Working with your Contract Manufacturer for Best BOM Practices

Quality manufacturing and PCB assembly depend on an accurate bill of materials (BOM). While design and product iterations evolve, your team must ensure that every change and impact assessment includes updates to your manufacturing BOM. Selecting parts from a pool of “suitable” devices isn’t the only reason to maintain your BOM, as inaccuracies could lead to devastating downstream effects.

A BOM is more than just a list of approved components and materials. It’s a complete hierarchy and a centralized source for your product’s design and build. A mismanaged or erroneous BOM can end up costing you time and money, not to mention the reliability issues it may bring.

How Contract Manufacturers Can Improve BOM Management

Outsourcing your manufacturing may be a cost and time-saving measure, but you can also address quality and reliability issues if you choose the right partner. When it comes to BOM best practices, your manufacturing partner should have the necessary processes in place and be able to adapt to changes when required. The best contract manufacturers will have a team available to help you during every step of your design and build process.

Best BOM Practices for Product Developers

When evaluating a contract manufacturer for your product, consider how well integrated their BOM management is with their assembly lines. Your manufacturing partner should support all these processes, from sourcing the necessary components to verifying parts for the required functionality.

Some of the BOM best practices you should expect from Sonic, as your contract manufacturer, include:

• Sourcing components from reputable suppliers to ensure product reliability
• Advising you about not recommended for new designs (NRND), end of life (EOL), and obsolete (OBS) parts
• Updating changes in the CAD library and verifying both part numbers and descriptions for the final BOM before approving any production runs
• Validating the quantities required for the inventory and advising you about the proper BOM format when generating CAD reports

These best practices require a dedicated team that understands your product’s entire design and how to optimize the manufacturing process before finalizing your BOM.

Complete and Accurate BOM Management from Sonic Manufacturing

Sonic Manufacturing works with product teams from concept to final production. Our group of experts can assist with every step in your product development lifecycle. By remaining agile and adapting to change efficiently, we can ensure you maintain an accurate BOM and only source quality components for your PCB assembly.

We use state-of-the-art surface mount assembly lines for both production and prototyping, helping your team optimize their designs for manufacturability. Our passive stores, international supply chains, and “can do” attitude help your product team bring their latest inventions to market quickly and efficiently.

Sonic Manufacturing provides complete support for every stage of your product development lifecycle, including best BOM practices. To see how we can assist your team, get in touch with Sonic Manufacturing today.