Best Practice Information

Domain and Role/Product

SOLIDWORKS Manufacturing  Manufacturing Items Engineer (MFN-OC) 

What's Covered? - Jump to each section using the Contents List in the top right

• Manufacturing Items Engineer Fundamentals
• Understanding the data models
• Creating a Manufacturing Bill of Materials
• Overview of the Additional 3DEXPERIENCE Roles that Integrate with Manufacturing Items Engineer
• Getting Started with MBOM and Manufacturing Items Engineer

Revision History

Note All SolidPractices are written as guidelines. It is a strong recommendation to use these documents only after properly evaluating your requirements. Distribution of this document is limited to Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks employees, VARs, and customers that are on active subscription. 
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This document was updated using version the SOLIDWORKS Design Role 2026 FD03. If you have questions or need assistance in understanding the content, please get in touch with your designated reseller.

1. Preface

To review the overall Bill of Materials (BOM) topic, please consult the "Getting Started with BOM Management Using Product Release Engineer - SolidPractices" section in the Wiki. 

Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM) is used by manufacturing engineering teams to communicate the breakdown of all the items required for production, including purchased parts, subassemblies and raw materials. This decomposition of the Engineering Items (EBOM) defines the assembly process (product build-up) precedence required for downstream tooling design. In addition, the breakdown aids in sizing the warehouse and buffer storage and serves as an input for logistics considerations. And finally, the Engineering Items (EBOM) serve as an input to the ERP systems.

• The MBOMs include a comprehensive list of all the items and subassemblies required to make a shippable finished product. 
• Includes information about the parts that require processing before assembly and explains how various components in a product relate to one another. 
• The MBOM information is shared with all the business functions involved in ordering and building products.
• The MBOM defines any optional usage of a specified candidate alternate or substitute part from the EBOM,

Prior Knowledge

To get the most out of this SolidPractice guide, users should have knowledge in the following areas:

• An understanding of core 3DEXPERIENCE principles (Dashboards, Apps & Widgets, Collaborative Spaces, Bookmarks).
• Experience in using the 3D Product Architect with SOLIDWORKS Design and Multi-CAD Product Structures.
• A general understanding of how the structure of an assembly created in SOLIDWORKS Design is presented on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform using the Product Explorer app
• How to open and edit an assembly stored in a collaborative space on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and in SOLIDWORKS Design.
• Knowledge about the shared commands used by the 3DEXPERIENCE Web Apps (help).

2. Manufacturing Items Engineer in 3DEXPERIENCE

Any user with the Manufacturing Items Engineer role and a web browser can use the Manufacturing Items Engineer role to:

• Define, manage and update the Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM) directly from 3D product design.
• Simultaneously display both the Engineering Structure and the Manufacturing Structure.
• Simple drag-&-drop design data to begin from scratch, create it from the existing product structure with the automatic wizard, or from a template previously created.
• Review the status of items as new structures are created and as they are updated from the Product Structure.
• Reconcile EBOM and MBOM.

The Manufacturing Items Engineer role enables collaboration across the company from design engineering to manufacturing engineering, allowing engineers to get an early start on manufacturing engineering and planning. The Manufacturing Items Engineer role contains two applications.

Manufacturing Items Management: This is the main app used to define Manufacturing Items, which are then released as the MBOM. Manufacturing Items Management provides users with a cockpit that enables them to modify enterprise plans for manufacturing items management as needed. Users can search the enterprise content for the resources or parts that need to be modified.

3DOperations Viewer: This app is used as an aide to visualize the EBOM to help structure the MBOM.

The Manufacturing Items Management and 3DOperations Viewer can be added side-by-side to a dashboard. This enables cross-highlighting between the two apps.

Digital product-process-resource (PPR) model

A key concept to understand when building an MBOM is how all various types of objects are related to each other, The relationship between the EBOM, MBOM, and Resources is called the PPR model (Product, Process, and Resource). It starts with the Engineering Item, which defines how the product should work, that is, form, fit, and function (input for manufacturing). Then comes the Manufacturing Item, which is how the product will be produced. Next is the Process Plan, which includes process planning, defining the sequence, stations, timing and assigning resources such as tools, machines, workers and anything needed to carry out the process.

