EPDM Document BOMs vs. EPDM Item BOMs
A lot of people in the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM community were excited when EPDM Item BOMs were introduced, but the EPDM Item Explorer and its related features still cause some confusion about how to use both EPDM Document BOMs and EPDM Item BOMs. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to definitively settle the question of whether to use EPDM Document BOMs, EPDM Item BOMs, or both, in a short article. However, there are some general rules of thumb worth considering in determining whether EPDM Document BOMs or EPDM Item BOMs best fit a company’s business strategy: Continue Reading
BOM (Bill of Material) management discussions can get really tricky. Just perform a search on the definition of a Bill of Material and you will find a multitude of definitions out on the web. It is likely it even means different things to different people within your organization. A CAD engineer is focused mainly on the physical structure of the product; a manufacturing engineer would be comfortable with a “As Manufactured” view of the product; the Service department may need a view into product BOM when ordering replacement parts, while, Purchasing is concerned with the latest version of BOM to make sure they are ordering the correct components. 
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM offers a number of ways to work with BOMs (Bills of Materials). In EPDM 2008, SolidWorks introduced the Item Explorer, along with Items and Item BOMs. Although many in the community welcomed this addition to EPDM’s BOM capabilities, EPDM users should not overlook the possibilities inherent in the EPDM Document BOM. Here are some of the key capabilities of, and possibilities for, using EPDM Document BOMs: 
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM offers a number of ways to work with BOMs (Bills of Materials). For a while, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (and its previous incarnation, Conisio) offered only EPDM Document BOMs. However, in EPDM 2008 (aka PDMWorks Enterprise 2008), SolidWorks introduced the Item Explorer, along with Items and Item BOMs. This logical extension of Enterprise PDM functionality was applauded by the EPDM community, but still causes a bit of confusion regarding how to use both EPDM Document BOMs and EPDM Item BOMs. 
For any who create or interact with Bills of Material, you know that there are often structures in the design that should be consolidated in the BOM – phantoms (sometimes also called “ghost” assemblies). There are also sometimes components, and even entire structures, that should not be represented at all in the BOM. To help accommodate these needs, ENOVIA SmarTeam’s BOM functionality provides flexibility when it comes to displaying and rolling up items in a BOM structure. In particular, the InBOM attribute and related functionality is worth diving into for addressing these needs. 
Bills of Materials (BOMs) are a tricky subject since different industries, and companies within those industries have unique standards for how their BOMs and parts lists are documented. SolidWorks Corporation has done quite of job of creating different tools to support different types of BOMs and BOM methodologies. There are tools in SolidWorks itself (the CAD tool), and a number of additional capabilities in Enterprise PDM (the data management tool). Here is an explanation of the various types of SolidWorks BOMs and Enterprise PDM BOMs. 
