7 Most Important Things Included in Bill of Materials (BOM)

When you are planning to build a printed circuit board (PCB) from a manufacturer, one thing that you will come across is the bill of materials. This is also referred to as BOM. Now, what is exactly this bill of materials? What are all factors included in it? Are you having these questions in your mind, while reading this? Well, it is not at all a rocket-science, but very easy to understand. The following post explains the BOM concept, and also explains the important things to consider, while preparing a bill for materials document. Read on to know more.

What is Bill of Materials?

Bill of materials is basically a file, which includes all the information required for the assembly of printed circuit boards. It is one of the most important things required while manufacturing PCBs. Failure in providing a bill of materials can lead to a lot of confusion. This can further result in problems at the time of assembly, and unnecessary revisions, which can cause delays. To avoid all this, it is always the best idea to provide a proper BOM. You may ask what all things are included in the bill of materials. This brings us to our next section.

What All Things Does a Bill of Materials Include?

Now that you understand what the bill of materials is, the following information will help you understand what needs to be included in it:

1. Name of the Manufacturer: It is good to mention the name of the manufacturer, whose parts and components you prefer to use in the assembly. You should also mention the names of alternative manufacturers. This helps save a lot of time if components from the primary manufacturer are unattainable.
2. Manufacturer’s Part Number: A component distributor provides a unique identification number for every part. Providing these exact part numbers to the manufacturer helps in attaining the exact parts as required.
3. Parts Description: Once, you round out on the manufacturer name and part number, you need to provide the specifications. This will help the manufacturer understand your exact application requirement, and identify the right component for your PCB design and manufacturing.
4. Values of the Components: When you provide the values of components to be used in the assembly, such as resistance, and capacitance, it will help the person providing you the assembly service in getting the components with the right, required values.
5. Product Quantity: You don’t want to end up buying products that are extra, or fall short of components. This will either increase your cost or cause delay. Thus, it is very important to give the list of products with exact quantity.
6. Reference Designator: The reference designator is the information required to understand the exact placement of components on the printed circuit board.
7. Placement Method: The placement method is the technique used to assemble the parts and components on a PCB. It can be a through-hole method, or surface mount technology (SMT). This information will help the manufacturer to go ahead with the selected method.

These are the things you just cannot afford to miss out while providing the bill of materials for your printed circuit board design, manufacturing, and assembly. Providing this information to the expert manufacturers, like Creative Hi-Tech will help you build a perfect, and quality PCB that matches your requirements.