Close the gap between engineering and the floor

Engineering designs the product and creates the BOM. Then it's exported, copied into a spreadsheet, adjusted by different teams and used for purchasing or production. Somewhere along the way, items get missed, quantities change, non-modeled items aren't captured, and a revision doesn't reach the people who needed it.

BOM problems rarely show up as "the BOM is wrong." They show up as wrong picks, rework, scrap, confusion over which revision is current, and "we built it this way last time" decisions.

Engineering wants controlled changes. Production wants clear instructions and parts that match what's on the floor. If changes don't flow through reliably, the change still happens, just informally.

The BOM sits at the center of manufacturing planning. If it's wrong, the purchasing plan, the inventory plan and the production plan may be wrong too.

So the errors travel. Purchasing orders from an outdated BOM. Production builds from information that has changed. A superseded part number goes to a supplier who can't deliver it on time. Missing fasteners stop a line mid-shift. Operators work from a printed BOM that no longer matches the design in CAD.

By the time the error is visible, it's a reorder, scrapped parts, reworked product or a delayed job.

Part of the gap is structural. The engineering BOM describes how the product is designed. Manufacturing needs to know how it will be purchased, assembled, staged and produced.

A BOM can be accurate from a design point of view and still incomplete from a manufacturing one. A manufacturing BOM may need non-modeled items, consumables, production materials, packaging, process-related items or grouped structures that make purchasing and assembly practical. When that conversion happens by hand, production teams end up interpreting design information themselves. EBOM vs MBOM explains the difference in more depth.

Engineering-led manufacturers rarely lack product information. They struggle because it doesn't flow cleanly into operational decisions.

The pattern is familiar: BOMs exported from CAD or PDM, modified by hand, shared through spreadsheets, then used by purchasing or production without a controlled workflow. Each step is done by a capable person. The risk is in the gaps between them, where nobody can be sure purchasing and production are working from the same version.

If your BOMs are exported, reformatted or re-entered by hand on their way to purchasing, you're carrying this risk now.

MaXXflow uses structured BOM information as the foundation for material planning, purchasing and work-order readiness. BOMs can be created in MaXXflow or imported, including through MaXXlink, with dependency checks that protect records already in use. From there the BOM drives material requirements, inventory checks, purchasing activity, work orders and production readiness, so every team plans from the same structure.

Where BOMs start in CAD or PDM, MaXXlink complements MaXXflow. It structures BOM information from your engineering environment, which matters most where engineering BOMs need to be reviewed, restructured or supplemented before they suit purchasing and production. The MaXXlink BOM connector then imports that information, assigns BOMs to products and controls what goes into MaXXflow.

Together they close the gap between what's been designed and what has to be planned, purchased and produced, without BOMs being retyped into spreadsheets along the way.

The connector's scope, and how editing permissions apply to BOMs in your workflow, are confirmed for your setup during discovery. MaXXflow with MaXXlink covers how the two products work together, and Bills of materials covers BOMs inside MaXXflow.

1. Where does your BOM information come from today?
2. How does engineering hand BOMs over to purchasing or production?
3. Do you have issues with missing items, non-modeled components, revisions or manual BOM changes?
4. How do you know purchasing and production are working from the correct version?
5. What happens when engineering changes a BOM after purchasing or production has already started planning?

Rework caused by BOM or handover errors is one of the costs worth counting when you build a case for change. Building the business case shows how.