This chapter explains the role that revisions play within bills of manufacturing and how they are properly used.
What is a revision?
A revision is the BOM specifications associated with a particular engineering version of a manufactured item. Revisions provide an engineering history of each product.
The BOM stores current, pending, and archived revisions
Current, pending, and archived revisions for each parent item are stored on the Revisions tab in the Bills of Manufacturing screen. The current revision is used for job generation. The pending revision is used to prepare specifications for the next revision. Archived revisions are past versions of the item.
Why use revision control?
Whether you make your own products or products on behalf of other companies, using revisions to track BOM specification changes has several benefits:
•It enables you to track the evolution of a product over time.
•Past revisions can help with servicing older product versions out in the field.
•It provides a disciplined approach to product engineering that improves quality and reduces errors.
If you don’t wish to use revisions
If you see no benefit in using revisions, simply maintain a single revision against which all future BOM changes are applied.
Revision Naming
It is advisable to set up a standard revision naming structure to apply consistency to revision naming across multiple products. Use the Revision Names screen on the BOM Setup menu to create a table of standard revision names (such as Revision-01, Revision-02, etc.) that can be applied each time a new revision is created.
After setting up your table of standard revision names, go to BOM Setup and designate a BOM Revisions – Default Name that will be applied to each new BOM that gets created.
How the revision Status works
Each revision Status works as follows:
Current
One revision must be designated as the “current” revision. The routing, component, and output specifications associated with the current revision are used by MRP for job and PO generation.
Pending
A “pending” revision will become the next current revision at a future date. A pending revision cannot be manufactured and is not available for MRP generation or selection in the Jobs screen.
•When creating a pending revision, it is usually originated by copying the current revision (using the Copy Current Revision option within the ‘+’ button) and then editing it for any changes. A pending revision can also be created from scratch.
•To make the pending revision the current revision, click the button in the Status field and change the status to ‘Current’. This automatically changes the previous version’s status to ‘Archived’.
Archived
This is an obsolete revision that cannot be manufactured and is not available for MRP generation or selection in the Jobs screen.
Never use revisions to represent different products or options
Revisions should only be used to represent versions of the same product. Never attempt to use revisions to represent different products or product options using a common BOM parent. This will not work and causes problems with costing, MRP, and inventory.
Engineering Change Order (ECO) Management
Revisions play a central role in ECO management and can be augmented with the following features:
Activity Notes
Activity notes can be entered against BOM parents to establish reminder dates for future events such as a scheduled revision change. To enter an activity note, go to the Stock Items screen and click the Note button. When you click New in the Activity Notes screen, the Item ID is inserted into the activity note Reference field.
Linked Documents
You can attach multiple documents to any item, including engineering diagrams and specifications. Engineering drawings can be coordinated to correspond with progressive BOM revisions. Drawings associated with the current revision can be flagged for job linking, while drawings for pending and archived revisions can remain attached for reference, but not flagged for job linking. Consider using a drawing naming convention that coordinates drawing numbers with revision names. See the next chapter for details.
