Non-changable bill of material in an ever changing world

[tjgardner]

Is there any way to change and update a bill of material for an item that has been revised or changed but also has already been sold. We are always searching for new improved ways and materials to manufacture our products. Our parts list is verging on gigantic since every revision we make to any assembly due to a change in materail, components or what ever, we need to create a new assembly number. Our customers are not happy either. One time they may order a (123ABC) and thats what they take time entering into there system and the next time they need the say item they order a (123ABC) and we send them the new updated version (123ABD). It's still the same item to serve the same purpose, yet it has changed (for example from painted steel to stainless steel). Nothing stays the same except Peachtree bill of materials.

Thanks.
:-I

 

[EFS]

This question has been idle for a while, I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a solution?

 

[MedProd]

This is one of the most frustrating aspects of Peachtree for a manufacturer. We have come up with a system to work around this limitation. It's a little complicated to fully explain here, but I'll try. We use the PT purchase order system to create "manufacturing purchase orders" to buy from ourselves the manufactured product. We control the cost on our books for these finished goods via the PO, and this keeps our part numbers consistent for all finished goods; our customers do not see ever-changing part numbers. We still use BoM's to control our manufacturing process, but the parts are typed as "phantom" parts in our system. They are ever-changing just as PT suggests. I eliminate the cost of these phantom parts each month end.

The PO process gives us a lot more control over the mfg. process, because jobs are opened up at the beginning. All relevent users of PT can see the open mfg orders. Partial completion is recorded, as is final completion. On the 'Purchases/receive inventory' screen, I eliminate the A/P to ourselves by recording a negative offset on the 'apply to purchases' page.

It sounds like more work, but this "mini-ERP" system actually saves our production manager a lot of time. After I read to him your post, he actually recommened that I reply with details about our work-around.