BOM vs WO Process
Two things in Bizconnekt describe a product you build, and it's worth being clear on the difference — because they answer two different questions.
- A Bill of Materials (BOM) answers "what is this made of?" — the list of parts.
- A Work Order Process (WO Process) answers "how is it made?" — the steps, in order.
Get this right and everything downstream — kitting, production, costing — behaves the way you expect.
The one-line difference
| Bill of Materials (BOM) | Work Order Process (route) | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | What it's made of | How it's made |
| Contains | A parts list — components and quantities | Steps (stages) in order, each with its own inputs |
| Think of it as | A recipe's ingredient list | The recipe's method |
| Used for | Stock Conversion, Job Order kits, and dropping component lines onto a document | Work orders and Demand Planning — what a batch needs and how it runs |
| Required? | Optional | Needed for every work order |
The Bill of Materials — the parts list
A BOM simply lists what goes into a product and how much of each. A table lamp's BOM might be: 1 base, 1 stem, 1 shade, 1 bulb holder, 1 cord.
You use a BOM in two everyday ways:
- Build a kit or assembly. When you assemble the parts into the finished item and want stock to reflect it — consume the components, create the finished product — you use a Stock Conversion, which reads the BOM.
- Drop the parts onto a document. On a quotation, sales order, invoice, purchase order and more, picking a BOM item can expand it into its component lines in one click — handy when you sell or buy something as its parts.
A BOM is optional. Plenty of items never need one. And importantly, a BOM does not describe how something is manufactured — that's the WO Process's job.
The Work Order Process — the production route
A WO Process (also called a route or template) lays out the stages a product goes through to be made — for example: Cutting → Welding → Painting → Packing. Each stage names the materials it consumes, what it produces, and the resources (machine, labour) it needs.
When you run a production Work Order, it follows the WO Process stage by stage, and the cost of the finished goods is built up from those stages. This is what your shop floor actually executes.
Work orders don't use a BOM at all. A work order's materials come from its WO Process, and so does the material plan in Demand Planning when you choose to Make something. Two products with the very same parts list could be made by completely different routes — and it's the route that decides what the job uses, how it runs and what it costs.
Choosing a route when you produce
- When you raise a work order, you pick the WO Process for it. Only active routes made for that product are listed.
- In Demand Planning, a Make line needs a route and a planned start date before it can be raised. If the product has only one active route, it's filled in for you.
Which do I use?
Use a BOM to define a product's parts — and to build kits or sell/buy something as its components.
Use a WO Process to define your production steps and the materials each step uses — and to run work orders on the shop floor.
If you make a product with work orders, the WO Process is all you need. Add a BOM as well only if you also build it by Stock Conversion, send it out as a Job Order kit, or want to add its parts to documents.
Related guides
- Bill of Materials — create and manage BOMs
- Stock Conversion — build a kit from a BOM
- Items — the products a BOM and a route are built from
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