Patent Application
20140278693
The present disclosure relates to cross-plant bills of materials (BOMs) for mixed-source products in distributed manufacturing environments, and in particular, to systems and methods for generating cross-plant BOMs. Cross-plant BOMs can be used for analysis and management of material procurement logistics, manufacturing planning, and sales for compliance with various rules, laws, and regulations.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In distributed manufacturing systems, the component products for a particular end product can be sourced from one or several internal manufacturing plants, or procured externally from external plants. Each of the component products can be received in an assembly plant for the final step of production or assembly of the end product. The description of the component products in the end product, and the sequential relationship among the component products, are typically represented by a BOM for the end product. When the end product is complete and ready for disposition (e.g., sale, shipment, export, or consumption), there are various legal, regulatory, environmental, taxation, and business requirements with which the business practices or processes need to comply. Analysis of the BOM for the end product and the BOMs for the component products included in the BOM of the end product can usually yield the information necessary for compliance with such requirements. For example, information in the BOMs is used for determining eligibility for preferential customs duties based on the location of the plants from which the majority of the component products were received. Additionally, the information in the BOMs can also be used to verify the assignment of applicable regulatory licenses for foreign trade business.
To comply with the applicable requirements, many businesses use various types of specialized central business systems to perform the necessary analysis of the information included in the BOMs associated with the end and component products. To accurately perform the analysis, the central business systems need timely and complete information about the end product and its component products. Much of the necessary information is included in the BOM associated with the end product. For example,
The information contained in the BOMs, like BOM 100-1, is useful, however some analysis of the BOM 100-1 can only be performed with information about component products B, C, D, and E that is not necessarily included in BOM 100-1 for product A. To obtain information about the component products B, C, D, and E, a central business system would need to look to information contained in the BOMs 100 for each of the component products. For example, the central business system may need to reference BOMs 100-2 and 100-3 for products C and E, shown in
Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for generating cross-plant BOMs for mixed-source products. One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a method for generating a cross-plant BOM using BOMs received from multiple plants for multiple end products used in the production of a final end product. The method includes defining a plant group. The plant group includes a portion of the manufacturing plants associated with various business scenarios for one or more business entities. The method can include receiving multiple BOMs for multiple end products that are used as component products in another end product. Each BOM is associated with a corresponding manufacturing plant and includes multiple component product identifiers. The method further includes determining a portion of the BOMs associated with the portion of the corresponding manufacturing plants within the plant group, generating a cross-plant BOM that includes a first BOM, associated with the plant group, for the first end product, and a second BOM, in the portion BOMs, for a second end product.
In one embodiment, the second end product matches a first component product identifier in the plurality of component product identifiers in the first BOM for the first end product.
In one embodiment, building the cross-plant BOM includes adding the second BOM to the first BOM.
In one embodiment, building the cross-plant BOM includes associating the first component product identifier with the second BOM.
In one embodiment, the cross-plant BOM further includes a third BOM, associated with the plant group, for a third end product in the plurality of end products. The third end product matches the first component product identifier.
In one embodiment, the third end product matches a second component product identifier in the plurality of component product identifiers in the first BOM for the first end product.
In one embodiment, the third end product matches a first component product identifier in the plurality of component product identifiers in the second BOM for the second end product.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure includes a computer readable medium containing instructions, that when executed by a computer processor configure the computer processor for receiving a plurality of BOMs for a plurality of end products, wherein the plurality of BOMs are associated with a plurality of corresponding manufacturing plants and comprise a plurality of component product identifiers. The instructions can cause the computer processor to be configured for determining a plant group, wherein the plant group comprises a portion of the corresponding manufacturing plants determined to be included in a business entity for the plurality of end products. Additionally, the instructions can also cause the computer processor to be configured for determining a portion of the plurality of BOMs associated with the plant group, and generating a cross-plant BOM comprising a first BOM, associated with the plant group, for the first end product, and a second BOM, associated with the plant group, for a second end product in the plurality of end products.
Yet another embodiment includes a system having one or more computer processors, and a computer readable medium containing instructions, that when executed configure the one or more computer processors to: receive a plurality of BOMs for a plurality of end products, wherein the plurality of BOMs are associated with a plurality of corresponding manufacturing plants and comprise a plurality of component product identifiers, determine a plant group, wherein the plant group comprises a portion of the corresponding manufacturing plants determined to be included in a business entity for the plurality of end products, determine a portion of the plurality of BOMs associated with the plant group, and generate a cross-plant BOM comprising a first BOM, associated with the plant group, for the first end product, and a second BOM, associated with the plant group, for a second end product in the plurality of end products.
