A bill of materials (BOM) is a "recipe," or an exact instruction manual for our assembly department to complete your order. Since the BOM will be used as a template for consistency in future orders, the engineering required to create your bill of materials is very important.

How to create your bill of materials

Once you have created a NowFactory account, you will be able to create a bill of materials for your own products. To start you will need to go to the  Engineering page and purchase engineering. On this page you can also find sections on the different types of engineering services we offer.

• Prototype Engineering is when you already have your packing procedure finalized. In this case you would send us a detailed list of your required materials, and we would create a prototype for you with pictures and video if necessary for approval. You could also send us a the completed product and packaging and we will reverse engineer it to create the procedure. After we have everything mapped out, we will calculate the required labor and material costs for producing that particular BOM.
• Re-Engineering would be the choice if you would like us to audit existing engineering, or if you think there may be a more efficient way to package your product. If we end up finding ways to improve the packaging it could actually end up saving you money in shipping costs!
• Sanitization refers to scrubbing the product of all previous branding and marketing for over-labelling during the assembly process. This is an optional step, but one that can be very useful for private label sellers or resellers.

Once you have purchased engineering, you can start sending us the raw materials required for your product. When we receive the required materials, we immediately begin to engineer your bill of materials. This is a quick process that typically takes only 1-2 days. In addition to creating the roadmap for kitting and assembly, during this step we also create product codes and labels for your completed BOM and raw materials, and enter them into our warehouse data. We then link the data directly to your account on our website where it is updated in real-time. This makes it simple for you to monitor your stock of raw materials, and reorder the production of a finished item in an easily digestible format. Essentially allowing you to run your business at the click of a button.

Where to find your completed bill of materials

Once engineering has been completed and you have the required raw materials in stock, you can purchase your bill of materials which will begin production of your item(s). A list of your completed BOMs will be on the  My Bill Of Materials page where you will be able to purchase the ones you need.

Cloning your bill of materials

In addition to listing your completed BOMs, you will also see an option to clone them. This option is useful for when you have products that vary in color, design, or other ways that are inconsequential to the size and shipping weight of the product.

To clone your BOM, you simply choose the  clone bill of materials option under the My Bill of Materials tab, and from there you enter the number of the BOM you would like to clone in the field provided. We will then ask you to describe in detail what is going to change in the new bill of materials. Keep in mind that cloning your BOM will only be applicable for cosmetic changes that don't effect the size or shipping weight. If you would like to add another material to the product, change the quantities produced or something similar, it would require the engineering of a new bill of materials.

Learn more

To learn more about what our BOMs are and how to read them visit our  Example page where you can see what a completed bill of materials will actually look like, as well as a video with more information.