Instance, Reference, [Occurrence], Port and Connection (IRPC) Model

The IRPC model, is a core concept in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. IRPC stands for Instance, Reference, [Occurrence], Port, and Connection. This model is the foundation for how the platform structures and manages data. Both the product model and the PPR (Product, Process, Resource) data model are built on IRPC. Like many other models in 3DEXPERIENCE, the product model and the PPR data model are based on the IRPC model.

The IRPC Model can be illustrated in a simple skateboard example:

The simple skateboard example described with the IRPC model:1 board, 2 axle assemblies and each axle has 2 wheels, totaling 4 wheels on the skateboard.
A Reference is the original design of a part (blueprint) — its main definition in the system. It’s identified by TNR (Type, Name, Revision).

• Example: P-00301 Wheel is one Reference. It describes what a wheel looks like (size, color, shape, material, etc.), no matter where we use it, it’s the same Reference.

An Instance is a specific use of that Reference inside a parent assembly.

• Example: P-00300 has 2 wheel instances (i3 and i4). Both use the same wheel Reference (P-00301), but each has its own position and connection inside the axle. Think of it like: one design (wheel) used twice on the same axle.

An occurrence is the full path by which that object appears in the product structure, from the top level down.

• Example: The skateboard has 2 axles, each with 2 wheels, so 4 wheel occurrences in total.
  • Skateboard → Axle 1 → Wheel A
  • Skateboard → Axle 1 → Wheel B
  • Skateboard → Axle 2 → Wheel A
  • Skateboard → Axle 2 → Wheel B

Summary:

• A Reference is the actual part, such as a wheel or a board.
• An Instance is how that part is used in a specific spot.
• An Occurrence is the full path from the top product down to that part.

3. Overview of the Manufacturing Items Management application

Manufacturing Items Management is an application within the Manufacturing Items Engineer role that manages the comprehensive Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM). It enables users to build a unique bill of materials that represents how a product will come together from a manufacturing perspective. Users can either build the structure using various object types or use the built-in automatic wizard to replicate the EBOM into an MBOM. This auto-generated MBOM can then be further modified. While building the MBOM, users can reconsile with their MBOM to ensure that the full EBOM has been consumed and that all parts in the product have been accounted for. The MBOM is built using the full lifecycle management and collaboration capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Setup

Once the Manufacturing Items Engineer role is assigned, users can add the two apps from that role to a dashboard. Create a new dashboard, expand the "My Roles" or "My Apps" menu under the Compass and drag the Manufacturing Items Management app into a dashboard tab. Additionally, drag the 3DOperations Viewer app onto the dashboard.

Once both applications have been added to a dashboard, they can be linked together. Use the "carrot" style context menu in either application, select "Link with Web App," then select the other app to finish the linking.

There are a few different ways to control the behavior and settings of the web applications:

• Through the application itself - discussed below
• MePreferences Control Center - controls preferences that are often shared amongst multiple applications
• Collaborative Spaces Control Center - the administration control center enables extensive customization, including custom attribute creation, general DELMIA settings for both web and native Windows and application-specific settings.

Application-specific settings are mostly tied to visualization, loading and the Collaborative Space for working. Once the applications have been added to a dashboard, click the "cloud" icon to set preferences. 

The most important setting is "Credentials," which determines which 3DSpace (also called Collaborative Space) is used. Another important setting is "On Load," which determines what happens when the content loads.

To easily add content to the Manufacturing Items Management application, use the Bookmark Editor widget.

User Interface 

The user interface of the Manufacturing Items Management application consists of two main views and one auxiliary view. Each can be "turned" on or off from the bottom toolbar.

Icon	Description
	The home icon returns to the Manufacturing Items Management application's homepage.
	Auxiliary View: allows storing some objects for later use. Think of this as a "parking lot"
	Turn the Engineering Items (EBOM) view on or off.
	Turn the Manufacturing Items (MBOM) view on or off.

Notice. Some buttons are greyed out depending on which item (node) is selected in either the Engineering Item or the Manufacturing Item trees.

Authoring toolbar

View toolbar

Tools and Lifecycle toolbar

Show Column(s) View Preferences Panel enables customization of the attributes displayed in our main and additional views. Even though the emphasis is on OOTB solutions, one of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform's key strengths is customization. One of many ways users can customize and control the view of the web applications. In many cases, users might have custom attributes they will need to visualize.

