Working with a prestigious OEM client, USE* Automotive are delivering radical improvements to their client’s current SBoM process as a means to reduce late changes.

In most industries a BoM, or Bill of Materials, is a list of every part on, or related to a given product. In automotive, the SBoM, or Service Bill of Materials is derived from the whole vehicle BoM; where the BoM will include every part needed to build the car, the SBoM will include only the parts needed to service the car.

Currently SBoM data is then processed late in the vehicle development cycle as an integral aspect of creating service parts catalogues: the result is a reactive SBoM which, due to the complex nature of parts supply management and logistics, may sometimes requires late engineering changes.

USE* have been working with the client to bring this process much further forward in the design cycle. A key step has been to ensure that service parts are released at the same time as production parts, and in collaboration with USE* SERP support and Parts Supply and Logistics SMEs to ensure that the released parts align with viable service and supply strategies.

As well as reducing costs incurred due to late changes, the new process is also reducing the workload for the engineering and service teams. It also means that component engineers can arrange for the supply of the parts in the purchased for manufacture and service states from the supplier at the same time.