Manufacturinglesson 1 of 2

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Describe what a product is made of and how it is made: components, quantities and operations.

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Bills of materials

Manufacturing6 minBasicupdated September 2026

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Course contentslesson 1 of 2

What MRP Basics gets you to

  • Describe what a product is made of and how it is made

MRP Basics1 lesson6 min

A bill of materials (BoM) is a product's recipe. Open Manufacturing › Products › Bills of Materials.

A bill of materials for a dining table and six chairs
The bill of materials for a dining table and six chairs: boards, posts, plywood, cane webbing, glue and finishes.
  • Product and Quantity: what this recipe makes, and how many.
  • BoM Type: Manufacture this product for what you make; Kit for a set sold together but never made, whose components are delivered instead.
  • Components: every material, with the quantity used for the quantity above.
The Operations tab: cut and machine, assemble, sand and finish
The operations: where each step happens and how long it takes.

Operations

The Operations tab lists the steps and where they happen: the work centre (a machine, a bench, a booth) and the expected duration. Operations become the work orders of a manufacturing order; they give the planner a schedule and the costing its labour time. The tab appears once Work Orders is ticked in the Manufacturing settings.

BoM Overview, at the top, shows the whole structure with the cost of each component and operation, and whether the components are in stock.

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