Cross-checking the Bill of Materials (BOM)

Cross-checking and cleaning up the Bill of Materials (BOM) is critically important for Contract and OEM manufacturers for fast and accurate New Product Introduction (NPI).

The Unisoft software aids in BOM cross-check and cleanup by matching the assembly PCB assembly / PCBA data file(s) to the BOM data file. The first step is to import the assembly which can be either the CAD file or Gerber file or XY center rotation file. The second step is to import the BOM data file. At this point you now have several ways to cross-check and cleanup the BOM and you can use as many of them that follows as you desire:

1. Cross-check any Warnings or Errors in the report file created when the BOM is imported into the Unisoft software.

   REPORT EXAMPLE:

   Warning: Refdes 'U7B' in BOM but not in CAD.
   Warning: Duplicate BOM for REFDES 'U5'.

2. Cross-check using the summary data in the report file created when the BOM is imported into the Unisoft software.

   REPORT EXAMPLE:

   Totals: 27 part numbers

   303 components have part numbers
   11 components do not have part numbers

3. Cross-checking the "Do Not Install" components in the report file created when the BOM is imported into the Unisoft software. The "Do Not Install" components are components that were in the assembly PCB assembly / PCBA data file but where not matched up when the BOM data was imported. So basically they are components without part numbers.

   REPORT EXAMPLE:

   4 components do not have part numbers

   ------------------------

   C1              Has no part number   Top side       SMD
   C10             Has no part number   Bot side       SMD
   C11             Has no part number   Bot side       SMD
   C2              Has no part number   Top side       SMD
         

4. Cross-check by matching Quantities for each part number listed in the BOM file against the Quantities of each component per part number the Unisoft software calculates.

   In the picture below the first two part numbers have quantities that match. For the third part number the Unisoft calculated in the field "N" that the quantity of components that have that part number 395422-01-9 is 7 and the Quantities for that part number indicated in the original BOM file says 8 and since they do not match this needs to be checked.

   

   To setup the Unisoft BOM importer to check for the above do the following:

   1. The "N" field is created automatically so there is no setup needed for this field.
   2. To list the quantity in the BOM file in the Unisoft display go to the BOM IMPORTER template. Next put the field number this data is located in the BOM file in any one of the 4 user fields (user1 to user4). In the picture of the BOM IMPORTER template below we have indicated that the Quantity in the BOM file is located in field number "3" and we wish the Unisoft software to display that data in the user field "USER1". The "USER FIELD NAMES" are optional and any text inserted there will be the title of the USERx field in the display. So from the picture below the text "Qty in BOM file" will be displayed at the top of the "USER1" field.

      

5. If you wish you can cross-check all the components without part numbers (Do Not Install Components) by blinking them on the display. To do this from the Smart Color window click the BLINK NO P/N button in the lower right of the display.