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Introduction

Parts-in-Place is an online system for managing parts inventory and Bills of Materials (BOMs) for small electronics OEMs. Although you could potentially use this system for managing BOMs and inventory for any kind of physical product, you’ll find it most helpful if you are building electronic boards.

Electronics Manufacturing Workflow

Here is the workflow that Parts-in-Place is aiming to facilitate. The system has been built assuming your product manufacturing business process is similar to the following:

  1. Receiving a new BOM from an engineer in MS Excel format.
  2. Verifying the new BOM against the parts library.
  3. Planning a new build. Identifying which components need to be ordered.
  4. Ordering the required parts.
  5. Receiving the ordered parts.
  6. Transferring the required components from your office storage to your Contract Manufacturer (CM).
  7. The CM completes the build, ships the assembled boards back to you, together with (optionally) any remaining parts from the build and (again, optionally) a used parts report or an inventory report.

Challenges that Parts-in-Place Aims to Address

Parts-in-Place specifically aims to address the following challenges presented by the above workflow:

  • Identifying the components that need to be ordered for upcoming builds, taking into account any inventory already on hand.
  • Verifying new BOMs against the parts library.
  • Keeping your parts library and BOMs clean and organized.
  • Calculating the total costs of a BOM.
  • Keeping track of the nomenclature and quantities of parts you have on inventory.