Home > Data Governance Cases > MDM for Bill of Materials

MDM for Bill of Materials

A semi-conductor manufacturer manages a bill of materials MDM and controls changes across its organisation

Context

This semi-conductor company designs and manufactures complex products based on multiple components. Product Master Data are used by multiple heterogeneous systems worldwide, from design to supply chain.

The main challenge of this project was to maintain a unique bill of materials repository managed by around 500 key users from R&D to supply chain. Unlike product catalogs, BoM's are complex hierarchical descriptions of components assembly.

Data Governance Objectives

• Design complex BoM data models, with dynamic and hierarchical links
• Define roles and rights for business users
• Design change management workflows, with multi-level validations
• Keep track of changes in multiple versions
• Synchronise BoM data with multiple worldwide operational systems

Solution: EBX.Platform

After evaluating PIM (Product Information Management) solutions, the company understood none of them was able to address the complexity of BoM's. EBX.Platform has been selected as it can absorb very complex data models and provide out-of-the-box Data Governance features:

• Flexible data modelling
• End-user workflow that support change management and automatic notification
• Role-based security for business users
• Life cycle management for version control, compare & merge
• Standard integration of Master Data with existing systems

Benefits

• Reduce time to market by streamlining product design and manufacturing processes
• Simplify communication process between internal teams but also with external suppliers
• Avoid errors and inconsistencies in product specifications by enforcing validation controls and workflows
• Cut master data maintenance costs by avoiding manual processing in spreadsheets