Managing inventory can be a daunting task for any business, especially when it comes to keeping track of all the materials needed for production. This is where the Bill of Materials (BOM) comes in handy. A BOM is a comprehensive list of all the components and raw materials required to produce a product. It helps businesses to manage their inventory efficiently, avoid stockouts, and highlight accurate costs.
In this blog, we will explore the importance of BOM inventory management for the beverage industry and how it can help businesses streamline their operations.
Bill of Materials Guide: What’s included?
A Bill of Materials is essential when producing a product, such as wine or gin, and includes everything required to create it. Everything can be found in the BOM, from raw materials like liquid, packaging and steps required for its creation.
BOMs are often structured in a hierarchy, with the finished drink at the top, subassemblies below, and then the components and ingredients needed below that. Including as much information as possible in your Bill of Materials is crucial, including product names, numbers, descriptions and quantities needed.
The Importance of a BOM
As a drinks manufacturer, your Bill of Materials will be essential to your success. It ensures all necessary components are included in each product and makes sure that they are of the highest quality. Moreover, using a Bill of Materials management software can help prevent you from running out of stock as you can monitor the quantity needed for each ingredient and product while also factoring in lead times for production.
These factors are important for creating high-quality drinks that satisfy customer expectations every time and keeping an overall birds-eye view of your business, including inventory and costs.
How to Create a Bill of Materials
To create a Bill of Materials for your drinks business, you will need to start with a list of all the necessary components, from your liquid to the bottles, labels and closures. Speak to the different departments in your business to ensure nothing gets missed!
Once you have this list, organise it in a way that makes it easy to read and understand. Think about how the BOM will be used and what makes the most sense in the hierarchy; for example, you may want to group similar items together, e.g., red wines.
Once you have organised each item, it is time to add all relevant details, such as item numbers, quantities and descriptions.
How can Bevica help?
Managing your Bill of Materials is easier when you have strong ERP software on your side. Bevica can help to make the BOM creation process simple enough for anyone to work on with our multi-level Bill of Materials feature, which is included in all of our packages.
Bevica supports unlimited BOM levels, for example, producing the base liquid and then bottling. Moreover, your Bill of Materials can be used in a range of scenarios, such as preparing promotional mixed cases (e.g., for Christmas) to manage bulk liquid into bottles ready for sale. Bevica can also account for the assembly process, where it will inform you of the total potential quantity that can be made based on what you have in stock.
In conclusion, making the most of your Bill of Materials (BOM) means that your beverage business will be able to enjoy complete transparency at every level, and you can avoid any costly mishaps such as a lack of stock. Make sure you keep your BOM up to date to ensure all of your data is in the correct place and easy for the whole team to find.
Struggling with managing your beverage inventory? Book a demo with Bevica today to discover how we can help.