• Note: this panel also controls the order of the headers. 
• If more attributes are selected, the user can add more attributes and generate a Custom Parameter Set to save the view.
• This is applicable to many of the DELMIA Web applications for Process Engineering.

All web applications have a contextual menu that provides shortcuts to commands that are unavailable on the command bar. There are two context menus depending on where the click happens.

Some of the more commonly used commands in the context menu that appears when clicking on the header of a column: Filter Column allows the user to enter a filter either for a value or a condition. Display Columns allows the user to add or remove columns from display. Find allows the user to search and find specific items that match the search criteria.  Toggle Graph View allows the user to switch to a graphic view instead of the tree view. Jobs View allows the user to see the list of the current jobs running on the backend server.

Information allows the user to view detailed information about the selected item, Relations Panel allows the user to view the current relations for the selected item, including scope, parents and more. Find allows the user to search and find specific items that match the search criteria.  Expand allows the user to expand the tree one or more levels from the selected item. Quantity allows the user to set a specific quantity for the selected item. Detach Instance allows the user to detach from the item in the tree. Create Scope allows the user to set the scope the to the appropriate Engineering Item. Close selected root object(s) allows the user to remove the selected root item from the session.

4. MBOM Creation

For MBOM creation, there are two main use-cases: 1) Create MBOM from an existing EBOM automatically, 2) Create MBOM from an existing EBOM manually.

With the automatic MBOM creation, users get increased efficiency and consistency, and the MBOM can be further refined afterward. In addition, behaviors can optionally be customized. The automation workflow is asynchronous, meaning the MBOM is created on the backend 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud and loaded into the application when complete. The user can monitor the MBOM creation in the job queue, accessible from the Manufactured Item tree context menu. The manual MBOM creation workflow provides greater control over the items created. The user can use drag-and-drop functionality within the 3DOperations Viewer to easily create the various Manufacturing Items.

In reality, most users will probably opt for a hybrid approach, using the automatic MBOM creation as a starting point and then manually modifying it to match the manufacturing environment.

Manual MBOM Creation

For both use cases, the first step is to identify the Engineering Item(s) (EBOM) that will be the basis for the Manufacturing Item(s) (MBOM) and add the EBOM as the context, which is done by drag & drop onto the left panel in the Manufacturing Items Management application. This can be done from a search result or from the Bookmark Browser, as in the example below.

The second step is to create the root Manufacturing Item (MBOM), also called the top-level node. The Create Manufacturing Assembly and Scope Link function can be run from either the Engineering Item context menu or the toolbar. Before the Manufacturing Item is created, the attributes such as Title, Outsourced and Collaboration Space will need to be updated, as in the example below.

Create Manufacturing Assembly and Scope Link

The third step is to "build out" the full Manufacturing Items (MBOM) structure by adding more Manufacturing Assemblies, Provided Parts, Manufacturing Materials, etc., as shown in the example below.

Before	After

The fourth step "consume" the leaf nodes from the Engineering Item parts by linking them to the appropriate Manufacturing Item in the MBOM. This can be done by simply dragging & dropping the Engineering Item (EBOM) structure onto the Engineering Items (MBOM) structure, or by using the Assign Product to Manufacturing Assembly function from the toolbar. Select the appropriate function depending on which Manufacturing Item type is the recipient, as shown in the example below.

Assign Product to Manufacturing Assembly

Recently, a new method for "consuming" Engineering Item parts, the Assembly Assignment Assistant, was added, making it easy for users to quickly assign and restructure their MBOM by swapping between subassemblies. In addition, the Assembly Assignment Assistant works in conjunction with the 3DOperations Viewer, as shown in the example below.

Assembly Assignment Assistant (help) is located in the Authoring toolbar

The Manufacturing Items Management application can use 3DOperationsViewer, another application in the Manufacturing Items Engineer role. The 3DOperations Viewer lets manufacturing engineers review the MBOM build-up in 3D and report any issues.

To enable the 3DOperations Viewer, use the Link with WebApp function in the "carrot" drop-down menu of the Manufacturing Items Management application, as shown in the example below.