The following detailed description and accompanying drawings provide a better understanding of the nature and advantages of the present disclosure.
Described herein are techniques for systems and methods for cross-plant BOMs for mixed-source end products. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous examples and specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention as defined by the claims may include some or all of the features in these examples alone or in combination with other features described below, and may further include modifications and equivalents of the features and concepts described herein.
Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for generating cross-plant BOMs that can be used in business systems and processes. Use of the cross-plant BOMs can provide for improved efficiency and reduced costs in the performance of various business analysis and processes in compliance with legal regulations, tax, and other governmental and commercial regulatory or trade association requirements. In one example embodiment, a cross-plant BOM provides a complete view of a particular end product that is produced from and/or includes various component products from multiple plants. Accordingly, central business systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems or global trade services (GTS) systems, can get an overview of a particular mixed-source product based on the BOMs provided by the source plant of each component product in each step the analysis. The cross-plant BOM can be generated by analyzing the BOMs for each of the component products of a particular end product. Analysis of the BOMs for the component products can include matching the description or identifier of the component products with the description or identifier of a final product in another BOM. As used herein, the terms end product and component product can refer to any final or intermediate material, component, assembly, or sub assembly in a particular BOM produced by one or more manufacturing plants. While the end product of a particular BOM may be the end product for a particular manufacturing plant, it may also be a component product in another BOM for another end product produced by another manufacturing plant. Also, as used herein the terms manufacturing plant and plant can be used interchangeably to refer to a factory, assembler, or processor that fabricates, assembles, or manufactures various end and component products.
In some embodiments, the source plants that produce the component and end products of a mixed-source product can be part of a plant group. The plant group can include internal manufacturing plants, i.e., plants that are operated by a single business entity and plants that are operated by different business entities. As illustrated in
When plants in a particular plant group produce one or more end products for use in another end product, the BOMs 100 associated with the end products can include information that indicates which plant produced the corresponding end product 105. For example, the BOM 100-1 for product A 105-1 shown in
To generate a cross-plant BOM 300 illustrated in
As illustrated by the specific example shown in
In various embodiments, both fixed BOMs and configurable BOMs can be used to generate a cross-plant BOM. As used herein, a fixed BOM, which can also be referred to as a static BOM, defines a particular product from one or more plants. A configurable BOM can be based on a fixed BOM and configured by the final assembler or the end consumer by choosing or excluding some of the component products in the fixed BOM. Normally a configured BOM is defined for a particular product from one plant. While some end products represented by a fixed BOM can be unique to a particular plant, other end products represented by fixed BOMs from multiple plants can be non-unique. Such BOMs can vary in component products used and by alterations to standardized specifications. Because end products can be produced by multiple plants, the BOMs to the plants producing the particular end product can include a unique plant identifier, e.g. through specifying criteria or configuration, to differentiate the end product by the corresponding source plant. Thus, the BOMs for common product from two separate plants can be distinguished from one another. In some embodiments, the distinguishing element between two BOMs 100 for identical products 105 can be a unique identifier included in each of the BOMs 100. For example, as depicted in
When two BOMs 100 for a particular product 105 exist with unique plant identifier, various embodiments of the present disclosure may include both of the BOMs 100 in the resulting cross-plant BOM. Thus, if product C 105-3 is included as a component product in another BOM 100 of another end product 105, then the corresponding BOM could be inserted into or linked to that particular BOM 100 as part of the cross-plant BOM.
When a configured end product of a configurable BOM 100 matches a component product of another end product of another BOM 100, then the configured BOM 100 can be inserted into or linked to the BOM 100 of the other end product. Any and all configurable BOMs for each configuration of a particular configured end product can be inserted into or linked to the BOM of the other end product. In some embodiments, as is illustrated in
When two BOMs 100 for a particular product 105 exist without the unique plant identifier, embodiments of the present disclosure may include both of the BOMs 100 in the resulting cross-plant BOM. Thus, if product C 105-3 is included as a component product in another BOM 100 of another end product 105, then both BOM 100-X and BOM 100-Y could be inserted into or linked to that particular BOM 100 as part of the cross-plant BOM.
