Hello All,

Our company designs and fabricates specialized automated assembly systems for the automotive industry, and we seem to be having a lot of problems with our bills of materials. I'm looking for a way to conduct a design review and catch all of these issues before the BOM is submitted to purchasing. What makes things difficult is that nearly all of our machines are one-off; everything is designed around a part and application.

Our engineers are tasked with creating the BOM and then submitting it to purchasing, but we often find out at the last minute (during assembly) that the incorrect part was purchased or not purchased at all. Then we have to stop assembly, order the part(s), and have them rushed in overnight (costing us more on shipping). I have been made somewhat responsible for the engineering department, and I want to find a method to review all machine designs and BOMs so that these errors are caught prior to purchasing.

Anyone have any recommendations or strategies that could help? One thing I've been doing is hiding everything that appears in the BOM and in the assembly, so everything that remains will get a second look. I've found this does help and I'll usually find a couple items that were not ordered, but it doesn't catch everything.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!