Catching Errors in Your Maintenance BOMs Before They Occur

Catching errors before they occur in your maintenance BOMs involves verifying their completeness and accuracy before completion and eventual use in planning work. Otherwise, overlooked errors can cause significant disruptions to productivity during maintenance activities. When building maintenance BOMs for your EAM or CMMS system, consider the following to keep your BOMs error-free when you finally use them.

Drop the Spreadsheet

An easy oversight, but spreadsheets are a terrible idea. Opening your materials lists to human error is inevitable, and as we all know, it happens often. The complexity of spreadsheets can make it difficult for workers to locate spare parts accurately and efficiently, sometimes from multiple datasheets. That said, limiting the manual input of information into your materials lists is going to be your best bet. Therefore, avoiding spreadsheets that often rely on manual input will be a top priority in your BOM building process.

Remember Your Taxonomy

A consistent taxonomy is the simplest way to oversee intuitiveness in your new maintenance BOMs. The most important part of a taxonomy is consistency, of course. Aside from standardized naming conventions, it’s also key to consistently format parts descriptions, manufacturer names, units of measurement, etc. Therefore, when constructing your BOMs, ensure the taxonomy is consistent across all of the parts to make data easy to interpret and use.

Keep Track of BOM Building Process

When building BOMs, it is important to keep track of the progress. Keeping track of progress prevents errors and keeps everyone involved on the same page. Also, it avoids duplication of effort and inefficiency and allows you to tackle the task in a prioritized way that delivers the most benefit to your business.