and side of the form.
On the BOM Versions fast tab you can add and view the versions for approval and activation. If there are versions with the exact same values, only one can be activated. The system will display a message indicating there are conflicts and the user can update the attributes as needed to allow activation of both versions.
To access the BOM/Formula Versions for an item, go to Modules>Product information management>Bill of materials and formulas>Released products. Find the product, click on it and in the action bar, click on BOM versions in the BOM group.
This will open the BOM version form and will display all the BOM versions for this item. Note that a user can actually create a new BOM or BOM and BOM Version from this form as well.
When a version is activated, the unique values of each version for the given constraints such as date, are verified. Notice that each version can have different attributes like: QTY, Period, and Site.
In the example below, we have created two BOM versions: 80’s audio cool pack 1 which is valid for October 2020 and 80’s audio cool pack 2 which is valid for November 2020. 80’s audio cool pack 2 also has a different sticker pack included. Both are assigned to the same product ID/item number, cool80sBOM.
Hopefully, this gives you some idea about how BOMs, Formulas, and versions are created and the basics of the approval and activation process. If you would like to learn more, check out our blogs on these related topics.