In one embodiment, a central system can also determine that some of the component products 105, such as component products D, H, I, and J, are associated with an external plant, e.g., a plant not owned, operated, managed, or otherwise controlled by the central system. For such products that are not produced by an internal plant, the central system may have limited information. Accordingly, for those products 105 that are determined to be produced by an external plant, the central system may determine not to attempt matching the externally produce product 105 with a received BOM to avoid running superfluous checks.
If the plant groups have been previously defined, or if the central system can determine one or more plant groups for the received BOMs, then the central system can reference the plant group definitions, and move on to determine if the low-level-codes, or other classifications, assigned to each end product and component product in the BOMs have been harmonized, in determination 830.
The low-level-codes of a particular BOM correspond to the lowest level process, or the earliest step, in the production process of the producing plant in which each component product in the BOM is produced. Even in commonly owned or operated plants, the BOMs for each component product can be different according to a different set of production steps or processes specific to each individual plant. Thus, two identical end products that include identical component products can have different low-level-codes due to the difference in the manufacturing steps performed by the plants that produced the component products and end products. As such, in some embodiments, to generate cross-plant BOMs, the low-level-codes included in the constituent BOMs can be harmonized with one another. Accordingly, if the low-level-codes for the BOM are determined not to be harmonized with one another in determination 830, then the central system can harmonize the low-level-codes at 835. In one embodiment, the low-level-code for each component product in each corresponding BOM is set to the lowest low-level-code associated with that particular component product in all of the BOMs.
Once the low-level-codes are harmonized, the central system can determine subsets of BOMs based on the defined plant groups at 840. By referencing the plant group definitions, the central system can filter the received BOMs to determine which BOMs are associated with one another and/or include end products and component products that match one another. Each set of BOMs determined to be associated with each of the defined plant groups can be analyzed in actions 850 through 895. At 850, each end product of each BOM in a particular plant group is compared with the component products in each of the other BOMs in the particular plant group. If there is no match, the central system can go to the next BOM in the Nth plant group at 855, where N is natural number. If there is a match, then the BOM of the end product determined to match the component product in the other BOM can be associated with the component product in the other BOM at 860. In one embodiment, associating the BOM of the end product with the component product in the other BOM can include inserting the BOM of the end product into the other BOM in which the end product is listed as a component product.
Once the match between one or more BOMs in the plant group has been made and the corresponding association is determined, then the central system can check if there are more BOMs in the Nth plant group to analyze. If there are, then the central system can move to the next BOM at 855. Actions 850 to 870 can be repeated until all end products of the BOMs in the Nth plant group have been compared with component products of the other BOMs in the Nth plant group. When the central system determines that there are no more BOMs in the Nth plant group at determination 870, then the central system can output the resulting cross-plant BOM for the final end product of the Nth plant group at 880.
When the central system is done with the Nth plant group, and it determines there are more plant groups to process at 890, it can move onto the next plant group and repeat actions 840 through 890, for all or some of the remaining plant groups. When all the plant groups are processed, the central system can end method 800.
Computer system 910 may be coupled via the same or different information bus, such as bus 905, to a display 912, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (LCD), for displaying information. An input device 911 such as a keyboard and/or mouse is coupled to a bus for communicating information and command selections from the user to processor 901. The combination of these components allows the user to communicate with the system.
Computer system 910 also includes a network interface 904 coupled with bus 905. Network interface 904 may provide two-way data communication between computer system 910 and the local network 920. The network interface 904 may be a digital subscriber line (DSL) or a modem to provide data communication connection over a telephone line, for example. Another example of the network interface is a local area network (LAN) card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links is also another example. In any such implementation, network interface 904 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic, or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.
Computer system 910 can send and receive information, including messages or other interface actions, through the network interface 904 to an Intranet or the Internet 930. In the Internet example, software components or services may reside on multiple different computer systems 910 or servers 931 across the network. Software components described above may be implemented on one or more servers. A server 931 may transmit messages from one component, through Internet 930, local network 920, and network interface 904 to a component or container on computer system 910, for example. Software components of a composite application may be implemented on the same system as other components, or on a different machine than other software components. This process of sending and receiving information between software components or one or more containers may be applied to communication between computer system 910 and any of the servers 931 to 935 in either direction. It may also be applied to communication between any two servers 931 to 935.
The above description illustrates various embodiments of the present invention along with examples of how aspects of the present invention may be implemented. The above examples and embodiments should not be deemed to be the only embodiments, and are presented to illustrate the flexibility and advantages of the present invention as defined by the following claims. Based on the above disclosure and the following claims, other arrangements, embodiments, implementations and equivalents will be evident to those skilled in the art and may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims.