3DOperationsViewer (help)

Another useful tool is B.I. Essentials short for Business Intelligence. B.I. Essentials can be used to reveal attributes of the objects in session. Color codes corresponding to the different values of an attribute are applied to the objects. This is very helpful to understand the current progress of the Manufacturing Items (MBOM) development. B.I. Essentials specific to Manufacturing Items Management highlight the assignment status of products and updates and the completion status of Manufacturing Items, as shown in the example below. The B.I. Essentials specific to Manufacturing Items Management can be found in the Tools section of the toolbar.

B.I. Essentials - Assignment Status (help)
B.I. Essentials -Assignment Status	Description
▮Associated with a scope	The product has a scope link to a manufactured item.
▮Not assigned	The product is not yet assigned, but can be assigned once the assignment rules and scopes are considered.
▮Assigned indirectly	The product itself is not assigned, but its parent is assigned to a manufactured item.
▮Assigned directly	The product is directly consumed by a manufactured item.
▮Assigned more than once	The product is assigned to at least two manufactured items. This is possible, for example, if the product is assigned to manufactured items that have different effectivities.
▮Non-assignable	The product cannot be assigned. Considering the scope, some products cannot be assigned because this would violate assignment or scope rules.
B.I. Essentials -  Make/Buy Status	Description
▮Make	Product scoped to only one non-leaf item type.
▮Buy	Product scoped to only one leaf item type.
▮Multiple	Product scoped to more than one leaf/non-leaf item type.
▮None	Product not scoped to any item.
B.I. Essentials -  Alternate & Substitute Status	Description
▮No Alternates \\ Substitutes defined	There are no Alternates \\ Substitutes defined on the given Manufactured Item or Product
▮Alternates \\ Substitutes defined from MBOM	There are MBOM Alternates \\ Substitutes defined on the respective Manufactured Item
▮Alternates \\ Substitutes defined from EBOM	There is a Alternates \\ Substitutes from the Engineering definition on the given Product and Manufactured Item

Automatic MBOM Creation

It is possible to automatically create the Manufacturing Items structure (MBOM) from an existing product structure (EBOM) using the Create Mfg Items Structure function on the Authoring toolbar. It's important to understand that the created MBOM can be modified, allowing users to get a head start on the MBOM's development and then break it down further or reorganize it as needed. Before running the automatic MBOM creation tool, the user must add a manufacturing assembly as the root in the Manufactured Items tree. The function will run asynchronously on the 3DEXPERIENCE cloud platform, and the user will be notified when it's complete.

Create Mfg Items Structure (help)

Select Use Cases / Other topics

Here are a few common topics with descriptions and links to the online help. Even more can be found in the online help.

Replacing an Object in the MBOM (help)

Users can replace a Manufacturing Item in the Manufacturing Items structure (MBOM). This action automatically updates scope links and the implement links associated with the object. Users can replace an object with its latest revision, with an existing object, with a new revision, by a new one or by actions where used.

Setting an Enterprise Item Number on Manufacturing Items (help)

Users can manage Enterprise Item Number (EIN) in a dedicated panel within a Manufacturing Item.

Using the Alternates and Substitutes Panel (help)

Users can author and navigate "alternates" and "substitutes." An alternate is a relationship that links two item references. There are two types of alternates are available:

1. A reverse resulting product or a scoped manufacturing item with a context product
2. A manufacturing item obtained through reverse "resulting product" or scope with engineering alternates/substitutes.

5. Glossary

	Product – the top-level Design Engineering object
	Item – the top-level Manufacturing Engineering object
	Process – the top-level Process Engineering object
	Manufacturing Assembly – the assembly object for Manufacturing Engineering. It is used as the top level object in an Item structure as well as for major end-items
	Manufacturing Installation – a Manufacturing Engineering object used to manage the components of Manufacturing Assembly. A Manufacturing Installation carries precedence and is linked 1:1 with the Workplans in the Process Structure
	Manufacturing Kit – a Manufacturing Engineering object used to define a grouping of objects that have no physical connection on a structure, but are required in order to complete a Manufacturing Installation
	Provided Part – a Manufacturing Engineering object used to define parts that are bought and used as-is – these are foundational objects and cannot contain children
	Manufactured Part – a Manufacturing Engineering object used to define parts that are bought and then modified as part of the manufacturing process
	Manufactured Material – a Manufacturing Engineering object used to define parts that are machined