Data migration is hard Moving your BOM from Excel to the cloud shouldn't be... In this presentation, we discuss best practices and useful tricks on how to escape the Excel-universe of BOM management and manage product data in a structured way. It covers examples of import data from various Excel formats and organization of BOM, catalogs, properties with examples of OpenBOM. Check this video - https://youtu.be/Vnn2CjElLqI

1. Data Migration is Hard
Moving your BOM from Excel to the cloud shouldn't be.
Steve Hess
Director of User Experience, OpenBOM
stevehess@openbom.com
Wednesday February, 5th, 2020
© OpenBOM, 2020 (Newman Cloud Inc.)

2. This webinar is NOT a deep dive BOM or
Manufacturing theory. I will try to keep it interesting!
This is a “Marketing Free” event!
This webinar is 20 minute or less discussion and presentation
and discussion of how you can leave Excel behind and begin
using a modern cloud based approach to Bills Of Material.
We will do a live demo….. With Q&A
© OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)

3. Definitions: (typical)
A Bill of Materials is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies,
sub-components, parts, and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product.
A Part Number is an unambiguous identifier of a particular part design. Its purpose is to simplify reference
to that part.
An Assembly refers to a collection of parts or sub-assemblies generally created in CAD.
A Multi Level BOM is often called an indented BOM or structured BOM. It has assemblies represented as
sub-levels.
Excel - refers to any spreadsheet program ex. Google sheets or similar.
© OpenBOM, 2018 (Newman Cloud Inc.)

4. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
What we will cover in this webinar?
1) Why Excel?
2) What we like?
3) What we (really) don’t like?
4) Breaking out of Excel jail!! What is freedom
like?

5. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
Why have we been using Excel? What we like about Excel.
● The spreadsheet metaphor makes sense for a BOM
● It’s easy to navigate - arrows, tabs, etc
● We like to format the data
● One word - Formulas!
● It’s available and
accessible

6. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
What we don't like about Excel?
● Dealing with files is hard
● The data is for the most part dumb, I have too many
copies of part numbers, sheets, files, columns, etc
● I never know if I have the latest version (Final, latest, latest…)
● It’s hard to work in a group (although easier with google
sheets)
● Very hard to represent multi-level BOMs
● Formulas roll ups like cost are (nearly) impossible!
● It’s available and accessible

7. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
What we hope to accomplish with this webinar?
● Remove to file barrier
● Be smart in some way so part numbers are referenced not duplicated
● Manage versions and always have the latest
● Share and work with my team without overwriting data
● Represent my product in it’s actual product structure as a Multi Level
BOM
● Calculated and rollup costs, mass or anything else to sub-assy level
and the top level. How much does my product thing cost?
● It’s available and accessible

8. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
We are going to start a live demo and investigate a couple of use cases:
1) A multi Level BOM with costs and part numbers
● An Air Conditioning Blower Assy. This could be made manually or from some cad
system output as a CSV or Excel
● It is multi level and we want to compute the total cost of the entire product
● We have the levels defined in the BOM and the costs for each of the parts
2) A big list of parts we want to turn into an item master to use in other BOMs
Thanks to Marc Schömann and the Open Source Printer for this spreadsheet
Let’s bring them into OpenBOM and see if we can improve our lives a bit

9. Live demo…
● Open AC-Blower-Assy in Excel
● Take a tour
● Do some cleanup
○ Line 43 remove “in”
● Go to OpenBOM
● Create->Import BOM select the AC-Blower-Assy
○ Show multi level view
○ Add extended cost to BOM and calculate
○ Rollup total cost for entire product
○ Turn on display totals and enable property totals
○ Share with team mates
● Bring in the Crowd Source Printer as a Catalog / Item Master
● Change name to Description
● Create a new BOM using that Catalog
● Discuss how data is now available for reuse
© OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)

10. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
Leaving Excel behind - Closing thoughts and references?
● Watch Webinars #2 and #13, #14 - essentials to an effective BOM
● Multi Level Excels to the cloud - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF08X_pTkWs
● 6 Points to consider before managing your next BOM in Excel
https://www.fuseplm.com/6-points-to-consider-before-managing-your-next-bom-in-excel/
● OpenBOM blog http://www.openbom.com/blog
● OpenBOM Key Concepts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQqjjM0x70E
● My Webinar Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6nXtFuNki7nSNXmw_fWGTFeKo8Y3EPJ3
● More about Marc Schömann and the Open Source 3D printer
https://www.openbom.com/blog/marc-schomann-blackbox-multitool-3d-printer

11. Questions?
Please type into the webinar panel or send to support@openbom.com
More information at www.openbom.com
© OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)

12. © OpenBOM, 2019 (Newman Cloud Inc.)
Questions:
1.